I have a Freedom 25 with an outboard and am starting to think about refitting a diesel inboard.
Has anyone already done this? Any suggestions as to the best way to proceed.
I don’t know how to do it but if I had an outboard, I’d stay that way. I don’t believe the F25 was designed with an inboard in mind. My F25 sits way stern down, all the time, the engine weight plus the gas tank are more than the back of the boat will support. This is most noticeable in the waterline, the etched hull line is underwater all the time, as is the waterline on the rudder, and the bow is really far up and out of the water. I’ve moved everything else forward but it still sits stern down, this is really noticeable in light air sailing, the whole back of the boat drags and makes a lot of turbulence. Just my thoughts.
I thought about doing this a few years ago seriously enough to get a couple quotes. We considered both adding a saildrive and doing a regular shaft. The saildrive is probably the easier install, but they are very expensive. The cheapest option was to get a small non-marine diesel, like a kubota, and adapt it. Rather than installing a rigid tank, we considered a fuel bladder in the underseat locker aft of the holding tank.
In the end, I’m glad I did not do it. Anything you can do to get weight out of the back will make things better. For the money it will cost, you could get a Torqeedo outboard and a Torqeedo lithium battery, and probably still save. The total weight is the not too different from a gas outboard, but you can put the battery up near the keel, under the sink, and get a nicer weight distribution. The electric outboard is light enough you can easily just lift it off the mount and store it below. But the simplest thing is just to stick with the lightest outboard you can get away with.
In my experience, 10hp is way more than needed except in big wind and waves, and honestly, in those conditions, the boat is nicer to handle with the main double reefed than trying to go bare poles, and having the prop pitching in and out of the water and overspeeding each time it starts to cavitate. Sure you can push the boat to well above hull speed with a 10hp outboard in calm conditions, but it’s a sail boat after all.
My inboard F25 sits with the stern out of water, barely but it is out. from looking at posts I feel a big part of this is the large over weigh ruddgers often get water logged and pull stern down.
cheers,
Yarrow
Forget the discussion about horsepower; THRUST is what you need. The F25 needs about 6 HP with an appropriate propeller (which never come standard with the usual outboard motor). Look to the aftermarket prop manufacturers such as “Michigan Wheel” for a large-bladed low pitch prop that is generally intended for “workboat” use. Unfortunately, all the appropriate sized (and weight) outboards are marketed to the fishing (aluminum) runabout world, and you can’t seem to find a small (4 - 6 HP) outboard engine with a “thrusty” prop available as an ordering option.
Could not agree more. I got OK results by going down to 5" pitch, but larger diameter would be even better. Even still, the 10hp motor is usually overkill.
I had a Yamaha 8hp 2 stroke and put a Yamaha high thrust prop on it. Worked great.
I’ll confirm what the other owners of Freedom 25 inboards have said. The inboard adds too much weight to the stern. I am thinking about converting my diesel to electric to try and solve the problem. If mine was an outboard I would leave it that way.
The only two things I can think to do to try and get better weight distribution is to fix the fuel gauge so I do not have to keep the tank as full as I do and to move the batteries to the bow. If anyone has any other ideas I would like to hear them.
I’m in the process of going electric (the final stage). I’m going to put it all on this site once I have all of the data. Its been a great experiment and I THINK I made the right decision. I’m on a F33 CK so the data will be a little different, if you have any questions let me know.
love go hear about you experience with electric conversion. I also have F33 so data would be directly applicable. For now my 3gm is in very good condition but if it ever needs replacing I would certainly consider going electric.
My stern was sitting low in the water. The outboard that came with the F25 was over 100 lbs and the rudder was waterlogged and eventually split in two last spring. After rebuilding the rudder to about 80 lbs. I replaced the old outboard with a new Tohatsu 6 hp SailPro with a 25" long shaft with an altenator and weights in at 55 lbs… The water line is now correct and the long shaft with the high thrust prop works like a dream.
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I have an inboard and by reducing weight and moving internal weight forward I have been able to raise the stern over 4" I have a new rudder & tiller being made which should drop another 70lbs. but I still don’t have much bow weight in the boat thinking of adding 100lbs of diver belts to the bow locker and or moving my house battery to under frt berth.