Hello to everyone. I hope to soon be a member of the Freedom Owners Club and this will be the first of many requests for assistance I am sure.
Does anyone have knowledge of a reasonably priced boatyard, with experience of Freedom boats, on the East coast of England.
Mike.
I think that all the UK built Freedom yachts were completed either at Hamble or Falmouth (though the hulls and decks were moulded in the Isle of Man) and probably most of them are spread throughout Western Europe, so there are not a lot left here. I know someone kept a Freedom 35 in the Medway, some twenty years ago, and there are a few folk along the South Coast with Freedoms, so if you have a particular model in mind, you could trawl through the member list looking for someone who has one the same. They could probably give you some good advice. I’ve only had major work done on mine in Sweden, which is probably a bit too far East for you, but there is a lot that you can do yourself, and this board – which is searchable – has a lot of advice about every model and probably every problem that can be encountered, too.
Apart from gas and electrical systems, the US and UK boats are generally similar, though the deck and internal layout of the F35 cat ketch is very different, thus advice from the US is generally relevant and usually helpful, as well.
Our boat is now 37 years old, and, apart from a few minor niggles, was considered very sound at a survey this summer, so you hopefully won’t need a lot in the way of substantial boatyard services.
Good luck with your purchase, and good sailing!
Gerald
Hi Rousey, and welcome to the club. it depends what kind of work you want to do. For any rigging work, Kingston Rigging in Lowestoft if a good place to start. Tim Kingston has experience with Freedoms. He demasted and remasted Nausikaa a couple of times and did good work fabricating a number of components for her rigging in stainless. You can get in touch at info@kingstonrigging.co.uk