How much could be the fair price of this Albin Vega?

[Flagfish]

Well. I have a Vega, named... wait for it... Flagfish. 49 years old, same as me.

The previous owner had it for 27 years, then 10 years in covered storage when I bought. Spent 2 years refitting, building a Walt Murray windvane, learning to sail- haha, had never done it before, then sailed from BC to San Francisco, on to Hawaii, and later singlehanded back from Hawaii to BC. Great little boat- she's sitting on a trailer in the yard right now, fully clean, bright, happy, and ready to go.

Boats are like houses. Keep them maintained and they'll keep on trucking. Age is just a number.

[onestepcsy37]

i owned one for five years, kept it in the florida keys. nice sailing boat and and roomy and easy to work on. i eventually sold it for personal reasons; it had 5ft10in headroom and i am 5ft11in. after five years that one inch drove me nuts. for long term always get a boat you can stand up in somewhere.

they are not 'heavily' built but they are easy to work on. i had few problems with it other than the gas albin inboard which i eventually pulled out and replaced with an 8hp mercury outboard. worked out great. also freed up a huge space under the cockpit which i cleaned out and set up for storage. this would be a good place to put a large auxiliary water tank which is much needed in the tropics.

only had two problems other than the engine. one was a hairline crack developing around the hull where the rudder shaft went through. i fixed that easily by putting a strong fiberglass patch around it. the other was a 'chainplate' that broke while we were sailing. their are no real chainplates on the boat. instead there are large u bolts. this actually turned out to be easier to fix - just replaced the u bolt - and easier to inspect since they are all plainly visible. and cheap and easy to replace.

i have read of another problem with mast compression. the mast is deck stepped and there is no comprssion post to support it,. it rests on a cross beam that is the bulkead between main cabin and v berth. nip this in the bud my strengthing that bulkhead.

i personally liked the boat - i like simple and the vega is simple. for the boat you are looking at i would at least replace the motor with an 8hp yamaha - bolt it on good, yamahas get stolen often. i also think i would go look at the boat before buying.

my personal guess as to value is $5000.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by loveytsquared

Good to know. How much would you pay for something like that? I'm thinking about just telling the seller a price if he's ok with it then maybe I'll go ahead, if not i'll just pass.

Maybe if they gave me $5k so I could pay someone to take it or pay for disposal.

Your description sounds like an old inexpensive boat that needs far more invested in it to get it in usable condition. It likely have a negative value.

If you just want a project, that may be fine. If you are looking to go cruising, it's a poor plan.

You don't say where you are in Canada but getting a boat on the Great Lakes, it's relatively easy (and fun) to get down to the Caribbean. This lets you check out the boat before making an offer and you can spend a year or so working the kinks out while it's local and easier to do. Then you can either take the east coast or go down the river system before jumping off for the Caribbean.

This isn't meant as a dig against the Vega as a model (not for us but...) it's about buying a boat long distance with no experience where you know there are several significant issues...that's a recipe for big costs after signing the paperwork.