The intension would be to add a removable fractional headsail and small bow sprit to a freedom cat schooner, to improve upwind performance and lessen weather helm when beating. I see many other Freedom designs do have forestays and small, 2/3rd height blade type headsails, so my question are as follows.
Firstly, do the masts rotate on cat rigged freedom boats like the freedom 44 cat ketch?
Has anyone ever fitted a headsail on a freedom 44 cat ketch with any success? did it require removable backstays? (the intention would be a fractional headsail, not mast head)
I see the principal of the cat ketch rigged freedom boats as possibly being the best design for a fast safe family cruiser, where, now we have children, i would be single handing most of the time. Please correct me if i am wrong, but don’t they provide the ability to let the sheet out until the sail flogs, and can be reefed even on a broad reach? or am i missing something?
I am fascinated by these boats, please forgive my ignorance, but we are looking for our next getaway boat and i’m not sure i want to do another heavy old ketch with all the wires this time.
Any thoughts/corrections would be very much appreciated. And if i’ve posted this in the wrong place, forgive me, its my 1st time on any forum.
It is only the F25 that has the option for a rotating mast as far as I know. As to upwind performance, the fat mast, which does spoil airflow upwind, is the price you pay for having a stay-less rig. However, at least in my F21, the blade jib does improve upwind pointing just a bit. Mine runs up a dyneema stay and it and the halliard are attached to a pad eye on the mast, it is a small jib so not much loading. You might want a mast ring on a larger boat, maybe some F40 owners can comment on that.
Thanks for the reply newt2u, in your opinion then, do you think, somehow improving the Airflow over the fat mast of a cat schooner, might give similar gains upwind to adding a small jib like yours? Perhaps achieving somthing similar to a soft wing sail shape.
I am not sure the jib does much to counter the turbulence around the mast. What it does is to give a clean leading edge to the wind to the combined foil (jib + main) allowing you to point just a tad higher. I would say perhaps 3-5 degrees, depending on conditions. At least that is my experience on the F21. Some Freedoms have wrap around sails which does give a better airflow, more like a soft wing. However they need a wishbone boom and the boat you are looking at has a regular tracked mast and conventional boom.
What is the history of its listing, I remember seeing it some time ago on Apolloduck but it is now back at a very good price for a boat of that size and quality.
there was a Freedom 44 called Frog Kiss that fit a small jib to the foremast. It improved performance, but the boats (and masts) weren’t designed for a jib and you risk losing the mast by changing the designed rig.
The boat performs pretty well without it. it’s never going to be a pointing machine, but the 44 is a pretty good sailor.
you are correct that the masts do not rotate on any but one model of the 25, and if they do rotate, you have a problem
and you absolutely can put a reef in without having to luff the sails too much - I find it’s easier and safer to do that than to try to turn into the wind to put the reef in. Shaking it out usually requires the sails to be luffing though.
My current Freedom 45 has running backstays, but it was explained to me that they were really only to keep the mast from pumping in a seaway. my Freedom 40 cat ketch did not have them.
they did. and they also lost their foremast, twice. The second time, they replaced it with the last remaining Freedom 45 mast, cut down to the right size, which did have reinforcement for a headstay.
What I heard from Paul Petronello was that they thought she was hit by lightning. The rig fell down in light winds and the logic was the lightning strike weakened the mast but left it standing. Conversely, had the rig been lost due to the added foresail, it would have gone down in high winds and seas. But… who really knows ???
I have a 44 and added a short bowsprit and a small jib. The fittings were custom made. The jib adds a knot or more in upwind performance and better I on a reach. Sailed three Bermuda races, two One/Twos and the Marion race. Lost the mast once but it was a design defect with the forward mast step. There is little weather helm with the addition of the jib. It is a good improvement.
