advice please

[rgreg]

My first boat was a 22ft Dawncraft. It was 25 years old yet in perfect condition. You will pick up a nice little boat within your budget, just make sure you look at a few as some, of course, are better than others.

Edited December 30, 2012 by rgreg

[GUMPY]

Hi

Still looking at freeman 22 do you guys prefer petrol or diesel.

reg jono

A diesel freeman 22 is a rare beast.

Despite what others will say petrol is fine if you are sensible.

Most that say its not havent owned a petrol powered boat.

[jono]

Hi

Managed to find myself a mooring on the brecon mon canal

progres !!!!!

Still unsure about the boat I need.

My wife prefers the more open interior of the Norman.

I like the idea of a quite outboard motor.

But above all I want a geniune clean boat inside and out... so we can spend the weekend in some comfort.

do you think a budget of 5,000 is going to get me what I want.

kind reg

jono

[Teadaemon]

Not really, but it will probably need hauling out and leaving for a month or two to dry out PROPERLY and then a light roughing up from the waterline down and brushing on fresh resin to seal and cover any dodgy gel coat to start with.

 

Leaving a GRP boat out of the water for a month or two (or even a year or two) won't reduce the water level in the laminate by any significant amount (it might dry out the antifouling).

 

If you do actually want to treat osmotic blistering, then the whole gelcoat below the waterline needs removing, the laminate needs to be washed repeatedly to remove the hygroscopic chemicals (acetic acid and unreacted styrene, amongst others), and then dried out using heaters before coating with epoxy.

 

Personally, unless there was significant delamination present, I wouldn't bother with any of that, I'd either ignore it (as I have done with the half dozen 50p sized blisters on the bottom of my yacht), or grind out the blisters and do a local repair with thickened epoxy. If there were enough delamination to affect the structural integrity of the boat, I'd probably just scrap it.

[mrsmelly]

Hi

Still looking at freeman 22 do you guys prefer petrol or diesel.

reg jono

 

Hi

 

If its a car definately a petrol but a boat definately diesel. There are several reasons for this one being diesels offer good torque at low revs, another is there are no electrical ignition systems involved which is a bonus on an engine destined to be cold and damp especialy through the winter. There is less chance of fire but having said that a correctly maintained and sensibly used petrol set up can be safe. Diesel fuel is far easier to source canal side than diesel and safer to store being less volatile. The drawback with diesel is because of the reasons I have stated they tend to be quite a bit more expensive.

 

Tim

[Teadaemon]

People will all have their personal preferences as regards petrol or diesel power for boats, and in general most people today would prefer diesel, but it's worth remembering that there are a lot of people with petrol inboard engines in their small GRP cruisers who are perfectly happy with them.

 

If the boat is only going to be used for day trips or maybe overnight stays, then filling up a couple of petrol cans on the way down to the boat is not a big hassle.

 

One thing I would say is that even though it's only an advisory point on the BSS, if I'm surveying a boat with a petrol inboard engine I will always recommend that a spark-sealed bilge blower is fitted, and that it's used religiously. In the past couple of years there have been at least two incidents on the Broads where cruisers with petrol inboard engines have blown up and burned to the waterline due to petrol fumes in the bilge. Fortunately in both cases there were no deaths or life-threatening injuries, but in both cases people on board suffered burns and ended up swimming for safety.

[Phil Ambrose]

Listen to Teadeamon, Osmosis has been a source of loads of scaremongering, it is not a serious problem provided the blisters are not to big. Reality is most boats with Osmosis will outlive the owner.

 

Phil

[benfordboy]

Listen to Teadeamon, Osmosis has been a source of loads of scaremongering, it is not a serious problem provided the blisters are not to big. Reality is most boats with Osmosis will outlive the owner.

 

Phil

 

Our Norman is now 45 yrs old ! , over the past 10yrs of ownership we have had to deal with a few minor blisters (say 2pence in size) not difficult to do really.

 

Have seen some particularly bad cases (All still floating!) where owners have either had treated (Dried re gel coated) or ignored !

 

If yo go for a petrol inboard the later ford inboards (Watermota) based on the escort 1100 / 1600 can be a little thirsty (We used to burn a ltr a mile at river speeds) hence the fact we now have a converted transom & a Honda 15HP outboard that runs at a ltr / hr.

 

Other early freemans had the engine based on the ford 105e (Anglia?) these seem to be far more economical.

 

Dont forget the Norman cruisers or Dawncrafts either.

 

Freeman Info @ http://www.freemancruisers.com

 

Norman @ http://www.normanboats.co.uk

 

Dawncraft @ http://www.dawncraftowners.com

Edited January 5, 2013 by benfordboy