Advice Needed

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Dutch01527
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2017 9:02 pm

Advice Needed

Post by Dutch01527 »

I am looking for a new boat and am attracted to the Freedom (30 or 35) lifting keel. I have not been able to find much information online and would welcome some advice from owners, particularly about the suitability of the keel to drying out, possibly with beaching legs. I sail out of Cardiff and drying out harbours are a feature of the Bristol Channel in the U.K.

My questions are:

1) Is the lifting keel boat suitible to drying out on a variety of surfaces such as mud and hard surfaces? Does the keel retract fully? I am also concerned about mud blocking the keel channel and hard surfaces damaging the bottom.

2) If so would I need beaching legs or does she settle flat?

3) How does sailing performance and sea worthiness of the lifting keel version compare with the full keel version?

4) Are there any major advantages of the 35 over the 30, except a bit more space?

Advice would be appreciated.

andygc
Posts: 92
Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2016 4:33 pm

Re: Advice Needed

Post by andygc »

I have recently bought a Freedom 30 CK centreboarder and have had the centreboard out and back in again (quite an interesting exercise). Yes, the board should retract fully. Mine is going to be grounded on mud fairly often because the mooring partially dries out on spring tides, and I am not in the least worried by that. Half a ton of centreboard won't have any problem pushing out a little bit of mud. I would not ground on a hard surface unless I was absolutely sure that it was flat - the only place I can think of where I would is Looe. You would need beaching legs if you wanted to be able to stay in bed.

You might have a bit of a wait. There are only two Freedom 28/30 on the market in the UK at present. Both are fixed keel. One has terrible problems with osmosis and saturation of the balsa core, and needs major repairs to both masts, the other has an extensive list of problems requiring structural work.
Sold for health reasons :(

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