Alberg Sailboats, Carl Alberg's Long Keels Built Heavy in Ontario

A designer's name rather than a factory badge

Alberg is unusual among the brands we cover because it names a designer, not a company. Carl Alberg was born in Sweden in 1901, moved to the United States in 1925 and worked as a rigger and spar maker before John Alden hired him as a designer. His reputation was made in the first fiberglass era: the Pearson Triton of 1958 helped prove that a production fiberglass sailboat could go offshore, and Alberg went on to draw the first Bristol model and about ten designs for Cape Dory Yachts. He died in 1986.

The boats that actually carry his name came mostly from Whitby Boat Works, the Ajax, Ontario yard run by Kurt and Doris Hansen. Whitby built the Alberg 30 from 1962 to 1987, more than 700 of them, and the Alberg 37 from 1967 to 1988. When a US buyer says Alberg, they almost always mean one of those two Canadian boats.

The Alberg 37, the one we cover in depth

Our model page focuses on the Alberg 37, which Whitby built from 1967 to 1988, with 248 hulls completed. It is a narrow, long-overhang sloop or yawl with a long keel, encapsulated lead ballast and a keel-hung rudder, displacing 16,800 pounds on a 37-foot 2-inch hull. The Mk I ran from 1967 to 1971; the Mk II added a molded sole support, a liner and a larger head and galley. In 1979 the Alberg 37 Arion rode out the Fastnet storm, which still does more for the boat's reputation than any brochure ever did.

Engines were small Volvo diesels, the MD2B and later the MD11C, with a Westerbeke 4-107 as an option. Few boats still carry their original engine, and a repower is part of almost every ownership story.

Buying an Alberg when every hull is decades old

Alberg resale is low in absolute terms and stable in relative terms. Our model page puts most Alberg 37 asking prices between about $20,000 and $65,000, which is less than many new trailer sailers cost. That is the appeal and the trap: the hull is the cheap part, and the engine, rigging, wiring, tanks and deck are where the money goes. Two boats at the same price can be $40,000 apart in what they actually need.

There is no factory support. Whitby Boat Works closed after building the last Alberg 37 in 1988, so parts are generic marine hardware, and knowledge lives with owner associations and surveyors who know older fiberglass boats. Most US listings are on the Great Lakes, in New England and on the Chesapeake, close to where the boats were sold new.

• Sound the balsa-cored deck at chainplates, stanchions and the mast step.
• Check bulkhead and sole tabbing for separation.
• Price a repower if the original Volvo is still installed.
• Inspect the keel-hung rudder, gudgeons and pintles for play.
• Ask the age of the standing rigging and of the mizzen on yawls.
• Look for corroded fuel tanks and original 1970s wiring.