River Boating Forum

Before I begin my most eternal thanks goes to Fuzzyduck, who, despite having a sore head and no doubt a cauliflower ear, was able to set up this 'Freeman' section within (dare I say) our (this now including most 'Umble me) forum.

I will now attempt to copy & past the 'Tale of my Freeman' - Pictures will follow in due course, once I find my way around piturebucket.... PS. Those of you with a sharp eye will notice some references to 'pctures above' etc. in the text. Sorry, but for obvious reasons they are not there.

I have had a yearning to own a boat since my childhood, in those halcyon days of the late 50’s early 60’s I would dream of owning a Dolphin 20. Why a dolphin, I do not remember and let’s face it, why would I want one. They were made of plywood at the time, and as we all know plywood does not last forever.
That aside, I lived with my dream for many years, with my finances, children and wives that did not understand my yearning.

It was only much later, at a time of a brief respite between wives. The opportunity arrived along with a few spare pennies. I had some old plans for a small sailing boat that I had obtained a few years earlier. So there it was, almost 12 months later I had actually got around to building a 17 foot day sailing dinghy (yes, it was plywood construction), complete with a small cuddy that could sleep two, not that I ever slept in it, but I did learn to sail, taking RYA lessons to boot.

Now the bug really took a hold I want a bigger boat. I guess most boat owners have yearnings for a bigger boat than the one we currently have, like cars & houses. Next came a Hunter Delta a 25 foot semi-racing 4 berth (?) sailing cruiser. I was living on the Cornish south coast at the time, ideal for cruising. Life was good, so good I wanted to share it. So along came another potential wife, a new house (needing work), no spare time, no spare cash, so, in the end, no boat. This however was by mutual consent, with a promise of ‘one day’.

That day did come, just before Christmas 2007 with the help of Ebay. For the few that have never heard of Ebay, it is an on-line (computer thing) auction for buying just about anything you could ever want or think you might need, often (if you are very lucky) for silly money. I have bought and sold many things over the years has had some good deals. One was an early Freeman Mk1 22’ narrow beam, and this my good mariner, is where the real story begins.

The Freeman (as yet to be re-named, although maybe Phoenix?) arrived home on my driveway (with grateful thanks to Tony of Tony Tugboats fame) about midday with Tony finally leaving about 5.30pm after spending hours chocking the Freeman up making it safe and secure (over and above the call of duty). Once covered over, there ‘she’ stayed for a few weeks until after Christmas.

It was only then that I had a chance to give her a quick look over, for the first time. I bought her unseen going only on my gut feeling. Under normal circumstances it is not something I would recommend when buying a boat; but there you go I am a bit impulsive. I knew from the Ebay description she wanted a new hood and the screen rubbers also the electrics needed looking at. Umm, it turned out to be a little more than that in reality. Ok, the hood was totally useless; the screen on the other hand was a different matter, wanting a bit more than rubbers. Tony had removed it prior to transportation in fear of leaving it scattered about the motorway. One of the internal corner brackets was broken and the side screens were home made timber framed (as it turned out, at the wrong angle) from an age gone by with more than a hint of decay.

The wiring was another obvious understatement, a Rooks nest would be tidier, all manor of wires abounded, from twin flex speaker wire to 240-volt household wiring with no apparent rhyme or reason. The previous owner did say that when the ignition was turned one a fuse would blow and then nothing. That I do believe. As for the other faults, they seemed few for a 40 odd year old boat. One of the two cockpit sole panels was MDF (In a wet environment?). The console is in a terrible state with the top being butchered to a point of non-existence (the dials & switches on some DIY ply) and the sides reminiscent of a colander with hole for long redundant & removed switches.

All the other cockpit side ply panels were also very perforated with redundant holes for bolt on bits. On top of all this, it had all been painted in B & Q household stained varnish. The interior had also been treated to the same dubious paint finish, again with various holes & cut outs that were no longer required. Moving on to the exterior, the paint finish showed lots of crazing, runs and orange peel effect, a bit grim. This is not including the light scuffs and scrapes on the hull. So, what with one thing and another, this is a generally tatty cruiser, but apparently sound. I still feel I had my monies worth (provided the engine does run, which I cannot try until the wiring is sorted out.). I know it is not generally accepted to give away prices, but what the hell, it cost me £1160, so make up your own mind.

Following the initial examination it was time to work out a plan of attack. Initially I had the urge to obtain a pair of original side screens, get the screen fixed and obtain a new hood. I know that I and the boat would not be ready for these items for a while yet but my logic being that prices have a habit of going up, so the sooner I purchased, the greater the saving. With no further ado, I contacted Sheridan Marine, (after joining the Freeman Club) with a mind to getting the screen repaired and obtaining a new hood. As it turned out I was in for a pleasant shock, not only could I get a new hood but also a re-chromed, rebuilt screen in exchange for my old one and as a bonus a pair of original side screens. It must have been my birthday. These items were picked after a couple of weeks, at a weekend from Andrew’s home, a most helpful and amicable guy from Sheridan.

With the improved weather conditions of February weekends I was able to get out and make a start. The cockpit rear seat back was removed, thereby revealing the rear shelf as being butchered following what I guess was following the modification of the fuel tank to a top filler, the seat base also had a section of wood framing missing above the fuel tank. I guess the thought at the time of modification was ‘Cutting out is quicker than unscrewing a couple of screws.’ The reason for this removal was that if the weather changed, I could at least do something under cover of the garage and strip the wood ready for varnishing. As the cockpit is a viewable area in tandem with the paint job, I wanted what was that if it could be seen I wanted it to look tidy, with the interior being last on the list and done at a more leisurely pace. After this initial onslaught if dismemberment I moved on to the paint stripping.

I guess this is where all experienced boat restorers, mariners and knowledgeable readers will throw their arms up in despair. The deck area was horrible and flaky and as mentioned before the paint generally crazed. So in my infinite wisdom out came the heat gun. Yes, I now know it softens the gel coat, that also lifted with the paint when scraped with any gusto, however I soon learnt to continue with great caution. In the end I only have 6 areas where the gel coat was removed to the glass matting underneath, (I think not bad for an amateur). I also used Nitromors; the roof had been painted in what seemed like anti-foul, this clogged the sandpaper as soon as it looked at it. But Nitromors just melted it, messy but effective. On hindsight maybe I should have tried the jet washer, which was very effective on the hull.
Continuing on to the sanding and removal of all the paint on the topsides, this is down to plain graft, all be-it easy with the help of an orbital sander for the initial stripping. I know it is long winded, but I do not know of any easier way. Maybe someone could advise me for future strip downs. That being said, I’ll plod on for now with the orbital sander and facemask. A tedious job removing all the paint back to gel coat but it has to be done or the crazing will only get worse with each added coat of paint. Sadly, and ignoring my scalping of the gel coat, it was well past it’s best so the option of polishing was out of the question.

It is true what is said, “Preparation is the secret to a good finish.” So time spent now will pay later. Despite an initial sanding of the hull, the main concentration is on the topsides, the sooner this is done and the top coats applied, the sooner the screen & hood can go on, making internal & cockpit working easier, not having to remove the tarp will be a blessing. Before this can happen I just have to press on sanding at every opportunity (burning out a sander in the process). At this point I would advise anyone to look around for prices of sanding discs, at the time of writing B & Q discs are £5.20 odd for 5, ‘Screwfix’ do 10 for £4.19, ok add on postage £5.00 so one pack is still works out cheaper, I just bought 4 packs still £5.00 postage, I’ll let you do you own sums. It was at this time all the chrome work/deck fittings were removed. Unless you have a full-length tarp or are undercover I temporarily filled all the screw holes with sealant (external waterproof). I made my first mistake by using duct tape, but water still got in and I spent too much wasted time mopping up. Fortunately no real damage was done to the interior.

With my newfound course discs the paint just fell away, all be-it in an ever-increasing cloud of dust. I will be expecting visits from the neighbours soon to discuss their new white/grey cars. Progress was good for that day. I eagerly waited the following weekend to have a full day, maybe two days. At that rate it should be all done topsides, ready for the paint. Well, that was the plan. If you remember there was a bit of a blow in the beginning of March 2008. The tarpaulin was ripped into two. Fortunately it looked like it had not rained, as the cockpit was dry. However, my favourite pastime does not extend to battling in gusty winds first thing in the morning with a new tarp, on my own, when I should have been on my way to work. The following weekend was a washout, instead of working on the boat I was mending the fence and doing a few indoor jobs that had got a little delayed. So fingers crossed, Easter a long weekend with the following week off work to catch up on lost time.

March 31st 2008:

Ok, so in general the weather was poo during my theoretical week off, I was called into work on Thursday; naturally that was one of the better days, weather wise. However, job done! Fist port of call was down to Sheridan Marine with a box of goodies for re-chroming, namely cleats, fairleads and the front side windows plus a few other lesser bits & bobs. I have not sent off all the bits for two reasons. 1. All the parts would be too heavy to lift. 2. I am not made of money! As it is this little lot is likely to be a couple of hundred quid. Full costing will be up loaded on return of the items (about 8 weeks I have been told, this is due to the time of year. October/November being the ideal time for getting chroming done, it is quieter. Allegedly this is also a cheaper period, I doubt if I will be lucky enough to find out.

The topsides have now been sanded & free of umpteen years of paint of assorted colours. I still have to give a final sanding using finer grit discs, probably 150 grade, although still a bit rough, on an electric sander it makes a lot of difference over hand sanding with 150 grit. If I were to use the old hand method I would use 240 grit sand paper or something close.

You will see from the above pictures there is still some paint residue after the main sanding process, I am not too bothered about this as more will be removed on the final sanding and what will be left will be paint staining & filling of imperfections (many of them).

The deck has also been treated to attack from the sander now. The picture above shows it half done, the duct tape being there to cover the holes trying to stem the flow of water from the heavens above. In part this did work, however it is still a case of bailing out about a bucket and a half each week from the front cabin although this is in part due to the lack of windows.

Having done the bulk of the sanding I picked up a couple of 3mm hardboard sheets 6ftx2ft6” a just under £4 a sheet & used this to cut out shapes to fill the window voids. Again these have been held in place by the inevitable Duct tape. I dare say this will remove some of the years of emulsion paint on the inside once the hardboard in-fills are finally removed. (When ready to refit the windows.)

The next job is to make good the existing gel coat where I and the previous sanding has gone down to the GRP layers, not to mention the areas where I dug a bit deep while using the heat gun! This I plan to do next weekend weather permitting, followed by the final sanding in preparation for paint application. At the same time (while the gel coat patching dries). I will be removing the rubbing strake (non original and fit for a tug boat rather than an inland waterway cruiser) this I will be replacing with timber and a neater rubber/aluminium strake as the original spec. at a much later time. There is also an area on the deck that need looking at, the, or one of the original owners have fitted a second water tank in the wardrobe, this is filled via a through deck filler. I do not want it, so the deck will have to be made good, this I will address during the gel filling stage, I expect this alone will be worthy of a special section to show how I do it. I assume there will be easier ways and maybe even better ones, until I try and pass it on, you will be unable to judge and tell me what I should have done.

Just for the record all the grey patches on the hull is automotive knifing putty, not the correct stuff I know, but it does give a contrast while sanding. I am still in two minds how to proceed with the hull; however I do have time on my side. The main priority is the topside, once done I can get rid of the horrid tarpaulin and get the screen & hood fitted. This will then give me the option to get on with the cockpit area without the hassle of removing the tarp on rainy days.
You will see from the picture below that the console casing has been removed to expose the wiring. This I have tidied up considerably by only removing surplus wires that had no apparent rhyme or reason leaving just the original. The wiring will give me a minor challenge while rain comes down once I do have that new canopy fitted; I have to keep my options open.

To back track and, regarding the tarpaulin; having ‘lost’ one tarp I have taken to threading a rope through the eyelets of the tarp (not across the front or back) the rope is then tied around the hull (not too tight) the fore & aft ends are then secured with other ropes to tension the tarp over the length. A rope is then tied to the first rope mid way & passed under the hull and tied to the other side; this is then passed over the top, tied again to the first rope, then back again. This keeps the tarp taut across the boat & holds it down. I know it sounds a bit complicated but it does work and allows you to slide the tarp fore or aft without removing it totally. You can see my tarp positioned mid way in the pictures of the sanded top side; you may even make out the ‘loop’ rope around the hull. If I say so myself it makes it dead easy to replace single handed if it is a little breezy. I can take & send pictures with hopefully a clearer description to anyone who is interested in this method if you want to e-mail me.

Moving on, the next stage of making good the gel coat & fixing the hole left by the unrequired deck filler; I will update as soon as I do it. However I doubt if it will be this weekend, all I achieved today was getting a fibre glass kit & ordering some gel coat filler, my local chandlers seems to only cater for narrowboats & let us face it the weather so far is a bit 'unpredictable'. ok, some sun, but by the time the tarp came off, it had to go back on again!

So for now, this is it. I will go and play with the picture bucket, unless it gets too late, then I ill do it tomorrow during the blizzards!

Nice looking boat and quite a read!

Hi Hypnorm
Thanks for the nice boat comment, however pics can lie In the flesh it is another story. I hope my ramblings are a too excessive. If it is a bit much just say, I do not wish to take liberties it is your bandwidth after all.
All the best for the coming season

No problem, the more posts the better! trying to build up the site a bit.

Keep it coming, you've got a great writing style, and I love restoration commentaries.

For a start it makes me realise where I went wrong with my first boat in the first place.

Golly gosh Fuzzyduck, me thinks I'm about to blush