ADVENTURES, EXPERIENCES AND LIFE WITH A CLASSIC MOTOR CRUISER
Freeman 22 MKII
In September of 2021 I became the owner of a 1968 Freeman 22 MKII river cruiser located on the Norfolk Broads.
The boat ‘White Lady’ was in moderate condition, some might say excellent for an over 50 year old GRP vessel. She had her original un-painted gel coat, worn close to the laminate through years of loving polish or perhaps just a couple of over-zealous episodes with coarse cutting compound. She had new upholstery which left a good impression, possibly masking some issues as a first time Freeman owner that would only become apparent after I bought her. Lady was by no means a project but also not a show boat.
This blog is my own personal archive of experiences and technical undertakings which family and friends may find enjoyable (not everything needs to be on facebook) along with others that are about to or have embarked on a similar journey to me. Some pages or galleries will be private as they contain personal family images however I will endeavour to create the equivalent galleries with images removed of family members pulling silly faces or emerging hung-over in the early hours of the day after a heavy night before.
As to my background, my name is Chris and have worked in the marine industry since the mid 90’s, primarily in chandleries. I’ve owned a multitude of boats, mostly of the sailing kind and mostly kept in salt water. I’ve had the pleasure of learning to sail on my father’s International Pandora and owning my first boat, a deep fin keeled Westerly GK24 moving on to a bilge keeled Hunter 272. In more recent times I acquired a Swift 18 trailer sailer which I kept briefly on the Broads until discovering that dropping the mast to go under bridges was a bit of a nuisance without some expensive modifications. I sold the Swift 18 which partially funded the purchase of my current F22 MKII.
Travelogue
Freeman Southern Broads Meet and Cruise
Participatining in this year's 2024 Southern Broads Freeman meet and cruise was always going to be a disjointed affair for us. Most vessels made for the south on the Thursday before the Bank Holiday weekend however with my daughter being in school and me having to work, the earliest we could leave our Ranworth mooring was late on the
A dinghy on the side
Much as I have a passion for my Freeman 22 and cruising her, at heart I'm a sailor having had small yachts all my life. I didn't exactly learn to sail in a dinghy as is the norm, but with a friend's Leisure 17 and shortly after my father's MK1 fin-keeled Pandora. The first yacht I owned was
First overnighter of the 2024 season
I'd decided to make the weekend clear to sort out a few jobs on 'Lady' before getting into the season. The previous weekend was spent washing down and polishing the topsides and my mission now was to fully service my engine water pump which needed new shaft seals, replace the fuel filter/water separator element and fit a new
Winter Sunday lunch trip
I know it's hardly worth blogging about going for Sunday lunch, but when it's the middle of December with the boat semi in commission then it's certainly worth sharing the virtues of keeping the boat ready for the occasional beautiful winter day rather than entirely giving up on cruising. I thought my engine was going to give trouble
Flooded moorings
It's that horrible time of year where the sunshine becomes something of a rarity and storms roll in. With many storms on the Broads comes the phenomenon of 'tidal locking'. Essentially, high tides and storm surges, coupled often with heavy rain result in water being unable to drain sufficiently between tides. Flooding and salt-surges are often the
Making to most of an Indian Summer weekend
The forecast was for a minor heatwave for this early October weekend and although we're keeping the boat largely in commission for the winter it certainly did feel like it had to be enjoyed now. The idea was to take a simple and relaxing trip from Ranworth to Coltishall via an overnight stop at my favourite mooring at
Technical
Fast and reliable internet and calls on the boat
I completely understand the concept of going off-grid and leaving the world behind when out on the boat but in reality, when the night or weather sets in and you can't afford (or find a mooring) for the pub, sometimes it's nice to watch Netflix. In the past I have used a mobile on 4G, tethered to a
Replacing starter solenoid
I was beginning to have issues with my starter motor disengaging almost instantaneously on turning the ignition key. The starter motor was brand new along with a new ring gear on the flywheel at the end of the previous season. The wiring integrity appeared sound and the ignition switch was also relatively new. The result was having to
Modified flywheel and re-faced stub shaft back from machine shop
As mentioned in a previous post, aligning engine, flywheel and stubshaft to a 0.002" run-out tolerance is at best highly frustrating and at worst, something that requires surgery. The problem is that only a single dowel between the crankshaft flange and flywheel exists to assist alignment with only the bolt holes helping alignment with the stub shaft. Given
Escalation, the dangers of saying “While I’m at it”
It was supposed to be a fairly simple job, having removed my J-type gearbox to deal with an on-going stub-shaft issue, I thought it would be as well to replace the well worn starter ring gear on my flywheel and also the starter motor as the bendix was becoming quite sloppy and damaged with a new starter not
Stub shaft again !
Recently I'd noticed clunking, almost reminiscent of piston slap when putting mye engine into gear and running at low revs. My initial thought was that there may have been some J-Type gearbox damage from my old mal-aligned stub shaft. The old stub shaft had suffered a woodruff key and keyway failure resulting in the shaft running un-true and
Water pump shaft seals replacement and general service
Last autumn (2023) I noticed a small oily water leak from what appeared to be my water pump. It was by no means severe and something I put off till the start of the season. In my mind I'd built it up to be something potentially difficult, given I had no idea how it would all come apart. I
