Low Freeboard on Adams 45

[Mike Banks]

These have been sailed all over the world. There is nothing wrong with the freeboard. If you want excess freeboard, then you have more windage and less pointing ability.

Everything in monohull sailboat hull design is compromise because of the amount of mass carried on the keel necessary to make it stand up against the pressure of wind in the sails.

If you are not in a hurry to get anywhere and want a downwind only vessel, want something that has all of the free board for which one could wish, and sacrifice some pointing ability, try some of the more liveable Roberts designs of that waterline length.

[olaf hart]

Joe Adams sailed round the world on an old wooden 30 footer before he started designing boats.
I would trust his judgement, and maybe compare his experience with your friends.
His boats are stiff as well, you don’t need a lot of freeboard if you just accelerate in gusts, rather than heel over like so many tender boats do these days.

[qwert]

"I have a surveyor lined up who is ruthless. He is going to do a full ultrasound on the hull after I have spent two days picking apart every crevice for corrosion."


If you do the ultrasound using a grid pattern over the hull this will be a total waste of time and money.Its an entirely random test and it's pure luck if it picks up anything at all


The way to use ultrasound properly is to go over the hull inside and out and identify problem areas ie under the toilet areas ,galley areas , bilge level where water may have lain, places where timber may have contacted steel, places such as stringers with no limber hole, hard to get to areas where the internal paint protection might have been skimped on



Give these areas a comprehensive test after the survey (if it passes) and you will save yourself a bucket of work and much heartache

[Arthurwg]

Originally Posted by smith8273

i've found that low freeboard makes it too easy for pirates to climb up over the rail...

That's when you scatter the decks with carpet tacks.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by qwert

"I have a surveyor lined up who is ruthless. He is going to do a full ultrasound on the hull after I have spent two days picking apart every crevice for corrosion."


If you do the ultrasound using a grid pattern over the hull this will be a total waste of time and money.Its an entirely random test and it's pure luck if it picks up anything at all


The way to use ultrasound properly is to go over the hull inside and out and identify problem areas ie under the toilet areas ,galley areas , bilge level where water may have lain, places where timber may have contacted steel, places such as stringers with no limber hole, hard to get to areas where the internal paint protection might have been skimped on



Give these areas a comprehensive test after the survey (if it passes) and you will save yourself a bucket of work and much heartache

^^^^ What he said.

[billgewater]

Joe Adams was a legendary designer. (He was shot dead in the Philippines, another gun totting country.)
The Adams 40's were carefully deigned to perform well and that's what they did.
Looking at the general state of the boat, I think that the low sheerline/freeboard is least of your problems though.
His go faster 15 and 17 m boats are veritable rockets, but you could not swing a cat inside them.
He also designed the infamous Helsal, built at Avalon using Ferro cement, which wiped the international field of Super yachts in the 1973 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
A legendary designer indeed. The owner asked. Joe delivered.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by billgewater

Joe Adams was a legendary designer. (He was shot dead in the Philippines, another gun totting country.)
The Adams 40's were carefully deigned to perform well and that's what they did.
Looking at the general state of the boat, I think that the low sheerline/freeboard is least of your problems though.
His go faster 15 and 17 m boats are veritable rockets, but you could not swing a cat inside them.
He also designed the infamous Helsal, built at Avalon using Ferro cement, which wiped the international field of Super yachts in the 1973 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
A legendary designer indeed. The owner asked. Joe delivered.

Sorry, but I'm sitting in my home right here in Cavite, Philippines and this is not a gun toting country. Only if you have a permit, which I do, or you are police are you allowed to have guns.
Criminals or drugies kill people not law abiding citizens. So, get off the rhetoric. Most people die here from over eating & drinking (heart attacks & lung disease).

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by billgewater

Joe Adams was a legendary designer. (He was shot dead in the Philippines, another gun totting country.)
The Adams 40's were carefully deigned to perform well and that's what they did.
Looking at the general state of the boat, I think that the low sheerline/freeboard is least of your problems though.
His go faster 15 and 17 m boats are veritable rockets, but you could not swing a cat inside them.
He also designed the infamous Helsal, built at Avalon using Ferro cement, which wiped the international field of Super yachts in the 1973 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
A legendary designer indeed. The owner asked. Joe delivered.

Just a small correction if i may, Joe wasn't shot he had his throat cut, some reports stated that his injuries where consistent with been attacked with a machete....

Apologies, back to the low freeboard discussion.....

[daletournier]

The Adams I have been on have been tiny inside for there length, I prefer more space, particularly head height.

Also some people I know had a long forward of the beam passage from Chagos to Madagascar last year on their adams, fast passage but they had their water tanks contaminated only a couple of days out. From what I heard salt water entered via the tank breathers. I'm not sure if the low freeboard was the reason or not.

I have no issue with adams designs and the owners I've met like their boats, not my sort of boat.

BTW I look at the photos you attached and I cringe! you really must want to work on boats (no offence intended). There's always more work than you think.

[olaf hart]

Joe Adams designed Sailboats, not boats with sails.

They tend to be narrow, heavily ballasted, carry plenty of sail, well balanced.

Mostly not designed to a rule, so they outlast all the IOR boats of the same age, fast off the wind and fantastic upwind.

I am happy to trade a couple of feet of beam for performance, they are the BMW’s of the seas.

Radford boats carry on the same tradition, you can still find a modern boat designed to the same standard, if that is what you want.

Freeboard is irrelevant, however I have had to climb back onboard some old one tonners in the past, believe me, you are not a fan of freeboard if you have to pull yourself aboard after hitting the drink.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by daletournier

......
BTW I look at the photos you attached and I cringe! you really must want to work on boats (no offence intended). There's always more work than you think.

Obviously a glutton for punishment.....
if 'free to good home' this boat would still be overpriced..

[Jim Cate]

I'm not an Adams expert, but I've been on lots of them with my eyes open.

I believe that there are two "series" of designs: the meter boats (10, 13 and 15, plus the more cruisy Carina) and the foot boats... lots of different designs,but well known are the 35, 40 and 45.

The meter boats are narrow, low freeboard for the length, some are drop or swing keels, but are pretty racy in design. Does not keep folks from cruising in them, but space suffers due to narrow beam and shallow hulls.

The foot boats, such as the 45 under discussion here, are much more mainstream, with normal sorts of B/L ratios and normal (for the era) freeboard. They make good cruising boats with none of the drawbacks folks are slanging them for. We personally know folks who circumnavigated in a 40, and a couple of others doing long term cruising in 45s.

No comment about the specific boat the OP is considering, but the design is quite suitable as a cruiser.

Jim

[Metal Boat]

Quote:
Originally Posted by daletournier
......
BTW I look at the photos you attached and I cringe! you really must want to work on boats (no offence intended). There's always more work than you think.

Obviously a glutton for punishment.....
if 'free to good home' this boat would still be overpriced..





Its OK guys no offence taken, I can paint, I have been painting large objects for years, its amazing what a difference a lick of paint makes.



We wont talk about my OCD and Tourettes, my shrink says I am going to be just fine.........

[daletournier]

We wont talk about my OCD and Tourettes, my shrink says I am going to be just fine.........

If you buy a project boat you are not going to be "just fine".

[Fore and Aft]

I agree with you Dale, there is nothing fine about a run down steel yacht....... I think metal boat is trying to find the best neglected steel yacht around. That to me is a bit like trying to find a Unicorn!
Unless the owner lets you completely strip the yacht you are not going to find all the issues she has even taking two days. The best the surveyor will do is give you an idea of how much a project you are taking on.
The last steel Adams I surveyed had fibreglass patches on the outside hull and bilge!
Cheers