HookedOnFishingBoats.com

You want a boat that can crash through nasty head seas for hours on end without pounding you to a pulp or breaking into bits? They’re few and far between, but one is the Albemarle 31. I ran an Albemarle 268 for a full offshore season, and it was one of the few project boats I ever had that refused to break in any way. The 31 is built just as tough.

How? The decks are Baltec cored, the hull to deck joint is through-bolted on six-inch centers, and stringers are formed from fiberglass encapsulated fir. On top of that the 310 weighs in at 15,400 pounds; most expresses in this class weigh between 1,500 and 5,000 pounds less. That gives the Albemarle the beef it needs to crush big waves. The down-side? It’s no speed demon. Cruising speed is in the mid 20’s, which is down-right slow by today’s standards. The good news is, you’ll be doing that same speed when everyone else is pulling back the throttles to prevent damage.

A common problem with many expresses: they have poor visibility when coming onto plane. That’s one reason why Albemarle redesigned the 305, the 310’s predecessor, in the first place. They raised the helm deck by eight inches and shifted the center of gravity forward, to make up for the difference. New result? I never lost visibility when I firewalled the throttles and came onto plane.

Of course, Albemarle makes fishing boats, only. And the 310 shows this heritage. The wide-open cockpit features a hefty transom fishbox that will eat up a half-dozen yellowfin (but it drains onto the deck—re-routing that overboard would be nice,) a livewell, tackle and rigging station with a sink and four drawers, a transom door, and an additional fishbox in the deck. Four gunwale holders come standard, plus rocket launchers on the hard top—a must have. Now, check out the pipework that supports that top. It’s just as stout as the rest of this boat, and when your 300-pound cousin Bubba does pull-ups on it that top won’t move an inch. Nor will it when you’re crashing through those head seas, for hours on end.