RI F25 fleet growing

This fall I helped a good friend purchase a 1984 F25 Round mast, the boat will be kept in Wickford this summer on a mooring next to Gonzo. This is very exciting as their are 4 F25's in Narragansett that I'm aware.

Yanmar 1GM control panel update

Below is a series of pictures showing my Yanmar 1GM control panel replacement. When I got my Freedom 25 the control panel corners were all broken, and many parts did not work. I was able to purchase a new plastic panel, and source new upgraded switches and wiring.

 Finished product: all the warning lights and buzzers work. Toggle is upgraded military grade with rubber boot

Back side of sold control panel: notice the corners all broken, and the wiring layout is a mess, including the wires going to light bulbs are pulling the bulbs out of the sockets, and the toggle is rusted and faulty

Back side of the Tach: no major issues just some paint touch up cleaning of pins in connector

Entire control harness and bits: Buzzer, Start button, Key swich, all warning lights, plugs and switches.

Back side of old empty panel:

Front side of old empty panel

Toggle back side

Deck Repair: forward port stansion

Below is series of pictures showing a recent deck repair on Gonzo my Freedom 25, the damage happened by the previous owner when he lifted the boat with out loosening the life lines. the straps bent the forward Port stansion crushing the deck, over a few years water rotted the core and damaged the inner skin. I had help from a good friend on this project and I learned a lot about how to do this, *Note: the forward stansion also carries the added weight of the kite pole so I would encourage all F25 owners to check this stansion base often. 

 

 After 1st cut to find rot and see how much damage was done

 after all cuts were done to find good core material, it's hard to see in the pic but the section were stansion base sits does not have core but is part of the over lap of deck and hull laminant. the damage of pushing the stanstion inboard caused damage to the deck which had core.

for got to take pictures, during lay up. but this is new balsa installed in to cut out, their is 2 layers of composite below. 1st being chopped up glass to fill voids, 2nd layer of glass weave to encase and capture new core bonding it to old core and deck skins

 after  sanding to level new and old, before outer skin is added

 final laminate 2 layers of glass, did not mater that their were loose ends as it was all getting sanded after before paint

final sanding done, taped and ready for paint no filler needed

Test sail of Square top main sail F25 in RI

A new picture from a test sail this past weekend with a friends F25 testing a new square top mainsail. The sail was a lot of fun, we entered a local race to have some fun and enjoy the day and do some testing with mast rotation, and sail shape.

water line bottom growth

These are a few pics of Gonzo when pulled at the end of the season after being in Mill Cove for the entire summer. I did 1 cleaning myself with a scrub pad, you can also see the water line on the boat is high.

one of the issues I had worked on was to move weight forward in the boat and to attempt to not have the boat sit stern down. I also did a bottom size strip and new coat, which did not include a seal coat.

as you can see in this pic from algae growth the water line was correct in the back but not in the front. You can also see the growth was minimal and no barnacles which is nice to see. a simple squirt with the hose and it all came right off.

no updates

On the roof,

took a new pic from above Gonzo on the trailer and my tow vehicle.

Rigging:

When I got my Freedom 25 it had cable lazy jacks, and cable back stays. But their was also a lot of missing hardware and damaged parts. From asking around and surfing the internet their seamed to be a number of different ideas and info on how peoples boats were set up. below are a few pics and info I learned from the past season on the water.

RIGGING Attachments to top of mast:

Here is a pic of the top of my winged mast, this stainless cap is a standard Freedom part. The stainless cap has a location for sheeve for main halyard with cotter pin, and a tab on frt for a shackle and block for Kite/Staysail halyard.

*note: this pic shows it fully assembled. The small blk nub is for wind instrument attachment.

In this picture you can see the frt tap with shackle and block for Kite/Staysail halyard.

*note: I used a wide enough shackle to locate the back stays on the shackle pin. With the rotating mast it's important to locate back stays on frt of mast so the tension will not keep the mast from rotating.

This pic shows the Main Halyard and sheeve, this pic shows how I attached the lazy jack cables to the sheeve cotter pin using washers and a longer pin.

BACK STAYS:

The standard back stay design for the Freedom 25 with rotating winged mast was a cable which attached to the top of mast and then turned to rope at the bottom which would be fed through a block attached to the stantion then around a winch. When I got my boat both rope section were cut and missing. This pic shows the new rope attached to the cable, redone to factory spec which is way over built.

*note: I plan to update this system in near future removing all the cables and running high grade low stretch line.