[CrabbyJim]

Does anyone know how the hull numbers were assigned on the Albin 27’s? Mine is 103 and it is a 1983, first year of production.. Does that mean first year of production,1, hull number 3 or are they sequential, 103 being the 103rd hull produced?

[MotorCity Boat Werks]

At this time, we don’t know the specifics of the hull numbers assigned to the Albin 27s. And unfortunately we don’t know the exact number of Albin 27s manufactured. One of the goals of the club is to maybe come up with a registry to track the history of the boats as they are found and renamed and perhaps change ownership. Down the road, I want to create an article for the information page regarding the hull numbering as we develop more information, and I’m looking for input.

Based off my interview with Joe Puccia (the designer of the boat) and based off my interview with Monica Peters (wife of Fred Peter, owner Albin USA), we know that there were about 500+ boats supposedly made. I only know this because I asked, and they weren’t quite sure. They said: definitely less than 1,000, but probably around 500? I have long suspected there were less than 500 ever made. Perhaps on the order of 12-20 boats per year. And if production spanned 1983-1992. That’s 10 years, at 20 boats= 200 boats. 500 boats in production would mean they were making 50 boats per year, which I doubt based off my interviews and the historical documents. That would also mean that they were making net sales of $38k x 50 boats=$1.9 million/year. I think that’s ambitious. After tracking and collecting used boat data for the Albin 27, I don’t see enough boats on the used market to match these numbers. 200 yes 500 no.

We would assume the first boat started with number 100. Joe Puccia said he was contracted to make the first 10-15. And based off what we know that brings us into 1983-1984 after which the construction methods and features began to change.

My boat number is 305 from 1986.

I wonder like you, is it the 3rd year, boat #5. Or the 305th boat made, which it can’t be because if you believe only 500 boats made total, this doesnt match the remaining years.

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