Rainbow II trip to Littlehampton

Yesterday was wet, cold and windy, today we have lovely sunshine. Friends stayed overnight family coming down today maybe a nice meal later. Quite noisy of a night as the cross channel ferry moors across the river to us and they come and go in the night. Tide here is about 7 meters so quite a lot of movement as well. Price for the overnight mooring for me is under £22 all of the others were neary £30. Fuel also varying in price quite a bit, £1.30 in Shepperton for propulsion down to £0.48 which my friend bought down with him from up north, cheapest here about £0.90.

Today I'm back home tomorrow I'll be going back to continue to Littlehampton now the weather has calmed down. I have now posted a few hundred pictures of the trip to date on my Facebook page. Hope you like them.

An amazing accomplishment..... well done.....  safe onward journey.

Great trip to Littlehampton today, left Newhaven 2 hours before low tide as it dries out for three hours and arrived at Littlehampton 1 hour early, as we were so early we took the rib off and used it to take some video of some high speed passes, I will try and get them on somewhere so you can see them so I'll let you know when I've done it, haven't seen them on the big screen myself yet.
Sun shone all day and the sea was like a mirror, what a difference to last Wednesday.
Well that's that trip over and it was great, wonder what's next?
Happy sailing .

It's amazing what a difference 24 hours can make.....

I look forward to the video...  what sort of top speeds were you getting???  Are the new engines giving their best yet?

Hi Liberty
I don't know whether I said but I miscalculated the weight of Rainbow II so I over propped with 15/15's in doing that I can only get 1800 rpm which is max torque instead of 2500 rpm the difference being the lose of full HP so only reaching 14 knots but still very exciting and feels a lot faster, will leave them as is for now, I have about half a ton of lead in the pointed end so I might try taking that out first to see what difference it makes as the bow wave is enormous and after that try the reduction of the propellers pitch. The engines are awesome I love them, the raw power and sounds are amazing, a real petrol heads dream, all the more satisfying as I rebuilt them myself.

Hi Shipmates
I have posted loads of photos and some videos on my FaceBook just send me a friend request and message Freeman forum to James W G Madden my FaceBook name.

Well shipmates I have at last found a way of posting my YouTube videos, I have posted 4 in total so far and this link is for one of them, I think you can subscribe to me James Madden from this link to see the others and any more I might post in the future, I have a caricature of my face as a profile picture. Hope you enjoy, next job is to take out all the lead up forward and see how she rides then and see what difference it makes to her speed if any. She wasn't designed with it so should be ok. 
Happy sailing ⛵️
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When you post Jim, there's a little YouTube icon in the toolbar, click that and paste in your link and it shows like this  


WOW!!! That's some bow wave
That's a different clip by the way

Nice videos and lovely looking boat, love the woodwork. Hard to believe that is only 14 knots.

Hi Capt Jim, No personal knowledge of these things, but in the video with the large bow wave were the trim tabs working correctly ? I would have thought the bow should have been higher giving a smaller (but a lot less impressive !)  bow wave. Probably talking Bo**ocks here.


Great boat, great pictures, great eventful trip........not talking Bo**ocks now !!!

Most big Freemans throw up a stunning bow wave, its the shape of the lower part of the bow... on some power boats  there is a strip a bit like a lower rubbing strake called a "spray rail". This diverts the bow wave down back into the sea. It means you can see where you are going!!!

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Hi Shipmates
Thanks for the advice on YouTube Pat I'll try that next time.
Thanks for the kind words RichK, of course I also think she's great. Yes that is only 14 knots but it does feel faster when your on board as well.
Yes Flittermouse the trim tabs are at full deflection I had to replace the hydraulic pump at Newhaven as my old one failed on me, i think with the trim tabs pushing the nose down, the additional weight I have added in the rebuild and the half ton of lead in the bow all contributes, this together with the hull only being a semi planing can't expect too much. I will be taking the lead out to see what this achieves as she wasn't designed to have this in in the first place.
Hi Deno great picture, yes you are right Rainbow II has got a large mahogany spray rail which I'm sure is having to work hard in the circumstances.
Not sure how long it will be before I get down to take the lead out but when I do I will post the results.
Happy Sailing Shipmates

Wonderful videos. Really enjoyed. You can almost smell the brine! Congratulations on a fine and fine-sounding craft.

Thanks Stephen, yes I am really happy with her and the engines do sound awesome like a deep throbbing heart beat that gives you oodels of confidence. Glad you liked the videos it's just a shame there isn't a gallery on this site for us to to post pictures of our boats in. This is one of my favourite pictures, amazing you can refuel outside the Houses of Parliment on a Friday lunchtime with no queues, there are some benefits being a boat owner. Lol
Happy sailing. 
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Jim....toolbar at the top of the page, click gallery

There's a general gallery for a pic, and you can also create your own personal gallery

Am I stupid or what? Don't answer that, I just went to the personal gallery and found pictures posted by guess who, that would be me then! Did I say stupid or what, I'm putting this down to stress and old age. Lol.

We all have off days Jim

Re fuelling opposite Parliament! If the Upper River prices per litre are any guide it must cost an arm and a leg down there. Still, if you need to count the cost you probably shouldn't be driving, sorry, commanding a boat at all!
Another fine pic. You get around! Many (me!) would be nervous. Having a robust boat counts, but its not the whole story.

I've spent time moored to Lambeth Pier...in 1977, for the Jubilee, they installed a line of concrete pontoons downstream of it, and I moored there on Trilllium's first tidal outing in 1978. Only problem was the staggering amount of wash...and I mean "staggering" literally, walking down the line of pontoons was pretty fraught when the tour boats went by! "Tiny", the Piermaster, had been RSM of a military prison and was quite a character...people coming "back from foreign" used to give him bottles; so he had a stock of really weird stuff and would press one to help him drink it... I have some photographs from that trip somewhere, if I can find them. These days the entire river frontage has changed vastly, last time I was there was for the Thames Pageant in 2012 on a friend's boat. It's a great pity that they built that incredibly expensive Thames Barrier instead of a simple dam with a lock...had they done that, the whole of London would be a playground for little boats, just like Paris.
As for fuel....we've always found the price on the Tideway to be...er....negotiable.....

I used to work in an office next to the Thames at Blackfriers. I could see the river from my window.... It is not a river for small boats or the feint hearted.  The wash from the tour boats is astonishing and the tidal flows quick.  Although one day I was heartened to see a Freeman 23 pootle past at high tide!!!

It's no problem for small boats, as long as you are circumspect... keep out of the way, in other words. Major problem is picking up rope around the prop; I've done that several times and helped others who have also done it. A very good lookout ahead usually spots the stuff...can get like the Sargasso Sea at the top of the tide.

The video clip in the picture is not the video clip I intended to publish but the address under the picture is, sorry for the error. Still not good at this lark but I am trying.

Fixed that for you