2006 Albin 28 Tournament Express
It's easy to see why the Albin 28 had such a long production run. They've got "sensible," "user-friendly," and "solid" written all over them. I'm not a huge fan of the way the sheer line is designed, with deck joining the hull well below deck level, but even that starts to grow on you, and allows the boat to have more freeboard than it appears to have.
This particular boat was the flush deck version, rather than the older version with a raised engine box. The aft cockpit is not quite as deep as one might want - with the cockpit coaming hitting your legs a bit lower than you would expect if you lean out against it. However, it's nice to have uninterrupted deck space, rather than the engine box in the middle. Along with the flush deck came a smaller rudder to stop a chine-walking issue that arose when the change was made, and a bow thruster that became a "must-have" with the smaller rudder.
There is a lot of equipment packed onto these boats, and prospective owners should be aware that their enjoyment of the boat will be greatly increased if they take time to learn about the various systems and enjoy working on them as needed, rather than ignoring them and having no idea what to do if something isn't working properly. I suppose that's true of all boats, but Albin 28's are proper yachts, with a full array of equipment in a medium sized package.
