Fair Freedom?

[goodall_m1]

I have been watching the freedomboatingholidays blog with interest as I have Fair Freedom booked for a week in August.

A few months ago they let us in to the problems they had found when they put her into Clive's shed for what seemed to be some much needed maintenance.

I'm glad they found the fact that the superstructure wasn't actually connected to the hull, and that the cleats weren't actually connected to anything...

Reports of the discovery of wet rot, dry rot and everything else are not a problem as long as they have been fixed.....

If I had reported such problems on a forum I would have made sure that I posted photos of them corrected, but they haven't...

She was supposed to be out for Easter but they did admit she wasn't ready...

Has any one seen Fair Freedom on the water yet?

If so please post a photo!

Even a photo of Clive's shed with her not in it would be (slightly) reassuring....

[Dan]

If I had reported such problems on a forum I would have made sure that I posted photos of them corrected, but they haven't...

I suspect as its June they have lots of other things that need prioritising first.

When I was last at the boat, two weeks ago I only had a quick walk past the shed but she had been painted, had the windows back in and had replaced the saloon headlining. If shes not totally finished yet I suspect she will be in the final throws and relax and look forward to your August holiday!

Dan

[goodall_m1]

When I was last at the boat, two weeks ago I only had a quick walk past the shed but she had been painted, had the windows back in and had replaced the saloon headlining. If shes not totally finished yet I suspect she will be in the final throws and relax and look forward to your August holiday!

Dan

Dan, its not the paint that worries me its what they have just painted over...

She looked a bit of a basket case in their blog...

Ok I know that with a lot of tender loving care she will be almost as good as new, but did she get it?

It is obvious that "operational pressures" meant that she got little of it from her previous owners,

or the old girl wouldnt have been in that state.

She hasn't been earning much for Freedom so far this year and they must have found a lot

more than they were expecting when they started their refit!

If she does come out looking like a spring chicken, I will also have to worry about putting the slightest scrape on their new paint!

At 44ft, with no thruster, she is going to be a handful in a cross wind, and I've booked a dinghy as well.

Oh well someone has to provide the entertainment at Ranworth Staithe....

7 more weeks and we will find out!

[Dan]

It looked to be well sanded back on one of my earlier visits... I have been having a regular nosey as my boat is moored in the pool behind the shed where she is!

She's still a budget end thirty year old boat and a lot of what has been done has been behind the scenes structural work rather than interior refit I think but I dont think you need worry... a freshly painted boat with a few improved internal bits (forward headlinings etc) should be much more reassuring than one that hasn't to my mind, although yes any bump will show so you will have to be careful!

Have a great holiday

Dan

[goodall_m1]

Ah, a new blog entry from Freedom Boating:

"Work continues on Fair Freedom, finally towards an achieveable goal of this coming Friday.

Honestly, the sheer amount of effort that we have put into this boat (not to mention money spent and lost by not having her on hire) has been staggering. We anticipated an eight week sabatical for her in one of Ricko's sheds which turned out to be four months as every panel we examined hid away a wealth of horrors that couldn't be ignored.

Finally, though, she's in the water, complete with a total repaint, lots of fibre-glass repairs, refitted windows, replacement engine some new cabinetry and more.

We're still working on her in a frenzy and will post images soon."

Hooray, so she will have a few weeks of hire before I get her (just enough to get any remaining snags found and done)....

[Oddfellow]

Martin, if you put a scratch on her, we'll 'ave you!

Joking aside, Fair Freedom has been a pain in the backside this year. We bit off more than we could chew without realising it at the time. We knew the boat needed a good deal of work, but as we removed more and more panels to get at things, the sheer extent of the job became more apparent.

We've not painted over any horrors - all horrors have been ripped out and repaired properly to ensure that the boat provides many more years of trouble-free service.

Much of our time and money has gone in labour and "behind the panels" work which the hirer will not see, but you will see a nice new paint job (it took well over 2 weeks to paint her), a completely new one-peice rubbing strake protecting the deck and new fenders (when they arrive as they're being made for us). She's also got new, bespoke handrails including one across the back. There's a replacement engine too.

A lot of time and money has also been spent on the interior including;

• New flooring throughout
  New curtains throughout
  New, bespoke helm unit with new instruments.
  New cabinetry in some compartments
  New full-size fridge
  19inch Freeview LCD TV & DVD
  Radio / CD player with Ipod connection
  New Galley cabinet doors

We also expect to fit an 1800 watt inverter and microwave.

She was in a bad way, she's not now. She's still a budget boat, but a much improved boat than before and one that we're proud to have on the fleet.

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

Hi Andy and Martin, when we moored at Richardsons last month, we were moored directly in front of the shed where she was being re-furbed. The weather was crap, but i still needed my sunglasses because of the new GLEAMING all white paint job. She`s looking very good Andy, and with all the work you`ve described, she`ll be good for many more years on hire. Regards ......... Neil.

[goodall_m1]

Martin, if you put a scratch on her, we'll 'ave you!

Joking aside, Fair Freedom has been a pain in the backside this year. We bit off more than we could chew without realising it at the time. We knew the boat needed a good deal of work, but as we removed more and more panels to get at things, the sheer extent of the job became more apparent.

We've not painted over any horrors - all horrors have been ripped out and repaired properly to ensure that the boat provides many more years of trouble-free service.

She was in a bad way, she's not now. She's still a budget boat, but a much improved boat than before and one that we're proud to have on the fleet.

Andy, I always knew you doing to do a "proper job" on her, otherwise she would have been out on hire already!

Radio/CD and Ipod connector, (what no cassette deck?),

1800W inverter & microwave,just how big are those solar panels on the roof? (Don't worry I know the inverter only works when the engine is on)

New fenders (plenty of them, and nice big ones, I hope!)

Only six weeks to go before we take her out.

[Oddfellow]

Inverters only working whilst the engine's on? Really? That's a new one to me.

In most cases, our boats have a separate battery bank for the inverter. Flatten it and you'll be without 240v power only; you'll still have lights, pumps and other essential systems and, most importantly, be able to start the engine.

The advise we give to customers is that the inverter will suck power even if you've not got a 240v appliance connected, so only turn it on when you want it and turn it off immediately after you've finished. Chargers can be a pain as it's the kind of thing you plug in and walk away from, forgetting it for some time. If you're going to do this, best advise is to only use chargers when the engine is running.

[goodall_m1]

Inverters only working whilst the engine's on? Really? That's a new one to me.

In most cases, our boats have a separate battery bank for the inverter. Flatten it and you'll be without 240v power only; you'll still have lights, pumps and other essential systems and, most importantly, be able to start the engine.

Thanks Andy,

The only boat I have ever taken out with a large capacity inverter on it had a microwave, kettle and toaster in the galley.

On that one we were told to make sure that the engine was on when using high wattage appliances.

As I followed that procedure, I never worked out if the inverter had its own battery bank or worked off the "domestics" batteries.

On that boat the engine battery was completly seperate to the domestics and even had its own charging circuit, so I didn't even have to worry about switching the battery selector from "all" to "domestics" when we stopped the engine.

Is the drain from an inverter constant as long as it is switched on, or is it proportional to the load placed on it?

[Oddfellow]

Is the drain from an inverter constant as long as it is switched on, or is it proportional to the load placed on it?

Yes and Yes.

A quality inverter should have minimal drain if there's no load but, like leaving a TV on standby, it's something to be avoided.

All hire boats (all boats for that matter) should have at least two battery banks (domestic power and engine starter) which are separated from one another so one does not drain into the other and flatten. There are various methods of doing this from battery selector switches to split charge diodes, relays and multiple alternators.

[goodall_m1]

Andy,

I booked Fair Freedom as a "budget" boat way back in December.

Now it looks like I got a good bargain as she is looking like she has moved "up market", after all your efforts...

Still waiting for any new photos, but if you don't get a chance to take some,

I will do my best to provide some in my "Holiday Tales" entry after we take her out.

I got some good news today, my two great nieces won't be joining me on board,

so I will ONLY have 5 kids under 10 to put up with instead of SEVEN!

(I have a real holiday booked for September, 2 weeks on a rag & stick in the Aegean,

to let me recover from a week on the broads during the school holidays!)

p.s. I have decided that the dinghy with some one rowing can double up as a "bow thruster" for mooring up,

just don't tell Tazman as he will be doing the rowing!

[Oddfellow]

Martin,

Fair Freedom was a budget boat back in December and, still is; it's just a better budget boat - much better.

With the improvements come some modest price increases, naturally.

Even now, there are things that we wanted to do that we didn't get time for but hope to deal with a little later in the season and, additionally, over the winter.

There are some new photos of the boat's internals sitting on my camera and these will be put on the web site soon. External shots will be captured later.

She's out on hire now with a rabble of Water Rats on board and will be touring the northern rivers public houses over the next week playing two gigs a day!

You can see the gig list on their web site: http://www.water-rats.co.uk/. I'll be at The Lion at Thurne on Monday to enjoy their music.

[goodall_m1]

Martin,

She's out on hire now with a rabble of Water Rats on board and will be touring the northern rivers public houses over the next week playing two gigs a day!

You can see the gig list on their web site: http://www.water-rats.co.uk/. I'll be at The Lion at Thurne on Monday to enjoy their music.

Andy,

Gosh so IT IS possible to get out on the water with a crew who can make more noise than Tazman's kids!

I'll check the Music section and see if their tour has been promoted there. If it isn't then I'll post it up.

Martin

[Dolphin]

Is this her then?

Water Rats are playing at Hotel Wroxham tonight.

[Oddfellow]

That's her.