Albin Cumulus

[maestro]

I''ve been casually looking at boats for a friend of mine. He currently ownes a Catalina 22 and wants to move up ( after seeing all the room I got in a 28 footer, he''d like the same)
Any information on this boat??

[WHOOSH]

M, the Cumulus was a more racing-oriented replacement for the Vega, both built by Albin Marine in Sweden back in the 70''s and early 80''s (and before they moved manufacturing over to Taiwan, and then slowly died away). My impression is that the Cumulus never enjoyed much of a following (unlike the Vega and Ballad), but I would expect its design to be well engineered and construction to be excellent. Of course, any boat of its age has long since become a somewhat different boat than it was when first built, as systems get upgraded, replaced and and owner ''improvements'' begin to reshape the personality of the boat.

If your friend is concerned about his new boat''s value being retained to the extent that''s possible, I''m not sure many folks these days recognize the quality of an Albin boat and he would be owning one of the many ''orphan'' brands that are on the market now. In that sense, it may not be one of his better choices.

Jack

[Jeff_H]

I have alwasy liked the Cumulus. I think they offered a nice balance of performance and build quality. I think that they were pretty well known in their day and well regarded. I liked their simple but very workable interior layout. Finsih levels were good but in keeping with the oiled teak and exposed fiberglass look of that era. The one that I knew best had nice deck hardware and came with small diesel. While I see Jack''s point about this being an ''orphan brand'' I am not sure how significant that would be on a 20 or so year old boat. Frankly I don''t think that I have ever owned a boat that was not an orphan brand except perhaps the family owned Pearson Vanguard.

Jeff

[WHOOSH]

I was thinking about Jeff''s and my comments re: the Cumulus and realized that one thing we discuss infrequently here are regional distributions re: sailboat brands. Catalinas may be everywhere (we even saw a few number in the Dutch canals; who would have thought?) but many brands enjoyed more of a regional than a national reputation. There were a number of Swedish importers in the NE and so I imagine that finding (or selling) a Cumulus in that area isn''t too tough. That might be somewhat true in the Pacific NW and San Francisco, which for some reason also had a Swedish ''presence'' on the retail boat market for many years.

To some degree, this regional familiarity gets watered down over the years as boats are relocated to some extent by their owners, but it still exists. E.g. even today there are parts of the U.S. where a sailor would not necessarily be familiar with a Cal or Islander, or on the other hand an Endeavor or Compac. Even long-lasting brands like Bristol are not commonly known out on the Left Coast. Pearson made thousands of boats over the years, but I only rarely found them in SoCal marinas.

Anyway, I was just thinking about this ''orphan brand'' issue...and realizing it may be significant or not at all, depending on where the boat will be sailed after its purchase.

Jack

[maestro]

thanks Gentlemen!! I went and saw the boat yesterday and it was in very nice shape. Yes, more geared towrds the racing side rather than the cruising side But functional with some nice teak accents below. But that is fine as he is a racer who wants to "get away" for a week at a time.