Posted by lemonsbgi (sklklemon@…>)
We have Freedom 40/40 hull 21, and have just finished a 6 month
sabbatical cruise in the Sea of Cortez and the west coast of Mexico.
Unfortunately we had to re-power the boat in Cabo San Lucas since the
original 3JH2T engine decided it was done. That’s another story
altogether, but the immediate reason for this post is to alert Freedom
owners to a problem I discovered the hard way. I have installed a two
tank system with a polishing filter and transfer pump, drawing from
the main tank into a day tank. On the delivery back up the Baja coast,
it became impossible to transfer fuel. I have now discovered that RDS
tanks, supplier to Freedom, pushed a tiny screen 3" up the opaque
plastic pickup tube for the main tank. Because the pickup is opaque,
there was no way to know the screen was up there, and there is no good
way to clean it. I pulled the screen out with a wire, and will depend
on the polishing filter and main engine filter, since the screen is
unnecessary. I urge anyone with a tank built by RDS to remove the
screen from the fuel pick up tube, since it is just a Big Problem
waiting to happen. Steve Lemon, Santa Barbara,CA s/v Eos