Freeman 24 - IFAL

Hi all found my way here[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

About time too

You made it too hard to find only found it as i got a tip off

It's starting to work its way up the search engine listings, but being a small group it takes a while

Anyway, glad you found us by whatever means, hope you like it now you're here

yep a lot better, more like the old site, this is now my freeman site of choice..
Ps i take it we dont mention bergee here

We decided to adopt the @Freeman

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Welcome home IFAL !

"Burgee's for ever" ......... apologies to Arthur Ransome

Where is Ifal based Simon?

Hi Dermo, I am on the

















Hi Dermot, I am on the Great Ouse Cambs.. and you?

I'm on the Great Ouse near St Neots. Not too far away then

couple more pics
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Oh stop it, making us all jealous with pics of that deck

ok prof sorry
its holding up well. had a good season of use now. i thought it may scratch and chip when i did it.but so far so good. may put a coat of varnish on it this winter to build it up a bit more.
boat came out this week so plenty to do now.

Hi Simon, how is the hardtop work going? Have you decided how to fit a sunroof conversion yet?

Hi.hope your boat is going well, i am afraid its been slow progress,started to draw up some plans,and i think i know how i am going to tackle it. Have been a bit side tracked on other jobs, such as some re varnishing,made a new rope box,old Calorifiers sprung a leak so had to take that out. Cleaned and painted the bay where it was an put in a new cross frame ready for a new one, re painted the big side covers as they were tatty and resealed them and now in the middle of doing the cooling system. As the boat is staying in this winter i may start on the roof so i can fit it next spring.
Rest of the boat is looking tidy now so roof needs to be done to finish it off.
Pic of box (strip at the back is now varnished

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Ps still having trouble with pics, but may have sorted it. Sorry for duplicate. Pics

As usual superb standard of workmanship.  White Orchid is running well, probably the best since we bought her. Had to have a new starter motor part way through the season.  Like you we are staying afloat this winter. No leaks on any of the lower windows! Thanks again for the advice. Cockpit windows out this winter, I am thinking one at a time leaving the hardtop still supported. Biggest challenge will be new mouldings for the corner joints and the centre joint. Current set up as built wooden moulding wrapped in vinyl but this has split and the wood has rotted in places which accounts for the main leaks. Heating is on the wish list probably Propex system. I will watch keenly your conversion to a sealed cooling system forvthe engine.

Glad to hear windows are doing well.as for the cockpit, I think that the wooden posts wrapped in the vinyl rotting is a common problem. I am expecting to replace mine when i fanally get to do the roof. I am thinking that i will remake them in a hardwood and give them plenty of coats of varnish. I think the vinyl only traps the water.would be keen to see details of the profiles of the posts if you remove yours first. Also looking at heating, i have put in a small hot air heater that gets its heat from the engine water,(as in a car heater).it has worked well, i hope to build on this system when doing my cooling conversion. But it only works when the engine is running so would like to fit a stand alone heater, and think the propex heater is a good option so will look out for any posts on the subject.
Have you had any thoughts as to where you hope to locate it ?

Still having trouble with the pics Simon, I can only see the two (same pic) of the step box.

As for your wooden pillars, look into eposeal 300. Pricey stuff, but apparently soaks in well displacing any water. I'm told it'll even make soft wood hard, turning it into a sort of composite.

Have gone over to photobucket,so will see how it goes.as for the postsJuThe eposeal looks good but i Just fancy the look of a nice varnished hardwood post.

You can varnish over the top, my mate built this from scratch and did the whole thing with eposeal

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Looks nice,will investigate it further, it may make picking a suitable timber easier?

Looks better in the wood than it does in the photo

Welcome home took me a while too.....but good too be back.

What is the name of the boat stored next to yours on the right of the photo, is it Sapphire by chance? my last loevly fairline mirage.
                                                                                                                                                                                               Gordon.