Angling Unlimited’s new 30 foot North River “Albatross” took her maiden voyage on Sunday, June 3. Aboard for the event were Scott and Tom Ruhlman, Craig and Steve Shank, and deckhand par excellence Bryan Christianson. We opened up with 3 kings landed and one missed on the first drift of the boat’s career. Steve Shank will be immortalized as the angler who landed the first king on Albatross. Admittedly, we had a slow rest of the morning on kings, so we headed offshore for a limit of nice halibut up to 40 pounds.

The boat runs beautifully – very quiet, fast, and with the super smooth ride we’ve come to enjoy with all our boats. Albatross represents an evolutionary step – minor changes on an already winning design. Like our other boats, she’s powered by a highly reliable and efficient Volvo D6 Duoprop diesel package. The hull combines a soft ride with great stability and our full walkaround design. She’s one foot longer than the other boats, which provides extra cockpit space. She has a modified fish hold and some changes in paint that work really well. We’ve added a cutting edge electronics package including a CHIRP sounder from Simrad which paints a highly detailed picture of fish, bait, and bottom.

Everything about the boat came out just about perfect. AU’s purchase of Albatross reflects our commitment to quality, highly reliable, state of the art equipment that maximizes safety and fishability. With this machine at my command, I’m looking forward to the 2013 season just a little more than usual.