freedom 35 motor sailing woes--sucking air......

Posted by ajbav2003 (ajbav@…>)

We recently lost power while motor sailing with just more than a half
tank of fuel. The problem was fixed by bleeding air from the filters
and fuel line, so it is looking like a problem of the arrangement of
the fuel intake in the tank.

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with this in the Freedom
35. There was a post on the old message board of an similar
experience with a Freedom 30 in extreme circumstances. Hardly the
case for our recent episode.

Posted by Mike Byrne (rmbesource@…>)


I recently had the same problem on my
Freedom 35. In winds of about 15 knots, we were heeled over pretty far when I
decided to start the engine to go more directly to our destination. I
immediately sucked air and had to bleed the fuel lines. Apparently the fuel
pickup is such that you suck air when heeled with a half tank of fuel. I think
the lesson learned is: Don’t motor sail hard on the wind in good wind.
Drop those sails and you shouldn’t have a problem.

Mike Byrne
The Entrepreneur’s Source
(877) 762-9763

-----Original Message-----
From: ajbav2003
[mailto:ajbav@…]
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004
10:50 PM
To:
freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [freedomyachts2003]
freedom 35 motor sailing woes–sucking air…

We recently lost power while motor sailing with just
more than a half
tank of fuel. The problem was fixed by
bleeding air from the filters
and fuel line, so it is looking like a problem of
the arrangement of
the fuel intake in the tank.

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with
this in the Freedom
35. There was a post on the old
message board of an similar
experience with a Freedom 30 in extreme
circumstances. Hardly the
case for our recent episode.



\

Posted by Geoffrey Schultz (geoff.freedom@geoffschultz.org>)

I have a 40/40 so I don’t know that my response applies, but on the
40/40 there was a screen that attached to the bottom of the pickup
tube. Algae/gunk clogged the screen and caused it to suck air from
where the tube connected to the fuel valce on top of the tank. That
problem was solved by removing the screen and letting the Racor
filter the gunk.

– Geoff

— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, “ajbav2003” <ajbav@m…>
wrote:

We recently lost power while motor sailing with just more than a
half
tank of fuel. The problem was fixed by bleeding air from the
filters
and fuel line, so it is looking like a problem of the arrangement
of
the fuel intake in the tank.

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with this in the
Freedom
35. There was a post on the old message board of an similar
experience with a Freedom 30 in extreme circumstances. Hardly the
case for our recent episode.

Posted by eric_f35 (erickagan@…>)

I have a Freedom 35 and the same thing happend to me two years ago…
I also had to bleed the engine…which was very difficult due to the
bad weather and high waves…I think it has to do with the baffling
and the pickup…also when my fuel gauge reads 1/2 there is only 1/4
of a tank left.

— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, “Geoffrey Schultz”
<geoff.freedom@g…> wrote:

I have a 40/40 so I don’t know that my response applies, but on the
40/40 there was a screen that attached to the bottom of the pickup
tube. Algae/gunk clogged the screen and caused it to suck air from
where the tube connected to the fuel valce on top of the tank.
That
problem was solved by removing the screen and letting the Racor
filter the gunk.

– Geoff

— In freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com, “ajbav2003” <ajbav@m…>
wrote:

We recently lost power while motor sailing with just more than a
half
tank of fuel. The problem was fixed by bleeding air from the
filters
and fuel line, so it is looking like a problem of the arrangement
of
the fuel intake in the tank.

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with this in the
Freedom
35. There was a post on the old message board of an similar
experience with a Freedom 30 in extreme circumstances. Hardly
the
case for our recent episode.