freedom 21 hinged mast

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Lans Stout
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:19 pm

freedom 21 hinged mast

Post by Lans Stout »

Looking to buy a full fin keel F-21 with hinged mast system...this is new! My last F-21 full mast step to keel...the hinged system, track record? does it work well, is it stable system for hard blows? thank you, Lans

Lionel7
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 12:12 pm

Re: freedom 21 hinged mast

Post by Lionel7 »

I have had my hinged mast shoal draft F 21 for two seasons. The hinged mast system is ingenious. It makes it extremely easy for two people to raise the mast. Simply slide the mast from the storage position on the pulpits aft and slip the mast over the aluminum hub, then have one person in the cockpit start lifting forward. I use a 8' pole with a half circle bow on the end to help get it up. Once vertical is slips down easily over the lower base. Pop in the pin and you are done. I don't notice any movement in the mast at all. I have been out in up to 25 knots, seemed fine, but others who have more experience with heavy weather may want to comment. Did manage to pull the bottom 3' of the sail track off when an inexperienced crew member put a little too much tension on the reefing line pulling the clew cringle down to the mast during the last part of getting the reef in. While I would rather have the fin keel if one had been available, I am rather surprised how stable the shoal draft boat is as the wind pipes up.

Doug

Lans Stout
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:19 pm

Re: freedom 21 hinged mast

Post by Lans Stout »

Thank you for the quick reply & instruction! I will proceed with looking to purchase the F-21...! If the mast can be raised without a crane that would be great! Lans

hkowalczyk
Posts: 42
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2010 1:55 am

Re: freedom 21 hinged mast

Post by hkowalczyk »

Lionel,

Were you reefed in 25 knots? I also have the shoal keel and the other day a good gust probably about 20-25 knots rounded me. Startled my wife a bit, but no big deal, I just put a reef in after that.

Lans,

The tabernacle was an option and I'm not sure how popular it would have been for the fin keel version. So you might have a hard time finding one. You could do the conversion yourself though if you really wanted to. You can find the instructions at http://freedom21.info/f21tabernacle.pdf along with a lot of other information on that web site.

Attached are the instructions of how to raise the mast. Doing it single handed like in the instructions is a little optimistic!

-Henri
Attachments
f21maststep.pdf
(476.82 KiB) Downloaded 584 times

RonR
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:03 am

Re: freedom 21 hinged mast

Post by RonR »

I don’t know if this will be helpful or not, but I used to sail out of a harbor where a great many sailboats had to be on the wrong side of a low fixed bridge. The local solution was a hinged mast, but hinging the mast forward, not aft, using the boom as a gin pole for raising and lowering, through the halliard attached to the boom end. Power to lift was supplied by the mainsheet, and stability came from rigging a bridle set up from the end of the boom to each side of the boat. It was a simple system, and made it relatively easy and quick for a single person to lower and raise masts on 30 ft or so boats. The bridle and keeping a stay/ line attached forward meant the mast couldn't easily get away- it wasn't dependent on anyone's grip. Of course, these were all stayed masts, but the general principle of using the boom and mainsheet to lift with might make it easier to do shorthanded. It seems as if the principle might be adaptable to a wishbone as well.
The negative is that the boat gets really long when the mast is in the lowered position.

chadrider
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:36 pm

Re: freedom 21 hinged mast

Post by chadrider »

Oddly enough, I have one of the aforementioned fin-keel, tablernacle-mast Freedom 21's. I am unemployed, the boat needs some work but the mast is in great shape, and I am willing to part with it for my yard fees and and a little more. PM me if you wish to pursue that option.

I have been out in 25+ with the Freedom and if you reef appropriately it handles really quite nicely. It does not have the "won't tack, won't do it!" behavior of a Cape Cod cat since
  • The fin keel and deep rudder make it very nimble
  • The center of lateral effort is quite far aft for a cat boat
  • the mast is not stepped in the very bow keeping the windage of the rig near the CLE
My experience using the tabernacle is limited. It is no sweat getting the mast up when on the hard. I just hook the Jib halyard to a tackle attached to the bow pulpit which is very sturdy because it has the Gun Mount on it. Raising and lowering afloat might be different. I don't know if the tabernacle would tolerate the torsion that the mast would put on it when half-way raised in a seaway. But, careful use of the lazy jack stays as temporary shrouds might alleviate that problem.

Otherwise, the tabernacle does not seem to make any difference in the behavior of the boat and saves money in not having to get the yard to help step the mast.

Chad Rider
Chad Rider
Rumford, RI
02916

Freedom 21 "Frisson"
1984, Deep Keel, Gunmount.

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