Hi All,
I have been looking for a Freedom 25 over here in the UK for some time and I looked at one last week which had a puzzling feature - maybe someone could shed light on this for me? When I lifted the floor boards to look into the keel bolt cavity I fould that the entire area had been filled with cured resin - prehaps Epoxy - but I'm not sure. Anyway it was a milky white colour. The depth of fill means that one cannot see the keel bolts at all! I found this an odd thing to do since it may be necessary some day to drop the keel & re-seat it and how on earth could one do this through a solid bed of cured resin? I guess that a few days patient grinding with a Dremel tool or similar plus "gentle" use of a chisel may well do it - but it would be a difficult and uncomfortable job that I'm not sure I want to tackle.
Was this a "usual" feature of TPI built F25's or is this just some "brainwave" of a previous owner? Anyway feedback would be appreciated since otherwise the boat was in good condition with a very "dry" hull when checked with the TRAMEX Skipper moisture meter.
All/Any comments appreciated.
Thanks/regards,
Wilf Bishop
F21 DAYDREAM
Freedom 25 Keel Bolt Access
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- Posts: 19
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- Location: North Yorkshire, UK
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Re: Freedom 25 Keel Bolt Access
Mine is not that way...
1984 round-mast Freedom 25
Western Shore of the Chesapeake
Western Shore of the Chesapeake
Re: Freedom 25 Keel Bolt Access
They probably had leaks and / or rust around the bolts and wanted the area to look tidy when selling the boat.....poor sods..... now they raise a lot more suspicion about what could be wrong there.
Michel Capel, Freedom 44 #4 1981 'Alabama Queen', NED8188, cat ketch with wishbones, home port Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, 52*42.238'N 005*18.154'E.
- Teke's Pride
- Posts: 219
- Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:56 am
- Location: Lake Guntersville, AL
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Re: Freedom 25 Keel Bolt Access
Wilf,
Have you seen the boat out of the water to inspect the keel?
I have no experience with F25s so I need to ask, was the F25 offered in a Shoal Draft version?
I ask those questions because what you describe sounds a lot like what that area looks like on my TPI built Shoal Draft F21 (no removeable keel bolts because the Pb is enclosed in a fiberglass skeg that is part of the hull).
Have you seen the boat out of the water to inspect the keel?
I have no experience with F25s so I need to ask, was the F25 offered in a Shoal Draft version?
I ask those questions because what you describe sounds a lot like what that area looks like on my TPI built Shoal Draft F21 (no removeable keel bolts because the Pb is enclosed in a fiberglass skeg that is part of the hull).
Clark Myers
Teke's Pride
F21 #345
Black Finn
F40 AC CK #41
Browns Creek Sailing Association
Guntersville, AL
http://www.youtube.com/LambdaZetaTeke
Teke's Pride
F21 #345
Black Finn
F40 AC CK #41
Browns Creek Sailing Association
Guntersville, AL
http://www.youtube.com/LambdaZetaTeke
- hxschiller
- Posts: 88
- Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2008 7:55 pm
- Location: Mull 28 - "Impulse" on NW Creek in New Bern, NC
Re: Freedom 25 Keel Bolt Access
The keel is a lead casting that is fastened in the conventional way with keel bolts (studs) onto the bottom of a GRP stub keel. My 1982 F-25 had some problems with the rear-most keel bolt leaking, but the remainder were fine. The keel bolts are stainless steel so rust should not be a big problem (not like Catalina 25's). I would test to see how strong the stuff the P.O. poured in there really was. I know T-P did use resin with what seemed like Vermiculite mixed in to fill the aft-most compartment in the stub keel. I dug this out rather easily so that I could put sealant under that rear-most washer and bolt. Consult with members of the J-24 fleet in your area. The J-24s were built similarly, and they may have some comments/suggestions.