I just thought I’d say hello and tell you all that I drank the Kool Aide and bought Hull #5, ex Ange Pelerin of Trois Rivieres, ex Pilgrim of Rhode Island. Expect more dumb questions as I figure out where the various strings go.
cheers
John.
congratulations on your new yacht. Details? Photos? Sailing where?
I am a new owner of an experienced Freedom 28(Born in England as a Freedom 30) cat ketch.
Clave’ (originally Freeform) Is a Cat Ketch 28 centerboard version. Wishbones with squartop sails on tracks.
Every time we tack or gybe on a windy day, or scoot along on a reach, we appreciate the concept.
Hope you can send along some photos and share your improvements.
I have a group of questions I have raised. Not yet all answered. I think I have read all the F28 cat ketch postings.
We have a couple of folks who know their boats intimately because of the restorations they undertook.
For me, the previous owner and my brothers have done so much that I just enjoy the sailing part of life. Work can and should be done, but the wind blows and the boat is more comfortable sailing than sitting.
No photo’s, well only one from the previous owner, and no name yet -discussions / arguments within the family are pending. She’s a looker though, black hull, tan deck and house, a gold waterline, and tanbark sails.
Boat will be moored just east of Kingston Ontario, in the mouth of the St Lawrence river. So we’ll be cruising lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands. about 30 some years ago I was a merchant seaman on the great lakes, and I vowed that one day I would sail them all in my own boat. Not sure that’s going to happen, but it’s pretty easy to take the Trent Severn canal up to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, so that’s probably on the horizon. And she is on a trailer so I could tow her up instead, although she’s wide so needs permits.
Boat has the original wrap around sails, so those will be up for replacement soon with something. More wrap-around, single ply with tracks and slides, or what? Actually, I can’t help wondering if you could just use hoops or parrels or lacing instead of going to tracks and losing the ability to let the sails out to 90+ degrees.
Still organizing the transport and launch and some minor work to fix some stuff identified in the survey.
Cheers
John.
Welcome Aboard John…I sail a 1981 F28CK with centreboard and conventional booms just down river from you in Morrisburg. You are always welcome to drop by for a cold beer, a sail and boat talk. Congrats…Cheers, David
Looks like this is your boat.
Happy sailing
Jim d
If you do a Google image search for Freedom 28 cat ketch, you find a couple of nice pictures of your boat under sail and one of her on the trailer.
Happy sailing
Jim d
Yep that’s her sailing on lac st pierre. looks like she’ll be coming up the highway on monday to ivy lea. then a few days to do some painting and some fix ups then launch and move her up river to the marina. I hadnt seen that pic before. she’s a nice looking boat isn’t she?
Tanton, thanks for the invite. I assume we’ll be going down river at some point so I’ll keep an eye peeled for you.
Now to figure out what to call her.
cheers
John.
Yacht names are fun. Good luck with your choice. I kept the name used by the three prior american owners.
Clave’ (claves) musical wooden rhythm sticks. Happy sticks. The rhythm of salsa and Bo Diddley. Freedom Carbon Sticks - Rhythm of the wind and waves.
Clave’ was actually birthed 15 miles from my house in the late 1980s and I plan to bring her back to northeast Florida sometime. But where she lies now is on Tampa Bay is a pretty nice sailing area. I have had dolphins and rays flying along side. Giant schools of bait fish flying to escape dinner and winds from 2-26knots.
Great Lakes / Thousand Islands looks like a great cruising area.
One of the advantages of the wrap around rig with wishbone booms is the option to bleed dead down wind. This would appear to be a great option to handle the worst of conditions. Sail tracks and goose neck booms don’t permit this solution.
Hoyt suggested the reason so many had trouble raising and lowering the sails was not letting the choker off to reduce the friction. It makes sense.
Sorry for late response Velo - been running around. I wondered about the name of your boat, as I’m in a latin jazz band and so I was trying to figure out the significance of the name - but now I get it.
I just posted on the sails and rigging thread about some of my adventures so far. But when I was reading your post here I saw your comment about the choker (which I was calling a snotter), and that’s raised a question. The way I interpreted the info I got when rigging the Choker, I can’t adjust the it, because I have it going thru the two grommets in the sail and then around the mast and just tying the ends to each other. So maybe I’m missing something?
cheers
John.
I have wishbone booms with masts with sail tracks. There are lots of variations.
My choker goes from front of mast to front of boom down to mast base and then back to the cockpit. Letting off gives more draft, tightening flattens the sail.
John, The boom lash on Raven is tied to the boom thru port forward eye, thru port cringle around the mast thru the starboard cringle and tied to the boom forward on the starboard side. When I first rigged the sails in June 2013 I was lucky and everything was adjusted correctly on the first try. This year I am not so lucky and Its taken several trips on the water to get the sails adjusted. Regarding the the hoisting of the sails. Release the outhaul. I can raise both main and mizzen to within 1’ of the top of the mast without the winch (I am not a brawney guy). As part of my 3 year refit I resurfaced the mast and Awlgripped them so they are very smooth. Lowering them is more problematic even after releasing the outhaul. In 20 kts wind they will lower to 1/2 way then the sail bunches up at the mast. I usually go forward of the mast; my wife eases the halyard while I pull down on the sail folding it over itself as I pull it down. Make sure all your knots are secure as you don’t want anything to come loose when the rig is loaded. I noticed that the two lines from the mast d-ring which support the boom tend to loosen when the sail is flogging. Raven is my first (probably my last) sailboat. My wife Terry and I could not be happier with how easy she is to sail. So far I have sailed her in steady 28 kt winds with gust up to 35 kts with no reef in sails to test things out. She performed very well considering she was over canvased (my sails are a little blown out also). I am working with a local sailmaker and hope to have new sails for next year. Oh and Raven is also black and tan with tan mast.