albemarle 1990's 262 center console

[gerard]

need opinions-1995 albemarle 262 center console. 7.4 volvo-duo-prop. any one ever run one of these?

[Mike Boehler]

I guess since I own a '93 Albemarle 265, I can stick my 2 cents in here. Not the same boat, but close. Same powerplant and if I"m not mistaken, same hull..

Very steep entry, makes cruising to your fishing grounds more comfortable than any boat out there in my opinion. Once you get there, take your bonine...

This boat rocks, take it from someone who owns it....
Some folks say it's not so bad, but sometimes I think its owner loyalty speaking.. If you or your crew have any propensity for sea sickness, go another direction..

The boat is built like a tank, I almost NEVER find loose screws, nuts, bolts etc... on this boat. When they built it, they new what they were doing and it holds together better than some brand new boats out there..

Driving the boat took a YEAR to get used to. It wanders pretty good at slow speeds (canals, rivers, harbors, long slow runs to the open water).

Once you get to the open water, it rides quite bow high. Something else to get used to. When I first got my boat, I used to trim the bow down for better vis. BIG MISTAKE, if you trim the bow down and start broaching little two footers, it does, what can only be described as a perfect flat spin ala top gun. This boat wants to ride bow high. Get used to standing on the foot rest to look for other boats. And get a radar..

Trim tabs, once again, due to the 24 deg. deadrise, are very touchy. If I have as much as 10 gallons more fuel in one tank, it lists pretty good, but be carefull of the trim tabs. You momentarilly push the tab and WAIT, it will come around, you can get yourself all screwed up trimming yourself out of whack, then you retract the tabs and start over....

I love the boat, but there is a learning curve and it also depends on your type of boating/fishing... If your making long runs every trip, I'd go for it, but if your runs are short, I'd pass....

You will not be dissapointed in the quality of this boat, I can guarentee...

I like the Volvo 7.4, but be prepared to pay for parts as you probably know, Volvo parts are out of site..

All this said, I must reinerate, I don't know how similar the center console is to my 265, so take it for what its worth..


Mike

[2dogs1949]

I had a 1994 for 5 years. I loved that boat. Cruise was about 22. We replaced the exhaust with a 6" pipe and the engine ran better with slightly better MPG. We ran out of Cape May NJ to the canyons all the time. The 7.4 burned 1 mpg no matter what the sea conditions were. Yes it rocks on the drift. We found a product called Rocker Stoppers at West Marine. They look like a compressed road cone. We put 4 otf these 12" apart on a rope with a 10 lb mushroom anchor and hung one on each side off the spring cleats. It made a big difference. Not very practical for short drifts but sharking and chunking it worked very well. Gotta get them out of the water when you hook up as the rope will cut the mono. Attach a rope to the anchor to use as a pull up rope.
Our 7.4 blew up with 467 hours. We replaced it with a Volvo 8.1 fuel injected engine. Had 375 hp. Cruise went up to 27 knots and mpg increased to 1.5. It's a different boat with a little more hp. Absolute tank. Never felt unsafe in it. My job looked like it was going away so I sold the boat. Still have the same job, should have waitied.

[Fins&Feathers]

I have a 96 Albemarle 24 Cc with a merc.225 hp outboard. Have not seen many of these before but i love it. The boat is buit like a rock and handels very well in all conditions.

The 24 degree dead rise @ the transom is what you want. This gives you a very soft landing after you come off the wave. You do have to play the trim tabs and find the sweet spot.

Mike is right it does rock back and forth on the troll or drift.
My boat has a full transom with a full fish box in it. I love this but wish it had a door for the big fish.
The consold is good with a big glove box for storage. The only thing it needs is a live well.

The bow has two raised bench rod lockers on either side with pads for seating. They hold plenty of rods and the rocket lanchers on the leaning post and t top do to.

I just put some new curtains on to cut down on the wind and the spray. The spray is not that bad unless you are in a cross beam sea. My new curtains are like the ones on Regulators and that should help. I did take the windshield off of the consold to help with the view.

Hope this help, and the family loves the CC better than the cubby cabin when it is a nice day and warm out. We had a Hydro sport 23 walk around before and it does not compair to the Albe. Let me know if you have any more questions.