Posted by george huffman (thatboatguy2@…>)
Hi, George and Kerri here new Freedom 40 owners. We are new not the boat.We started out at the old group and got referred here to the new group… So… we have hull number 7. It is a cat ketch and has aluminum masts and also “conventional” booms. I have not had much time to investigate things on the boat but it looks as though there is jiffy reefing built into the booms. I’ll be looking closer next week. One thing that worries me is the centerboard. Another owner tells me his centerboard is raised/lowered via a 1/2 inch yacht braid line running to a winch on deck somewhere. Mine has some kind of electric motor driven mechanical winch with wire rope running to a doubler and attaching to the centerboard. The electrics for this winch seem to be hooked up to a group of old ford starter solenoids, presumably to reverse the DC current for up and down. This is funky beyond anything
I’ve ever seen in a boat of any sort. And believe me when I tell you I’ve seen some funky stuff! I can’t believe this is the original arrangement. So… who can I ask about this? Are the builders still building? On the plus side someone at some time installed a bow thruster and they kept the cut out… probably for bragging rights. I’m thinking of taking it to the range and firing a few rounds of small arms into it to see what happens!!! Talk about over built. Here is a link to a photo. Link to Photo This is the most awesome boat either of us has ever owned. And that’s with me coming from an Allied Princess and she coming from a Pacific Seacraft. We know our boats. I can’t wait to go sailing! 
George
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Posted by katorpus (jrb@…>)
George & Kerri
Welcome to the elite “club” of Freedom 40 owners. I say “elite”
because, by my guess, there are no more than 61 of these hulls in the
world…I own Hull #61 of 63 built. Per Mark Edwards (long associated
with Freedom, but now elsewhere)told me (years ago) that one was lost
on a reef and another in a shipping-lane collision. The last boat (as
well as mine) was constructed in 1981. More may have been lost in the
devasting hurricanes of recent memory, or to other misfortunes…
I don’t know what changes in the centerboard arrangement were made
between hull #7 and hull #61, but I can tell you that what you’ve
described sounds like a recipe for a mess, if not disaster.
My boat is an aft cockpit…I don’t know whether you have the center
cockpit or aft, but my centerboard is held by a 1/2" yacht braid line
which is shackled to the board at its lower end and which runs
straight up through the trunk and a “raceway” to a turning block on
the deck on the cabintop inside the breakwater. (just forward of the
mizzen mast and covered by a clamshell vent cover), where it is lead
to one of the line stoppers forward of the cabin-top winches and
thence to the winch.
There is absolutely no need for electrical assistance in the
operation of the centerboard. It’s an easy haul with the winch, and
the line stopper permits removal of the load from the sheet winch.
Lowering it involves only taking a turn around the winch to provide
friction and the release of the stopper and easing of the line.
If the line breaks, you could (with relative ease), drop another line
down the raceway, dive beneath the boat, cut off the old line, tie it
off through the shackle, be back in business immediately, and deal
with the splice and “proper” repair at your leisure. I would,
however, recommend NOT turning on the engine prior to at least diving
below and cutting off whatever line remains attached to the shackle
(lest it wrap itself in the prop, possibly creating a REAL mess).
Wire rope is unnecessary. The board ISN’T all that heavy (500 lbs
sticks in my mind somehow), besides, with some of the high tech lines
available today, you could get more strength out of a similar
diameter of line than the wire rope offers, without ever worrying
about a “fishhook” or backlash (easy to envision, if you “bump” the
board and momentarily relieve the tension on the wraps of that winch).
If you use double braided line, you’ll know when it starts to
deteriorate, since the cover will be the first thing to go, and
you’ll still have plenty of time to “get around” to replacing the
line before you ever experience a failure. Mine lasts about 5 to 7
years in constant exposure to the South Texas Gulf Coast sunshine.
The board remains retracted (and thus the line is under tension) when
parked in the marina slip. The boat is only hauled for maintenance,
never seasonally.
I’d rip out the whole electric mess and start over if I were you.
I envy you your bow thruster. If I could figure out how to install
one of the retractable ones, I might just go for that myself. As I’ve
said elsewhere, the hard part of singlehanding this thing is docking
and undocking. It’s a rare day that I don’t “put it away” in 15 knots
or better, sometimes a LOT better, since it’s not unusual for our
late afternoon seabreeze to be 22 to 25 knots…backing into the slip
with a quartering wind off the bow and no help is no fun…and
there’s only 100’ of “alleyway” to the next set of boats in the
marina.
John R Brougher III, CPA
“Katorpus”
Lying Corpus Christi, TX
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, george huffman
<thatboatguy2@…> wrote:
Hi,
George and Kerri here new Freedom 40 owners. We are new not the
boat.We started out at the old group and got referred here to the new
group…So… we have hull number 7. It is a cat ketch and has aluminum
masts and also “conventional” booms. I have not had much time to
investigate things on the boat but it looks as though there is jiffy
reefing built into the booms. I’ll be looking closer next week.One thing that worries me is the centerboard. Another owner tells
me his centerboard is raised/lowered via a 1/2 inch yacht braid line
running to a winch on deck somewhere. Mine has some kind of electric
motor driven mechanical winch with wire rope running to a doubler and
attaching to the centerboard. The electrics for this winch seem to
be hooked up to a group of old ford starter solenoids, presumably to
reverse the DC current for up and down. This is funky beyond
anything I’ve ever seen in a boat of any sort. And believe me when I
tell you I’ve seen some funky stuff! I can’t believe this is the
original arrangement. So… who can I ask about this? Are the
builders still building?On the plus side someone at some time installed a bow thruster and
they kept the cut out… probably for bragging rights. I’m thinking
of taking it to the range and firing a few rounds of small arms into
it to see what happens!!! Talk about over built. Here is a link to a
photo. Link to PhotoThis is the most awesome boat either of us has ever owned. And
that’s with me coming from an Allied Princess and she coming from a
Pacific Seacraft. We know our boats. I can’t wait to go
sailing!George
Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from
someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
Posted by george huffman (thatboatguy2@…>)
Thanks John,I’ll check it further and report next week. We have the center cockpit model. Georgekatorpus <jrb@…> wrote: George & Kerri Welcome to the elite “club” of Freedom 40 owners. I say “elite” because, by my guess, there are no more than 61 of these hulls in the world…I own Hull #61 of 63 built. Per Mark Edwards (long associated with Freedom, but now elsewhere)told me (years ago) that one was lost on a reef and another in a shipping-lane collision. The last
boat (as well as mine) was constructed in 1981. More may have been lost in the devasting hurricanes of recent memory, or to other misfortunes… I don’t know what changes in the centerboard arrangement were made between hull #7 and hull #61, but I can tell you that what you’ve described sounds like a recipe for a mess, if not disaster. My boat is an aft cockpit…I don’t know whether you have the center cockpit or aft, but my centerboard is held by a 1/2" yacht braid line which is shackled to the board at its lower end and which runs straight up through the trunk and a “raceway” to a turning block on the deck on the cabintop inside the breakwater. (just forward of the mizzen mast and covered by a clamshell vent cover), where it is lead to one of the line stoppers forward of the cabin-top winches and thence to the winch. There is absolutely no need for electrical assistance in the
operation of the centerboard. It’s an easy haul with the winch, and the line stopper permits removal of the load from the sheet winch. Lowering it involves only taking a turn around the winch to provide friction and the release of the stopper and easing of the line. If the line breaks, you could (with relative ease), drop another line down the raceway, dive beneath the boat, cut off the old line, tie it off through the shackle, be back in business immediately, and deal with the splice and “proper” repair at your leisure. I would, however, recommend NOT turning on the engine prior to at least diving below and cutting off whatever line remains attached to the shackle (lest it wrap itself in the prop, possibly creating a REAL mess). Wire rope is unnecessary. The board ISN’T all that heavy (500 lbs sticks in my mind somehow), besides, with some of the high tech lines available today, you could get more
strength out of a similar diameter of line than the wire rope offers, without ever worrying about a “fishhook” or backlash (easy to envision, if you “bump” the board and momentarily relieve the tension on the wraps of that winch). If you use double braided line, you’ll know when it starts to deteriorate, since the cover will be the first thing to go, and you’ll still have plenty of time to “get around” to replacing the line before you ever experience a failure. Mine lasts about 5 to 7 years in constant exposure to the South Texas Gulf Coast sunshine. The board remains retracted (and thus the line is under tension) when parked in the marina slip. The boat is only hauled for maintenance, never seasonally. I’d rip out the whole electric mess and start over if I were you. I envy you your bow thruster. If I could figure out how to install one of the retractable ones, I might just go for that
myself. As I’ve said elsewhere, the hard part of singlehanding this thing is docking and undocking. It’s a rare day that I don’t “put it away” in 15 knots or better, sometimes a LOT better, since it’s not unusual for our late afternoon seabreeze to be 22 to 25 knots…backing into the slip with a quartering wind off the bow and no help is no fun…and there’s only 100’ of “alleyway” to the next set of boats in the marina. John R Brougher III, CPA “Katorpus” Lying Corpus Christi, TX — In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, george huffman <thatboatguy2@…> wrote: > > Hi, > > George and Kerri here new Freedom 40 owners. We are new not the boat. > > We started out at the old group and got referred here to the new group… > > So… we have hull number 7. It
is a cat ketch and has aluminum masts and also “conventional” booms. I have not had much time to investigate things on the boat but it looks as though there is jiffy reefing built into the booms. I’ll be looking closer next week. > > One thing that worries me is the centerboard. Another owner tells me his centerboard is raised/lowered via a 1/2 inch yacht braid line running to a winch on deck somewhere. Mine has some kind of electric motor driven mechanical winch with wire rope running to a doubler and attaching to the centerboard. The electrics for this winch seem to be hooked up to a group of old ford starter solenoids, presumably to reverse the DC current for up and down. This is funky beyond anything I’ve ever seen in a boat of any sort. And believe me when I tell you I’ve seen some funky stuff! I can’t believe this is the original arrangement. So… who can I ask about this? Are the
builders still building? > > On the plus side someone at some time installed a bow thruster and they kept the cut out… probably for bragging rights. I’m thinking of taking it to the range and firing a few rounds of small arms into it to see what happens!!! Talk about over built. Here is a link to a photo. Link to Photo > > This is the most awesome boat either of us has ever owned. And that’s with me coming from an Allied Princess and she coming from a Pacific Seacraft. We know our boats. I can’t wait to go sailing! > > George > > > > > --------------------------------- > Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. > Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. >
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