I’m looking into buying a UK built Freedom 35 Cat Ketch with a centreboard from 1981. I keep my 20’ day boat on the tidal Thames in Greenwich and I’m thinking that a Freedom 35 would be a good boat for mooching about the UK’s east coast with the family.
What are the particular things to these boats that you all think I should be looking out for? The balsa core is top of my list so far - but I guess I’ll only find out about that with a survey
I’m assuming all the normal things with old boats such as engines and through hulls will need looking at of course.
I was CEO of Fairways Marine, the original builder of Freedoms in the UK from 1980. I had bought Fairways Marine from receivers, Cork Gully, in January 1980, builders of high quality Fisher motor sailers on behalf of the Shobokshi Group of Saudi Arabia ti add to their composite material businesses outside the KSA (glass fibre production and GRP pipes). The same week, I added Ranks boat building and repair and maintenance business on the Hamble River (Port Hamble) and signed the exclusive licence to build Freedoms outside the US with Gary Hoyt and Everett Pearson. The original Freedom was the Freedom 40, the second model was the Freedom 33 (which was called the 35 outside the US), the third model was the 28 (called the 30 outside the US). We built the only Freedom 70 (with the objective of winning the Whitbread Round the World Race.
The Freedom 35 was the most successful and best of the first generation Freedoms. After I left the business, I bought a Freedom 35 at Largs Marina near Glasgow in 1985 and brought her to the Costa del Sol (Puerto Duquesa). She averaged 8.6 knots on that passage of over 1,000 miles. I moved to larger boats later. In 2021, I bought another Freedom 35 built by Faorways in 1981 at Swale Marina from the daughters of her late owner who had had her for 18 years. I refurbished her completely including installing a new Beta engine to replace the original Volvo Penta.
There was another Freedom 35 for sale that had also been upgraded and has a Beta engine for sale at Plymouth for £20,000. She looked to be in good condition. I expect the owner would accept a bit less than the asking price. His inventory looked complete and included vane steering which is useful when making long passages. Have you read the Yachting Monthly article (around May 2016) about a used Freedom 35?
All the 35s built by Fairways had lifting centre plates. In my opinion, the Freedom 35 is an ideal boat for mooching about the UK’s east coast with your family. Fairways built to a high standard. I would not be too worried about the balsa core. Because the masts are stepped to the bottom of the boat, you do not have chain plates which can cause issues. The carbon fibre masts should be inspected that they have no been damaged.
The Freedom 35 is an excellent cruising sailing boat, self tacking, all sails controlled from the cockpit including reefing. The secret of the sailing performance is the wraparound sails controlled by the wishbone boom with an outhaul so you can shape the two identical mainsails like the wing of a plane. We measured their performance compared to conventional mainsails on a track up the back of a mast - 96%-97% efficient compared to 60%. To show how well the Freedom 35 sailed, I had John Oakley race one in the Solent Series and the Round the Island Race. He won all but one of the Solent Series (he got a stone jammed in the centre plate and retired) and the Round the Island race (1,800 participants).
I am living on board my Freedom 35 at South Dock Marina, near to Greenwich. Very happy to meet up if you want to discuss the 35. I can email you the Yachting Monthly article and I may have the details of the 35 for sale in Plymouth. I recommended friends to look at her as the ideal boat for the east coast. The 35 draws 3ft 6 with plate up and 7ft down. You only use the plate down going to windward.
Network Brokers in Plymouth were the agents selling the Freedom 35 in Plymouth. If you send me your email, I will email their summary sheet and the Yachting Monthly article. My email is crlsamuelson@gmail.com
