When they built my Freedom in 1981, they used filler, not fibreglass to bridge the gap between the inner and outer skin of the transom around the hole for the rudder arm (rod).
When I took on the boat, I failed to notice a fine crack in that area, as it was covered in dirt. The crack allowed water in and investigation shows the plywood (not balsa) core is rotten over a fairly large area. We didn’t notice it at first because the fibreglass is so thick that hammer taps didn’t show any difference.
Unfortunately, I’ve been quoted over £4000 to fix the problem, which is beyond what the boat is worth to me, so email me if anyone withe fibreglassing skills is interested in a “ free” F30 CK project boat (I would require a nominal change of ownership sum). It needs a new engine ( the old one is gone) and new plugs to be made up for the joints between the front and rear sections of the wishbone booms, but otherwise it’s all there. When I acquired the boat, there was quite a lot of minor osmosis, but this has been treated. The boat is on the hard at Ridge Wharf in Wareham on the UK south coast
I am sorry to read that your Freedom 30 has these issues. Your boat would have been moulded at the Havant fibreglass plant of Fairways Marine which also did all the moulding of Fisher motor sailers. I became CEO of Fairways Marine following the purchase out of receivership which I negotiated with the receivers, Cork Gully. We paid £34,000. At that time, UK interest rates were around 17-18% for boat loans and the US Dollar was very weak compared to Sterling. The price paid reflects the state of the pleasure boat industry at that time. Fairways had failed because its US sales fell from 155 Fishers in 1978 to one in 1979, a weak domestic and European market and the cost of launching a new motor boat model called the Trawler 38. The then owner had turned down a big offer 12 months earlier. There were 16 boats under construction at the time.
Simultaneously, I negotiated the purchase of Rank’s boat building business and repair and maintenance business at Port Hamble and also the exclusive licence with Gary Hoyt to build Freedoms outside the US. We inherited an arrangement with Chris Johns in the Isle of Man where he did the Freedom 40 moulding.
The Freedom 30 would have used plywood and not balsa in the construction of the transom for greater strength. The life of boats depends also on the maintenance performed by owners. My own Freedom 35 was build in 1981, 45 years ago. Do you have the history of prior ownership and how long each owner owned their boat? It won’t help resolve your problem. Before I bought my 35, the previous owner had owned her for 18 years. Sadly, he got cancer and was too ill to look after her for the last four years so she sat on her berth at Swale Marina where the water drains out according to the tide so 50% of the time she was sitting on mud. Osmosis is disappointing because the quality of the moulding was high.
Good luck finding your Freedom 30 a new home. Anton Emmerton and I raced the first Freedom 28 ever in Europe in the Round the Island Race a few days after she had arrived by ship from the States. We shipped one over to use to make the mould from which your Freedom 30 would have been built. It was Force 7 wind against tide at the start and very lively. We had two of the top guys running the repairs and maintenance business with us, both experienced sailors too. The start line was about a mile off Cowes and many boats were having collisions (over 1,800 participants). I pointed out that it was all good for repairs! The Freedom 35 won the race sailed by John Oakley catching an overtaking all the OOD34s that had started an hour earlier and the Fisher 34 finished 4th skippered by our French dealer, Jean-Luc. He and his crew enjoyed the excellent charcuterie and cheeses he had brought from France with an appropriate beverage. They did not reef once and hardly left the wheelhouse.