'Free State' Fitting Out

[Beta Don]

Don
I saw that small round deck plate in the back of the boat I sent a photo off.
Slightly Later boats like mine have a large rectangular hatch as the stern packing is under. Yours must is one of the early boats with the extended stern tubes that go up to near the engine!

Yes, my prop shaft runs inside a fiberglass tube which runs all the way from the stern to the bulkhead where the packing gland fitting is mounted, just aft of the transmission. I think Smackman's boat had the rectangular hatch in the aft cabin floor like yours - Mine is a round 6 inch deck plate with a screw out top

The list of variables between the early boats and the later production models is amazing . . . . and it keeps growing!

Don

[smacksman]

Just to brag that my boat is better than your boat - nah ni nah! 'Free State' has both! A 6" dia. deck hatch forward of the step/thwart and a rectangular hatch aft. The prop shaft tube is as Don describes with the stuffing gland in a very tight location a couple of foot aft of the gear box on a floor or mini - bulkhead under the central ally fuel tank.
I'm a few thousand miles away from the boat at the moment so can't take photos but watching the progress of tropical cyclone Erika with interest. Due to be a Cat 1 hurricane by the weekend over the Bahamas.
Safe passage to all in her path.
Roger

[Jay Knoll]

Hoping for a big re-curve out to the east, stripped the isinglass today and took the boat out to a mooring