Hi everyone!
A few days ago, one of the Freedom 40 owners shared an interesting brochure with me. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any brochures on board when we bought our boat, so every time someone sends me something, I get very excited.
By the way, if anyone has anything interesting about the Freedom 40, please send me everything!
And then I saw this picture.
Please tell me: did anyone actually have these oars? Has anyone ever seen them in real life? Has anyone seen how they were mounted and what they looked like?
I’ve been shocked all day that theycame up with the idea of rowing a heavy 40-foot sailboat with oars.
Anna, The small article you shared gives an insight into the thinking and genius of Freedom Yachts owner/designer Garry Hoyt, and the depth of his understanding of yacht design and fluid dynamics. In essence his founding principles are based on “KISS - Keep it simple, stupid”. Hoyt was a multi-disciplined world class sailor.
You may be interested in reading or acquiring a copy of Hoyt’s book entitled “Ready About” - published by International Marine Publishing Company of Camden, Maine - (ISBN 0-87742-229-X). Long out of production but copies are available ex-Amazon/Ebay etc.
I thought I’d share with you a slightly longer article on Freedom Yachts beginnings, again written by the maestro - it’s attached. Enjoy.
Wow, thank you for telling me about that book. I didn’t know about it. I’ve already ordered the paper version on Amazon. I sentimentally want to have it on board our boat.
Also, thank you for the photos. It’s interesting, this is already the third version of this brochure that I have. The page with the oars comes from the same kind of brochure as yours, with all the same text, but with an extra section about the oars and the absence of an engine. So someone probably sent me a version from the very first Freedom 40 brochure version.
Yeah, of course, we’re probably not going to row the boat and prefer the sails and the engine. I was more curious whether anyone had ever actually seen what it looked like in real life.
I’m just really interested in finding out any details about it, because it seems like such an unusual and fascinating idea to me.
I was more curious whether anyone had ever actually seen what it looked like in real life.