Vinylester

[folotp]

Hi,

Does anybody know when Tillotson-Pearson started using vinylester resin in the construction of Freedom sailboats? Also, did they entirely replace the polyester resin in the laminate with vinylester, or only for a few of the outer layers?

Thanks.

Pierre-André Folot

[sailmon]

I used to own a 1987 F30 that was build mid year (and developed blisters). I understand they switched to vinylester 2 boats after mine was built. Mark Edwards might have more detailed information about the exact date the change was made and the lay-up schedule.

[daletournier]

Hi, I have a 1984 Freedom 32 and I believe they used vinylester on theseor so the manual says. I have no blisters.
Dale Tournier
Freeform F32

[Rick Simonds]

I have a 1984 Freedom 32 (hull 59, I think) and it did not use vinylester. It had blisters that were only into the gel coat. That was peeled off and replaced with vinylester in about 1990.

Cha-ching! Big bucks.

[daletournier]

Hi Rick, I have hull 25 f32. On the first page of the manual that came with the boat under freedom 32 specifications it says " underwater laminates utilize vinylester barrier resins? I certainly dont know alot about resins etc am I misunderstanding what is written?
Cheeers dale
freeform.
PS Im currently motor sailing up the Malacca strait off Malaysia, what ever resin my hull is composed of is copping a beating, the amount of rubbish ( some very large ) floating down this strait is huge.

[folotp]

Hi Dale,

That does confirm what I have read about the Freedom 32. Both Practical Sailor and Sailing Magazine mention that the Freedom 32 (Hoyt) was built with vinylester resin in the outer laminates. Practical Sailor says it was also the case of the Freedom 36. If you have hull #25, and your manual says that it was built using vinylester, I guess it is safe to assume that all Freedom 32 were. Can anybody check the manuals for the 36 and the 39 Pilothouse schooner?

http://www.practical-sailor.com/issues/ ... 152-1.html
http://www.practical-sailor.com/reviews ... 179-1.html
http://www.sailingmagazine.net/boats/6- ... reedom-32-

Thanks.

[Rick Simonds]

My father and I bought our boat brand new in 1984. In about 1990 we pulled it out for bottom paint and the boat had extensive pea-sized blisters throughout the gel coat on the entire underwater surface. It turned out that they were just in the gel coat, not in the laminate. There were a bajillion of them, a blister, say, on 4" centers or so on everything below the waterline. At the time my father and I called the Freedom factory several times while deciding what to do. From 21-year-old memory, I'm pretty sure we were speaking to Mark Edwards. Again from memory, the Freedom representative said they started using [something else, vinylester is what I remember] in the boats a year or so after ours was built and those later boats were guaranteed against blisters, but ours was not. I certainly know that I personally paid for the repair and Freedom declined to help in it, there's no question about THAT memory.

The bottom was peeled and a vinylester bottom replaced it, the work done in Tarpon Springs, Florida. The new bottom has held up perfectly.

As an aside comment; a few years earlier we also had a blister in the CF mast itself. That, too, was just in the outer, cosmetic "gel coat" of the mast, not into the CF laminate. That was repaired a Ross Yacht Services in Clearwater, Fl at Freedom's expense. It has held up fine structurally but I can still plainly see a shiney spot at the repair.