I’m considering a Freedom 35 Cat Ketch as a bluewater boat.
I’m coming from junk rig, so am very comfortable with unstayed masts and self-tending sails. My only real reticence has to do with hull strength/integrity and water ingress affecting the balsa in the topsides.
I’m not headed for high latitudes and will be living aboard in the Med and Caribbean. To my eye, the boat looks near ideal (aside from the offset companionway).
Can anyone offer any advice from first-hand experience?
Search this site for .pdf file “Castaway’s Knockdown”, and also look at comments about ‘Offset Companionway’.
The PO of Castaway used to race it across the Atlantic, and sometimes won. Not my choice of pastime, but we’ve always felt safe in the boat.
We have had no problem with wetting of the balsa core.
Gerald
It sounds like you are exactly where I was.
I was after a Freedom 40 centre cockpit and eventually found one. My concern was water ingress into the balsa core - just seemed a very scary prospect and something that i imagined could easily happen on a 40+ year old boat.
Having acquired a new to me boat, one of the things I no longer worry about in my particular case is the balsa core issue. As long as previous owners have been fastidious about how they fit hardware.
The quality of the Freedom builds is extraordinary. Attaching an mage of deck cutouts. The fibre glass is thick, the balsa dry, and the overall thickness and strength is very reassuring.
Incidentally, I am rigging her as a junk.
I used to have the 33. As far as the deck balsa it was generally good but… The previous owner had repaired some next to the companionway on the cabin which may have been caused but leaking from the winch bolts or screws from the hatch slide. I had 1 or 2 spots where the lifeline stanchion bolts came through. Depending on exactly how far outboard each was mounted affected this. If the bolts came through where the fiberglass squeezed together outboard from the balsa there was a gap that with flexion probably affected the bedding over time then water would leak into the balsa.
As for general bluewater capability I always found it a very stiff hull even in strong storms offshore like from Boston to Bermuda with sloppy hard seas in the gulfstream.
There is a lot of debate about what makes for a “blue water” capable sailboat.
On one end you could look at the new Golden Globe race requirements, only tried and true bulletproof heavy displacement boats will qualify.
At the other, Webb Chiles sailing a Moore 24 around the world - 30,000 nautical miles.
Folks have crossed oceans in all sorts of boats which fall between these extremes.
Seems to me if the boat is structurally sound and you don’t intend to take on the Southern Ocean, it is more about preparation and seamanship.
Consequently a sound, well prepared, properly equipped Freedom Cat Ketch with a well seasoned skipper and crew (or no crew) keeping a keen eye on weather, is quite capable of safely crossing oceans IMO.
I think the way to get to this point is to participate in a few long ocean races where a team is looking over your shoulder throughout, with increasingly lengthy qualification races (some in difficult conditions), pre-race inspection and a lot of exposure to skippers who really know what they are doing and are typically falling all over themselves trying to help you learn how to …well…cross oceans.
Examples here in the SF Bay Area are the Pacific Cup and the Singlehanded Transpac. Freedoms have participated successfully in both. At least two skippers are on this board. You will emerge from such events with a heck of lot more knowledge and confidence, in yourself and the boat, than when you enter them.
