21/11/2024
‘Albatross’ was lifted out the water yesterday. We are thrilled to begin work on her today for Langdale Chase Hotel.
Albatros was originally built in 1928 in Berlin.
ALBATROSS HISTORY
Originally built in 1928 in Berlin for a sea captain as his own private motoryacht which he used mainly on the River Elbe and surrounding waterways. She was to be confiscated during WWII along with most other useful vessels and used for transporting cargo along the Elbe to Hamburg. A decade after the war she was transported to lovely Bodensee which borders Switzerland, Germany and Austria where she became a ferry connecting various cities around the lake. A certain amount of rebuilding was necessary to make the boat compliant with the strict Swiss regulations. The owner still has most of the original stability calculations and drawings.
In 1983 another new phase began when Albatros was purchased by a Dutch shipyard in Friesland which is in the northern part of the Netherlands. Here the boatbuilders appreciated the origins of the boat and set about rebuilding her to the original specification, emulating the layout both externally and internally. Three years later Albatros headed south to the French waterways where she was kept for holidays, mainly on the Seine, right through to late nineteen nineties. She then returned to the Netherlands where a classic boat restoration yard saw the potential as a sight seeing vessel in Amsterdam. One of her regular customers was the current owner who enjoyed trips aboard and finally decided in 2008 to offer to purchase the boat for himself.
He undertook a two year restoration in 2009 and 2010. The teak hull appreciated a year round moist environment and so it was decided to build a boathouse in which to moor Albatros permanently at the boatyard. The restoration concentrated on a back to 1928 restoration although the teak hull and decks were of course retained. A painstaking programme of renewal and replacement sought to recreate the original design. Albatros was reborn.
