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Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2019 8:51 pm
by Boatfxr
Hello, I recently became involve with rerigging the boat back to original wrap around sails and wishbone booms.The boat has carbo fiber mast which are being reworked. I’ve got good leads on sails I just don’t having anything or reference to building at set of wishbones. Can anyone here be of assistance?

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 3:43 am
by Castaway
On the prototype Freedom 40, they were built of laminated wood, according to the pictures I have seen, and this might well be the simplest way of making "one off" wishbones. Pretty well all the others have aluminium tubular wishbones, which would be lighter for the same strength and need less maintenance. You would need to get the measurements from a '40' owner; I have a '35', and could post constructional details (photographs) but not sizes.

So many cat ketches were converted to 'conventional' booms and sails, that there ought to be some discarded wishbones lying around, and they might be the optimal choice, if only you can find them!

Personally, I wouldn't change the wrap around/wishbone sail system even for a 10% increase in sail area and full battens; the flexibility and ease of handing or reefing are so great.

Gerald

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 9:36 am
by Boatfxr
Thank you Castaway. I can use any info you provide. Iv'e personally saw this boat back in '04 and wAs fascinated by her free standing mast and uncomplicated rigging along with her clear decks. I do not know what any parts of the wishbone look like.
If you could, please send some picks and maybe dimensions which may enlarged to fit. BTW you have the same viewpoints on this design that we do .

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 12:49 pm
by Castaway
You can find more details and schematics of the layout from this site, try 'Manuals & Documentation'; there is a complete manual for commissioning the F35 (33 in US) cat ketch. This will give clues about attachment of the wishbones, control lines, etc. I don't think a scaling up of the dimensions will work, as the F35 is not a 'scale model' of the F40. Anyway, my boat is in Sweden, 300NM away. I have some pictures from when she was laid up a few years ago, and also a picture of the mizzen sail set. The tube diameter of the mizzen wishbone is less than for the main, and the outhaul can produce a lot of tension, so they don't need to be pared down too much.
end of mizzen wishbone
end of mizzen wishbone
brother 6.jpg (219.12 KiB) Viewed 7472 times

mizzen sail set
mizzen sail set
wishbone (2).jpg (140.13 KiB) Viewed 7472 times
More pics to follow when I have sorted file size.

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 5:12 pm
by Boatfxr
Hey thanks for what you’ve sent so far. That the clearest pic I’ve seen so far in my research. Looking forward to whatever else you may have.

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 4:59 pm
by seadago
Castaway wrote:
wishbone (2).jpg
More pics to follow when I have sorted file size.
Gerald, how do you hold your booms up? I can't see the boom halyard nor any lines attaching it to the side bars...

Rafa

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 5:39 pm
by Castaway
Rafael,

There's a harness around the aft side of the mast, attached to an uphaul (2 part tackle) inside the zipped pocket. There is a lug on the mast about half way up which carries a block and becket. The line goes to the foot of the mast and thence to the jammer in the cockpit. The ends of the harness, blue and white in the picture, are tied to the wishbones with about 4 turns of 4mm rope, and the length is chosen to let the boom sit clear of obstruction, and also to allow the outhaul to flatten the sail. The picture attached here shows both booms from astern, which might make it a little clearer.
Boom harnesses visible on main and mizzen
Boom harnesses visible on main and mizzen
rig held up (1).jpg (223.89 KiB) Viewed 6927 times
You can see I haven't adequately tensioned the tack downhaul on the mizzen, but we were about to free off as we reached the turn in the channel ahead.

Regards,

Gerald

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 12:28 pm
by James Stinson
I'm not sure if you're on the Freedom Yachts Owners facebook page, but there is a recent post with wishbones for sale that seem like they would fit your boat: https://www.facebook.com/groups/134021110423530/

David Smith
September 26 at 5:21 PM
It just occurred to me that I should probably offer my alloy wishbone booms for sale. I’m converting my Freedom 40’ aft cockpit cat/ketch (#63) to a cambered-panel junk schooner. As such, I won’t be able to use the wishbooms, so it could be mutually beneficial to someone looking to either upgrade timber wishbooms or convert back to wrap-around sails. Located on the north Oregon coast in the US. $1K/ea.


This may be worth exploring.

James

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 10:04 am
by bad
I have a pair of wooden booms in good shape for sale for a nominal fee. Note that the 40s booms are around 21ft long is shipping is a little more complex. If you want high tech carbon booms contact Tom Wylie who designs the Wyliecat line.

Erik

Re: Need wishbones for Freedom 40 ac

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2019 2:29 pm
by tanton37
Eric, please send me details regarding the wishbones. Thanks, David