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
Technical
Lift, scrub, grind, fill and antifoul
Just a quick haul out, polish, antifoul and splash back in... ...not likely ! The haul out was fairly trouble-free although the slipway near our berth has a very shallow incline with the tide fairly low, making the whole operation quite marginal. I've never seen 'Lady' out of the water before, having bought her on good faith (arguably
Fitting a fridge – The preparation
There's not a huge amount of space to fit modern conveniences on a Freeman 22 MKII and a fridge is a bit of a challenge. White Lady at some point was fitted with a combination gas/electric fridge mounted under the helm seat. It wasn't a pretty installation and I removed the fridge as it wasn't working and wouldn't
New front windows
Freeman 22 MKII's originally came with 6mm thick acrylic windows which were apparently necessary as glass would have shattered through flexing of the coachroof. The problem with acrylic is that it doesn't last that long although UV stabilised polycarbonate does a lot better. As you can see from the pictures, it was impossible to see anything through the
Mast re-varnish
In 2022 (a year before this post) I gave my mast a little re-furbish, cutting out rotted parts and letting in new wood where sections had been previously cut out and bodged. I should have made a new one but the old one had a story to tell. The rotted 'spreader bars' were replaced with a new dowel
Stripping and re-painting the headlining
The Stripping Having spent most of the winter refurbishing the engine on 'White Lady', some of the more cosmetic work has become a priority as the season gets going. Winter wasn't kind to the headlining I inherited. Without running a dehumidifier, the poorly painted headlining took on some pretty horrible mildew and although a spirited scrub with mildew
Switch to electronic ignition
Before I refurbished my engine, it had been my plan to replace the points ignition with electronic, simply because on the face of it there would be less to go wrong. I purchased an Accuspark Ford Pre X-Flow distributor pack (F25D Top Cap) with a Red Sports Coil Non Ballast, a set of Pre Cross Flow red leads
