Wee Happy has been sold. She is no longer available. Thank you for your interest. Best wishes to the new owners as they take her on new adventures!

For Sale in St. Augustine Florida, near Jacksonville: 1972 Albin Vega sailboat. Asking $6,000 or best offer. Interested in a fast sale. Priced to move. Ready to sail away. Please read the entire ad twice before calling or emailing with questions, as every issue is addressed here.

More photos of the boat located: here.

Videos of the boat are at the bottom of this page.

History: Shipped over from Sweden brand new to Lake Champlain / Burlington Vermont in 1972. She lived there until 2010, spending every summer on the water and three seasons a year on the hard, so she hasn’t had many total years on the water in her whole life. Actually, her whole life was light summer use on a fresh water lake until we bought her and did a major refit in 2010. Then we took her down the coast and cruised the keys and the Bahamas. Now she is located in north Florida in St. Augustine, near Jacksonville, on the east coast. She is currently on the hard, and we are hoping for a quick sale, pricing her to move. She is ready to sail away. I would take her to the Bahamas in a minute, without a concern, as she is outfitted for cruising and ready to go.

The vega is the most seaworthy boat for your dollar. I work as a fiscal analyst and before buying a Vega I researched all sailboats under 30 feet long. Dollar for dollar, the vega stands head and shoulders above all of the rest in terms of seaworthiness and toughness. An old Albin Vega just like this one just completed a circumnavigation of all of north and south america (see solotheamericas.org) rounding north america between canada and the north pole and then south all the way to the tip of south america and then back up the east coast to Annapolis.

She is a world cruiser that you can afford on a budget, so you can go cheap and go now rather than working for years towards a pipe dream. There is also a very active Vega owners group on groups.yahoo.com, and the people there have get togethers and help each-other with parts and ideas and upgrades, etc. This boat is inexpensive, tough as nails, and has a vibrant community of sailors behind it, as over 3,000 of them were made.

The Vega design had only a couple of weaknesses, and I have addressed them in our 2010 refit (see below) Her deck is hard, and there are no soft spots and there is no delamination anywhere on the deck, hull, or rudder. Tap away with your screwdriver handle all day and you wont find a dull thud anywhere. She is ready to take you anywhere for just $6,000. I really should be asking more, but we are having a baby and want a quick sale. Our ideal buyer would be someone who would take Wee Happy on more adventures because she us built for it, is in excellent condition and ready to go.

Specs:
27 feet long, 3.8 feet draft, 8 feet beam
Modified full keel / cutaway forefoot with encapsulated lead ballast.
Jan 2013: Just completed haulout, inspection, bottom job with ablative antifouling paint.

2010 Addressed the couple of weaknesses of this model of boat:
1) Reinforced forestay chainplate
2) Installed mast support beam reinforcement plate (1/4-inch stainless steel)

2010 major refit and upgrades to make her a modern world-cruising boat:
Installed new head with 5-gallon holding tank and pumpout deck pipe

Installed bow anchor roller and through deck pipe, bruce anchor, chain, & swivel

LED navigation lights and interior lights

Deep cycle battery

Running rigging replaced

Thorough standing rigging inspection revealed it to be in excellent condition. It is original high-quality Swedish steel with no burrs or indications of weakness. Decided to keep it as the modern Chinese steel is crap. (I’ve known too many people that replaced their original rigging and then had there new crap rigging fail on them).

Main halyard and topping lift led to cockpit

Furlex roller-furler on the jib

New 40 watt polycrystalline solar PV panel & charge controller

New galley stove: 2 burner alcohol type

2010 color Garmin GPSmap551s gps chartplotter with charts of the US coast and the Bahamas

2010 Raymarine tiller autopilot

Tiller extension

2003 Honda super long shaft outboard, 8hp, 4-blade prop, electric start, alternator, stern mount. Fuel water separator & filter. Rebuilt carb, new oil filter, oil change, lower unit, lower unit seals, and lower unit oil in December 2012. Running perfectly.

Thorough rudder inspection reveals no delamination or water intrusion. Excellent condition. Hard. Solid. No wobble on the hinge or rudder shaft.

Sails include main and 150% genoa in good condition, fabric strong with many years of sailing left. They are heavy and crinkle when you flex the fabric. Blue sunbrella mainsail cover has new zipper. Jib has new blue sunbrella sacrificial strip.

Dodger windows are a bit cloudy. Frame is stainless steel. Fabric is blue sunbrella in good condition.

Stainless steel propane bottle stern rail cooking grill with blue sunbrella cover.

Marine VHF radio with masthead whip antenna. Always excellent signal, loud & clear.

New cockpit seats/locker lids, with new stainless steel hinges and latches.

Re-upholstered salon cushions and seat backs in 2010

New whale-pump style bilge pump installed in cockpit.

She also still has the Volvo MD6A diesel inboard w/ combi prop in addition to the honda outboard motor. The inboard hasn’t been run in a year, however I turn it over every month to keep it free. If you want to use the diesel inboard rather than the honda outboard, then the combi prop will need to be serviced. Specifically the prop would need to be opened up, cleaned and greased up, and the gear unit on the back of the engine would also need to be opened up, cleaned and greased up. There are no known problems with the diesel engine other than that I haven’t started it in a year. I have turned it over every month to keep it freed up, so it shouldn’t be hard to get her going again, but the old diesel in the tank in the keel would need to be replaced. The only known issue is that the variable pitch prop system doesn’t change pitch easily and needs to be greased up. I prefered the Honda outboard because it gives you directional thrust in forward and in reverse, so I could manouver the boat amazingly well and park her any way I wanted to. It also doubles as a fine dinghy motor. Currently the honda is valued at $1,000 with the new carb, recent service and brand new lower unit installed. So if you fix the variable pitch prop, you can sell the Honda and expect around $1,000 for it. Alternatively you could pull out the Volvo inboard diesel motor and probably sell it for $800. Or just leave her as is and sail away… That’s what we did 🙂

The boat has the original gelcoat on the topsides and the deck. It has nicks/dings/scratches/crazing in spots and has worn thin in some places (namely on the non-skid on the foredeck). It has not been painted nor has it been awlgripped, although I have filled many of the dings with marine-tex putty/gelcoat repair to prevent water intrusion. The grabrails on the cabin top are bare teak.

She does not come with a trailer. She has her original cradle up in New York if you care to go get it you can have it. It is the steel cradle that she came with from the factory. You could put it on a flatbed double axle trailer and have a trailerable sailboat.

Like I said, this boat is awesome and is priced to MOVE because we are interested in a quick sale. We are having a baby, and we need to sell this boat as soon as possible. Someone is going to be a very happy sailor soon 🙂 Don’t delay! Prospective buyers viewing the boat daily.

Prospective buyers with cash in hand only please: (413)210-9323 or ktsetchfield@gmail.com

More photos of the boat located: here.

Video #1: Hull, Keel, Topsides, Rudder, Engines & Rigging

Video #2: Deck, Anchor, Main sail, Rigging, Cockpit, Dodger

Video #3: Cabin, Salon, Galley, Head, V-berth, Mast beam