Colinism

1990's Albin's why do I like you so much. There just something about the classic but up to date styling, with a good dose of practicality that's just hard to ignore.  The 24 is an oddball in some respects with a relatively few examples (48) made for a 24 footer. It's basically a scaled down version of the 31-34 foot command bridge models Albin built over the years. Having the raised helm area nets you more cabin in the larger boat.  Here it gets the engine under foot instead of in a box in the cockpit, as would normally be the case on a 24 foot boat with a straight shaft inboard.In actuality the straight shaft is one of the more unusual parts of this boat. While the arrangement was common in the pre stern drive era, it was very uncommon by the early 90's. The only other production cabin boat under 26' with an inboard of the time period I can think of is Shamrock (I'm sure there are others but I'm not going to spend all day finding them).  In the

Sometimes you just find a boat and you have to look into it more. I happened to be looking thru motor yacht listings one day and came across a Carver 325. The reason it  to me was the swim platform arrangement. Instead of a near vertical transom there was a series of steps in the platform allowing a non climb transition to the area above the aft cabin. Other then that change and some tweaks to the bridge this is the same basic 32' motor yacht Carver offered for a couple decades. But I like it might be my favorite small motor yacht. The arrangement below with a enormous v shaped dinette really makes it feel like a bigger boat and the berth arrangement in the back while a bit odd is versatile. Almost all of these are gas powered but diesel was an option. For a detailed write up the owner of boat-project.com used to own one and has mods and lots of info on his page http://www.boat-project.com/boats/carver.htm For some specs here is the factory info https://drive.google.com

Interesting E-bay find. Donzi only made 40 of these back in the day. In collaboration with Mercruiser they had a twin prop surface piercing outdrive quite the toy. Unfortunately they became tough to fix later and many ended like this with a regular Bravo. These were around $55,000 new if I recall so trading around 12k seems a deal before the 2008 collapse I remember seeing them stil getting in the mid to high 20's. See it here on EBay https://www.ebay.com/itm/1995-Donzi-classic-22-Blackhawk-/123598153819?hash=item1cc706285b%3Ag%3AuK4AAOSwx0FbkEvD&nma=true&si=elhlIItzsrK8BcPXZaezzc%252FVwrs%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

If you go walking thru a boat show today you will see a number of new boats with outboards hidden behind covers. The  Searay 370   is one of the best known example of this. With Twin Mercury outboards hidden under fiberglass cowlings forward of the transom, it looks like a sleek express cruiser with a secret. Of course this idea isn’t new. People have been trying to hide outboards basically since outboards were invented.  You will notice a small addition to the Mercury in the Searay above, a fresh air vent to keep the engine well fed with clean air. I have seen this in a few homemade wooden boats and a handful of modified sailboats thou of course without the nicely molded OEM cowl. Why you might ask do people want to hide their shiny expensive outboard. Well for one lots of people don’t like the look of them hanging off the rear of the boat. They also tend to handle differently then inboard boats due to both their prop design and extreme aft placement. By movi

I have been interested in RV's for a long time. Over the years I have noticed they tend to built incredibly cheaply with a few notable exceptions (air streams, certain fiberglass campers, bus conversions). The most common build is basically stick built with sheathing hung on wood framing. you also then have some with aluminum framing. You have also had a number made with fiberglass, much  like how a boat is constructed with a top and bottom section molded and then bolted/sealed together. One of my personal favorite types of RV is the truck camper. Having a removable living section and a truck to tow some other toy like a boat or ATV seems ideal. One issue these campers have is that weight is a major issue. Pickups have limited payload and truck campers often push the limits of these payloads. These would make them ideal candidates for lightweight composite construction with cored composites. While there are fiberglass camper builders out there making outstanding products they

If your into cars (well trucks I guess) you likely know that GM offered 2500 versions of the Suburban and Yukon XL. Most of these heavy duty people haulers were bought by government fleets for everything from security to Fire and Police command cars. Whats a little less known is that the open backed Suburban better known as the Avalanche also had a 3/4 ton 2500 version during it’s first generation. Oddly, enough the first (and possibly only) one of these I have seen in person was actually the first Chevy Avalanche I ever saw in person. Back at the time of its release I was working at a marina, and we were having some grounds work done and the owner of the landscaping company showed up in a brand new Avalanche 2500, towing a Bobcat skid steer of all things. I remember  walking up to it thinking that’s an odd load for a new fangled truckUV to be towing. Then I saw the 8 lug wheels and made a mental note to crack open AOL and look it up at home that night. Even thou it’s often r

Came across this little guy in Marblehead MA last year. Looks like a conventional little fiberglass dinghy. A simple rope and pulley arrangement controls the rudder to a little wheel. The neat part is there appears to be a Optima AGM battery ahead of the thwart and cabling leading down to what I guess would be a trolling motor or similar electric pod drive. Would love to be able to find out more about it.