OPEN SEASON Albin 28: The hunt is on. By Bill Pike

It's funny how much a hardtop, or in our test boat's case, the absence of a hardtop, can change a boat's looks, even its mission.

Fundamentally, the Albin 28 Tournament Express Convertible shown here, equipped with a big, radically-raked, welded aluminum American Marine tempered safety-glass windshield and a TIG-welded aluminum radar arch (compliments of J & J Fabrications), is in many ways the same vessel as Albin's more traditional, lobster-like 28' Tournament Express, with integrated fiberglass radar arch and hardtop.

But, in terms of appearance and style, the two boats are considerably different. In fact, they're about as much alike as clam chowder and Bimini conch fritters.

The hardtop version is a piece of New England tradition, a buttoned-down keep-a-lid-on-it stalwart, designed for the Greek Fisherman's-hat-pipe-smoking crowd.

The Convertible, on the other hand, is a wide open sportster. Although squarely within the realm of Albin's salty heritage, it projects a younger, more with-it image. It's a tanning machine, not to mention a cruise-equipped fishboat.

Dock-U-Drama

But are there any practical differences, covertible vs. hardtop, besides speed (Albin says removing the hardtop adds about a knot to top-end) and the obvious weather-related, every- boat- needs-some- kind-of-enclosure-above-the-40th-Parallel ones?

Based on our Boat Test conducted in Miami's Government Cut, an offshore tour highlighting wolfpacks of 10' rollers and a docking situation enlivened by winds gusting to 30-some knots, I'd say, "Hell yes."

The first plus is visibility. As with the hardtop model, the helm seats on our Converible were polypropylene, with removable, upholstered cushions. Besides being easy to keep clean, as well as tough and long-lasting, they give a helmsman excellent benchmark elevation

But while the hardtop has decent boathandling visibility at the helm, there are a few opacities, like an overhanging hardtop brow and the wide supports of an integrated radar arch.

However, visibility onboard the convertible is virtually unobstructed, an advantage that's really important when you're trying to continuously monitor your boat's position while docking in gusty, broadside blasts.

Whether sitting down at the helm of the Convertible - or even better, standing - I could instantly judge the proximity of bow to dock, without having to rubberneck or get a frenzied estimate from a deckhand.

Say all you want about the season-stretching and shady virtues of hard-tops, the genre removes at least some of the wind-on-the-cheek immediacy of boathandling, and ups the windage ante as well.

Another major plus for the Convertible version of the 28 is foredeck access. During one of a couple of dicey dockings and undockings in our rock sided slip at Miami Beach Marina, I did deckhand duty for Albins Bill King.

Despite the occasional seeming need to be on both ends of the boat at the same time, the task was - pardon the pun - a breeze.

Going forward on the Convertible, with a plain-old diagonal stride, using both the bowrail and the sides of the windshield for handholds, beats edging along the cabinside of a hardtop model, awkwardly trying to use a shoulder-high grabrail on the roof of the boat and a waist-high bowrail on the side.

High Rollers

Checking out the Convertible dockside was pure déjà vu. From the standpoint of amenities, layout and fish-fighting potential (see standard equipment list), it's virtually identical to the hard-top model.

There are a couple of recently added features that aren't readily observable, however, including a five-year structural hull warranty, a standard transom shower and a Jensen stereo cassette with four Jensen speakers, two in the cockpit, two below decks.

Our test boat had a Vetus bow thruster. In fact, Albin's so convinced of the efficacy of the single-engine bow-thruster package, it lists prices for single-engine configurations exclusively.

Dockside, in gusts that threatened to blow my beard off, I was very impressed with the convertible's handling. I realized it's blasphemous, but I'd say a thruster equipped boat is easier to handle that a pricier twin-screw sistership sans thruster. Bottomline, not matter how maneuverable it is, a twin-screw boat must rely on the lever-effect of its engines at the transom to move its bow.

The bow of a thruster-equipped boat however, isn't moved remotely, but instead directly and almost instantaneously. Not only does this increase your control, it increases the sense of control.

Top-end in Government Cut: 30.2 mph. No tabs needed. No squirreliness either, even when torqued-out amid masses of confused 4'-6' seas bouncing off the sides of the Cut.

Out in the ocean, doing the offshore boogie was a dry, steady experience. There's a skeg on the Convertible's modified-V hull (transom deadrise: 16 degrees) and its lateral resistance to movement reduces roll and flattens turns.

On the way back in, the seaward end of the jetties was rolling with ten-footers. But the Convertible's skeg, a big rudder and some gentle throttle-jockeying kept us on the backs of the waves, ambling along, riding the ranges.

Back in the slip, the wind-tossed boat tugged like a wild horse at her lines as streaks of blue opened in the sky.

I walked down the dock aways, turned around and looked back at a vision of Down East traditionalism transformed.

Hmmmmm. Dark green hull. Buff decks. Vast, kick-butt windshield? And a tubular-aluminum radar arch? All of it...quite at home in the Florida sun.