Introducing myself!

Use this forum to discuss anything that doesn't fit anywhere else.
Post Reply
suberix
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:03 pm

Introducing myself!

Post by suberix »

Hello all!

I thought I'd write a few words to introduce myself before I start bombarding this forum with a myriad of technical questions. My name's Eric, I live in Naples, Florida, and I just purchased a 1985 Freedom 39. This is my fifth boat in as many years, but it's by far the largest; I started with a 1968 Morgan 22, followed by a 1980 Catalina 27, then I had a 1975 Hughes Northstar 25, which in turn was replaced by a 1978 Bombay Clipper 31 that I sold about two months ago to buy the Freedom. I live on my boats, so you can imagine how far I've come as far as comfort goes!
I got a good deal for the boat but she does come with some serious issues. Engine exhaust needs to be rebuilt, water systems and refrigeration must be completely redone, the AC doesn't work (of course), many of the electrical systems are down, and she's got rudder issues. More serious is the fact that both fuel tanks need to be replaced (I don't know if this has been done by another owner before, but from what I can tell, it's going to be hard) and the fore mast seems to be "creaking" and "groaning" all the time. I've showed it to some of the local old salts and the general theory seems to be that the mast is no longer correctly stepped... it could have broken loose at the base or it could be loose at the deck level, due to corrosion or failure of the waterproof sealant respectively. If any of you have some other ideas off the bat, or you've experienced this problem as well, please let me know, I'm very eager to find out what kind of a pickle I'm in! I'm also reluctant to take her sailing until I know more about the problem, and I've got the itch to deploy my laundry and see what my Freedom can do, so again, any info is welcome!
Anyway - that's my story! I'm glad to be here, and you can expect to see me around this forum a lot in the future!

Happy fourth of July to everybody!

Eric

User avatar
GeoffSchultz
Posts: 1135
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:39 am
Location: BlueJacket: Guatemala
Contact:

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by GeoffSchultz »

Welcome to the forum! You'll find that mast creaking is a typical problem and has been discussed multiple times. Here's a link to some threads: http://www.freedomyachts.org/viewtopic. ... 82&p=45404 and http://www.freedomyachts.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=5467 . The search box (and advanced search) is your friend.

-- Geoff
BlueJacket
1997 Freedom 40/40
http://www.GeoffSchultz.org

User avatar
OldRover
Posts: 60
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 6:25 pm
Location: New York, NY

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by OldRover »

Eric,
Welcome aboard, and you have a really great boat. You'll find a wealth of knowledge (as I have) within this forum and the members provide excellent knowledge, expertise, and experience.
I have a 39 pilothouse, hull #6. It’s a full gut job and a few years into the project we are not quite done. But I now can say I am rather intimate with most any aspect in, on, around… the beast. As far as the tanks, I’d be happy to provide some insight. Overall they are not too bad. Mine were a tad worse since the foam was soaked with diesel and water.
Feel free to PM me if you’d like.
Good luck and safe journeys.
'82 F39 ph

Kimber
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:18 am
Location: St Thomas USVI

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by Kimber »

suberix wrote:Hello all!

I thought I'd write a few words to introduce myself before I start bombarding this forum with a myriad of technical questions. My name's Eric, I live in Naples, Florida, and I just purchased a 1985 Freedom 39. This is my fifth boat in as many years, but it's by far the largest; I started with a 1968 Morgan 22, followed by a 1980 Catalina 27, then I had a 1975 Hughes Northstar 25, which in turn was replaced by a 1978 Bombay Clipper 31 that I sold about two months ago to buy the Freedom. I live on my boats, so you can imagine how far I've come as far as comfort goes!
I got a good deal for the boat but she does come with some serious issues. Engine exhaust needs to be rebuilt, water systems and refrigeration must be completely redone, the AC doesn't work (of course), many of the electrical systems are down, and she's got rudder issues. More serious is the fact that both fuel tanks need to be replaced (I don't know if this has been done by another owner before, but from what I can tell, it's going to be hard) and the fore mast seems to be "creaking" and "groaning" all the time. I've showed it to some of the local old salts and the general theory seems to be that the mast is no longer correctly stepped... it could have broken loose at the base or it could be loose at the deck level, due to corrosion or failure of the waterproof sealant respectively. If any of you have some other ideas off the bat, or you've experienced this problem as well, please let me know, I'm very eager to find out what kind of a pickle I'm in! I'm also reluctant to take her sailing until I know more about the problem, and I've got the itch to deploy my laundry and see what my Freedom can do, so again, any info is welcome!
Anyway - that's my story! I'm glad to be here, and you can expect to see me around this forum a lot in the future!

Happy fourth of July to everybody!

Eric
Welcome aboard!!! I do not post here often but felt compelled to after reading your post. You have owned more sailboats than I have but what makes your introduction truly amazing is that my last boat was 1978 Bombay Clipper. After selling her, Far Cry, almost one year ago, I bought a Freedom 39 Express. The BC 31 was in rough shape when I bought her and was an excellent small boat to learn how to update and replace systems on. My F39 had been neglected for quite some time when I acquired her. I've been repairing and replacing systems on her as well. I can't even fathom the odds of running into another person that sold a BC 31 to by a 1985 Freedom 39'!!!!!! The production years are even the same...

As to my F39:
1) The exhaust system was a disaster. The exhaust elbow had been leaking for some time onto the engine. All of the other 90 and 45 degree elbows were leaking and most of the hose clamps had rusted off. Just doing a good enough patch to motor the boat 6 miles from her mooring to my slip was "interesting". Fortunately the bilge pump worked well. I replaced every piece of the exhaust system from the engine to the thru hull outlet, except for the water muffler. If was an expensive, hot, cramped miserable project. But an absolute necessity in order to run the engine.

2) I too thought I had rudder issues as the steering was incredibly stiff. Stiff to the point where I could barely turn the wheel with one hand, two hands were the norm. My theory that the rudder had an issue was thankfully wrong! It ended up being a problem with the Edson push-pull steering system. I shall not comment further as to my opinion of the design so as not to start an argument with others on this forum in the event they like it. After spending a bunch of time trying to lubricate the push-pull system and then pricing the replacement parts, I gleefully removed it and placed it in the dumpster! I made a few calls to Edson, their engineering department was great to deal with, I ended up installing a standard cable system with the necessary blocks and assorted hardware. It wasn't very hard to set up and align everything and took about 4hrs. After installation I can literally turn the wheel with my pinky!!! All the moving parts are in the open and can be easily inspected and lubricated. I feel this was an excellent upgrade from the factory installation.

3) When I got the boat to my slip and plugged in shore power my A/C didn't work either. No noise, DOA. I hadn't had air before so wasn't too worried about it. At home I found Mermaid Aire's user manual online and found their troubleshooting procedures easy enough to follow. My Tstat had no display and the manual suggested the system wouldn't work if it was dead. Next trip out I put in a couple of AA batteries and POOF A/C runs like a champ!!! Now I wonder how I lived without it when doing boat projects in the slip.

4) Fridge and electrical was all functioning except for the windlass. That ended up being a bad connection on solenoid and was fixed within 15 minutes after I started looking into it. I did change some of the battery switching and replaced the far undersized wires that ran from the house bank to the inverter.

5) Shower sump switch was bad. After replacing that all the plumbing system worked well except for the head.

6) Head is a Groco K (I think) that wasn't working at all. I was going to toss it into the dumpster but some research made me decide to rebuild it. Those heads are crazy expensive for a non-electric!! I stripped the head down and sprayed the base with some industrial enamel before installing the rebuild kit. Head now looks and works like new.

7) My main mast, a GMT Composites replacement, has a little bit of movement visible at the base but makes no noise. At some point I will have the stick pulled and investigate that further. After speaking with an engineer at GMT and sending him some video of the movement, he said he wouldn't worry about it at this point.

8) All running rigging was shot. Mizzen sail was original from 1985!!! I replaced all running rigging and had a new sail made for mizzen. I also installed a Garhauer rigid vang for the mizzen too.

9) Electronics were not working and all were replaced with a Garmin package.

10) The Comnav autopilot is not working. That is still on my to do list.

Wow, that was long winded. Did anybody make it to the end? :D
1985 F39 Express

suberix
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:03 pm

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by suberix »

GeoffSchultz wrote:Welcome to the forum! You'll find that mast creaking is a typical problem and has been discussed multiple times. Here's a link to some threads: http://www.freedomyachts.org/viewtopic. ... 82&p=45404 and http://www.freedomyachts.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=5467 . The search box (and advanced search) is your friend.

-- Geoff
Thanks! I shall search!

suberix
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:03 pm

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by suberix »

OldRover wrote:Eric,
Welcome aboard, and you have a really great boat. You'll find a wealth of knowledge (as I have) within this forum and the members provide excellent knowledge, expertise, and experience.
I have a 39 pilothouse, hull #6. It’s a full gut job and a few years into the project we are not quite done. But I now can say I am rather intimate with most any aspect in, on, around… the beast. As far as the tanks, I’d be happy to provide some insight. Overall they are not too bad. Mine were a tad worse since the foam was soaked with diesel and water.
Feel free to PM me if you’d like.
Good luck and safe journeys.
Thanks.
I shall certainly need all of your advice, and I'm delighted someone else out there has tackled the project. In tuning the engine to get the boat out of her slip we took apart some of the wood panels and from what I could tell removing the tanks was going to be a nightmare. The starboard tank was damaged by battery acid, which overflowed into the battery compartment, onto the saloon floor (leaving a ghastly stain) and onto the tank. This was about a year and a half ago. I was told by the previous owner (a strange fellow... can't get into it right now) that the port tank was usable, but could only be filled with 20 gallons; he warned me that if I put more it would spill into the bilge. Something about a defective check valve, or something... I haven't looked into it yet. As the diesel in both tanks was likely compromised by a year and a half of hot idleness, I bought and installed a temporary 25 gallon tank that I mounted under the helmsman's seat, running about fifty feet of new fuel line from it to the engine. I changed all filters and rebuilt the fuel water separator, so now my old Perkins is at least running under the best possible conditions. It has about 2800 hours on it, and I was hoping not to have to remove it to get to the tanks.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing about your experiences, and I'm very relieved to hear it can be done!

suberix
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 6:03 pm

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by suberix »

Kimber wrote:

Welcome aboard!!!
Unreal!
I know your old boat - it was even my computer wallpaper for awhile. When I bought my Bombay, I spent the obligatory thousand hours on the internet reading as much as I possibly could, and when I came upon your boat I told my girlfriend, "look, Daisy, this is how our boat has to look one day". It was, hands down, the best looking Bombay Clipper I'd ever seen. Maybe I say this because I have a certain fondness for navy blue boats, but in this case, the color really made it. So I stole the picture of your boat at the mooring ball and stared at it for about a month! How's that for a coincidence!
So let's talk about our Freedoms!

1) My exhaust was pretty much OK all the way to the inverted U shape that connects to the through-hull flange. That was all rusted out. To bring the boat back to life we worked our way from fixing the fuel situation to tuning up the engine then checking out the exhaust. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the exhaust we had used our monthly boat budget, so the repairs will have to wait a few weeks. I've done some research and there is a shop in Fort Lauderdale that could build me a custom U-shaped piece for $500 (with a built-in stainless steel check valve). In the meantime, in case of an emergency, I've rigged some heavy duty PVC with PVC cement. It doesn't leak and will hold for the time being.

2) Your steering tip is invaluable as turning the wheel now almost requires a wrench. I haven't really looked at the rudder yet (I haven't seen the boat out of the water) but the previous owner mentioned something might be leaking there. The boat will probably come out in October, and will mostly sit at her slip in the meantime, so I guess I'll know more then!

3)I am ripping out the original AC and bought a $165 12500 BTU tower at a pawn shop as a temporary solution. Southwest Florida in July is apocalyptically hot and it was impossible to work inside the boat without it. Works like a charm, by the way. I'm debating whether or not to install permanent AC, as I hope to take the boat to New York via Bermuda next year. It's just one more thing that can break, one more thing that costs money, and when I see the good a cheap solution can do, I'm reluctant go any further. We shall see.

4)All water pumps on the boat are shot, so everything is coming out. I'm not sure what kind of fridge I will install... I'd like to go with something very small and very simple. From the experience I've had and the books I've read, fridges and freezers at sea are not necessary. I've never had a fridge on any of the boats I've lived on - we tend to eat fruit, fish and nuts most of the time, which can be stocked anywhere. The only thing is - I do like my rum ice cold!

5-6) My head is electric. It works well. The V-Berth stinks to high hell, though, and I believe the pipes from the head to the tank have permeated. I'll be changing those, and then we'll see if the problem persists. In the meantime, I'm sleeping in the aft cabin!

7) The next step for me is to pull out the 200 feet of chain in the locker and take a look at where the deck is stepped. The sealant at deck level is clearly old and can no longer be trusted. I have yet to put a real load on the mast (I haven't sailed her yet) but I think I'll have a better idea once I take her out, which I hope to do this evening or tomorrow.

8-9-10) I got lucky with the mainsail - brand new, never used, a $5000 value. Foresail is original, though (woof). I also have the original staysail. All my electronics work, except, of course, the autopilot. My VHF receives but doesn't transmit (the antennae sits askew on the foremast). There's an EPIRB, but it needs to be updated.

So that's my story so far! Our Freedom's name is Windrose, which isn't great - but it's had the same name since 1985 and I feel it would be bad form to change it. I'll upload some pictures soon.
It's a great coincidence that we've both bought the same boat and I look forward to sharing our experiences as proud owners! Maybe one day we'll sail to wherever you are and have a race!

Eric

Kimber
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 11:18 am
Location: St Thomas USVI

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by Kimber »

Eric,
So you stole my photos to use as a screensaver? Since you also thought Far Cry was a beauty, it's OK. Did you snag the photos from Sailnet? I'm still a little dumbstruck with our similar histories. Thank you so much for the kind words about Far Cry.

1) I looked at replacing the exhaust with hardwall pipe and a bunch of fiberglass elbows. That combination should last for a long time but would be really expensive and tedious to install. I eventually settled on using two pieces of Trident flexible wet exhaust hose. One piece from mixing elbow to muffler. The other piece from the muffler up to make a loop as high in the stern of the boat as possible, then back down to the thru hull. My thought process was that all the 45 and 90 degree fittings needed to utilize hard wall pipe would provide a bunch of potential points of failure. It would also require a bunch of hose clamps. The flexible hose wasn't cheap but it sure was fast and easy to route where I wanted it.

2) My 15 minute in-water suggestion would be to remove the steering cable system du jour from the quadrant and see it you can't easily move the rudder with your bare hands. If rudder still seems very stiff, I would pull off whatever autopilot steering ram is connected to the quadrant to confirm it's not the cause of the friction.

My Freedom's name was/is Paradigm Shift. I stripped the name off the stern months ago as my wife and I are not enamored with it all. I just haven't come up with a new name that we both like!

Feel free to PM anytime. I suspect the other forums members aren't interested in following our Bombay Clipper---Freedom love fest!!!

I would love to race you anytime. Come on down!
1985 F39 Express

User avatar
GeoffSchultz
Posts: 1135
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:39 am
Location: BlueJacket: Guatemala
Contact:

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by GeoffSchultz »

Please note that Suberix added a reply which discusses replacing the fuel tanks. Instead of lumping all of these discussions together into a topic titled "Introducing myself", I split that post into a new topic titled "Replacing Fuel Tanks on 1985 Pilothouse Schooner" which you can find at http://www.freedomyachts.org/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=11883. Hopefully this will make it easier for people to find this discussion in the future.

-- Geoff
BlueJacket
1997 Freedom 40/40
http://www.GeoffSchultz.org

User avatar
Rik
Posts: 19
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:42 pm
Location: Naarden, Netherlands

Re: Introducing myself!

Post by Rik »

Eric,

what is your mast made off?? Carbon or Aluminum?? If it is the latter I can tell you all about it. Noise would not be a good sign. That's where my trouble started..... :( See post http://www.freedomyachts.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11737
Rik Lammers - Tumlare F35 Naarden - Netherlands

Post Reply