Starting budget

Negatives about the Alberg 37? That depends a lot on your intended use. The boat is a pretty typical CCA-inspired design with all that means. The boat is heavy, slow in light air, quick to heel to 15 degrees or so, and will have weather helm issues that require some skillful sail handling to minimize. The low freeboard means that the boat is a relatively wet ride. I sailed on one once many years ago in about 20 knots of wind. It was not a comfortable ride. The weather helm was crazy strong, and the rail was close to buried the whole time. It was wet and wild. A lot of fun, but not something I'd want to do for more than a few hours. I never once felt that the boat couldn't handle the conditions, but this is not a boat I'd want to do any long distance cruising on. YMMV, but I was tired after those two or three hours; I don't see doing that for any longer, let alone days. And it takes a lot of practice and skill to be able to back one of these beasts up; those evolutions are almost always a adventure. You just never know which way it will turn. Hopefully not into your neighbor's boat. These are issues that are due to the design of the boat that you can't really change.

That all being said, the interior is nice and "woody". Cozy. Comfortable. I have no idea what the tankage numbers are on the boat, but the hull shape is not conducive to large water or fuel tanks, so I'd bet that they aren't adequate for long range, off the grid cruising. They are likely just fine for coastal hops of a few days though. I could see the boat as a comfortable, fair weather coastal cruiser.

Also, I think they stopped making the boat in the mid 80's, so any boat you see will likely be a bit long in the tooth, so all of the standard age-related issues are potentially in play that you should be on the look out for: spongy decks, cranky electrical systems, aging heads, poorly insulated iceboxes or freezers, etc.

Your budget of 50K to buy and outfit an Alberg 37 is more than reasonable. You should be able to get a well-equipped one for about 20K. You won't need to put 30K into it.

One thing all of the Albergs have: an off-the-charts row away factor. Old Carl knew how to draw a pretty boat.

Best of luck.

Copying the first post over here...

@Knot_New said "This is more a feasibility study right now with the idea of purchasing a sailboat and refitting or upgrading it to serve as a liveaboard. I am not looking at crossing oceans or setting speed records. What I am looking at is sailing the coast here in British Columbia and sailing to St Kitts and Nevis to visit family."

British Columbia on the west coast of Canada and the east Caribbean Islands are as diametrically opposed as any two places on earth.
The Caribbean is firmly in the tropics. Firmly. With high heat and humidity 9 months of the year and very warm but not hot the rest of the year. If it wern't for the trade Winds it would be insufferable.

My boat is in the Caribbean and it has 12 opening hatches including 2 large ones directly above the bed.

By the look of deck photos of the Alberg 37 it looks to have one deck hatch opening in reverse so air wont go down. Fine in BC, not at all optimum in the Caribbean.
the passage from BC to St Kitts (We were in St Kitts a few weeks ago. Its lovely!!) is not easy. Its long. The part BC to Panama Canal is do-able in coastal passages up to 3 nights long. But Panama to St Kitts is a different matter as its 1,000nms, 2,000 kms directly upwind into the Trade Winds and into the current. To do it in coastal passages would be via Central America, through Mexico and up to the Bahamas and then down to the Caribbean islands. All do-able.

With 2 such diverse regions perhaps a consideration would be to learn to said in BC and then buy a tropical boat in the Caribbean islands or Florida. Theres a number of brokers that do affordable boats in Grenada.

I hope this helps


Mark

Knot_New said:

The most important question to my mind is What will what I want cost and is it within my budget?
The working budget is 20 to 30 for the purchase and another 20 to 30 to refit. Refit costs being directly affected by the boat I end up purchasing . At the moment an Alberg 37 MKII is the front runner. Working budget is $50.000.
What it will be used for is covered in my intro post. Any negatives out there on the Alberg 37?

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Your working budget is reasonable for a decent cruising boat for one person and maybe two if both are willing to cruise pretty spartan. But as has been pointed out above, the Alberg 37 is a seriously poor choice for long distance cruising. They are cramped, poorly laid out, tender, wet, lacking in carrying capacity, lacking in ventilation or easy engine access, with poor motion comfort and are a real handful in building conditions.

I know that people have cruised them moderately long distance and there was a time when they were considered decent cruising boats, but that time is half a century ago. We know better now. There are much better choices for what you would like to do that will fall within your budget.

To explain, the Alberg 37 began life as a race boat during a time when the shape of the hull and rigs of race boats were wildly distorted to make them seem slower than they really were. Those racing oriented distortions compromised the seaworthiness, motion comfort, stability, ease of handling, accommodations, carrying capacity, the ability to easily adapt to changing conditions and pre4tty much every other factor that is critical to creating a reasonably good cruising boat. And because the fundamentals of the design are poorly suited for distance cruising, there is really nothing that can done to make them a decent candidate for long distance cruising.

Respectfully,
Jeff

Knot_New said:

Ty for the info on the Alberg. Although it is the boat I have been considering I am not wedded to it. I had not considered the age problems and was thinking in terms of layout and hull type. I would like boat with a full keel or as close as I can get.
I guess the parameters would be; Full keel. max 40 feet, draft 6' or less, roomy, equipped for BC coastal cruising and capable of trips to and from the Caribbean. If there is a trade between comfort and speed well I am retired , comfort wins.

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First of all, within reason with speed comes comfort, not the other way around. Boats like the the Alberg 37's roll and pitch miserably . It is the nausea inducing, bruising, exhuasting strength zapping kind of motion that is the antithesis of what makes sense for a cruising boat.

I would also note that the Alberg 37 does not have a full keel. The forefoot is so cut away and the rudder post so far forward that it is effectively a longish fin keel with an attached rudder. Keels like these represent the worst of all worlds. They lack the light helms and easy steering of a fin keel with a post hung or skeg hung rudder. The rudders are at the full depth of the keel and so are more likely to be damages in a grounding. They don't track like a properly designed full keel or a properly designed fin keel boat. I grew up sailing boats like these and spend a lot of time owning sailing these old CCA style boats, They are fun to day sail but make really poor platforms to learn to sail or to use for passage-making.

In reality, full keels offer little to no advantage over a decently designed cruising boat with fin keel. That is pretty much outdated thinking that is a relic of a time before before we knew better.

Jeff

Walk the marina docks, if they allow you on then in your area. Looks for the modern looking boats: Whats most popular?
Begin to get a feel for the brands which many people like and tick a few of your boxes, no need to be too definitate or refined yet.
Most modern brands will have their logo on their side.
Then cross reference them, not on SailBoatdata, but on Yachtworld.com and you will find the year and price information.
If your budget is $50,000 (US or Canadian?) look for boats listed about $70,000 as there will normally be a 10% negotiational factor at least.

In the marinas around here are many Jeanneau's and Beneteau's. You could put in a search string asking for Jeanneau 38 to 41 feet under $70,000 North America Jeanneau Sailboats for sale in North America - YachtWorld
And you will see boats like this: 1995 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37.1 Sloop for sale - YachtWorld
Don't worry about location yet, just get the idea of what alternatives there are. Then you can start working the brokers in your area.

You will find some years the model was excellent and other years a dud. Ask here on SailNet and people will quickly tell you if that model was good.

Mark