Articles on Freedoms from UK's Yachting Monthly Sep 09

[Crossjack]

Hello Again,

George - Happy to grab a copy of the magazine for you (if you can put up with our arrogant English mag editors).

Michel - great upholstery choice, just suggest you keep the lights low at all times and your English is perfect! Veel dan beter mijn Nederlands!

Copyright - think I am playing with fire scanning in their article to start with, but should I get round to complaining about their article (and its looking more complicated with each post!) I will mention there is an angry boat owner in the US looking for some compensation....and more importantly a bunch of Americans who have taken great exception to certain comments relating to Freedoms that are "somewhat American in their layout" - whatever that means!

Seems like we may have a list of all the Freedoms which is a great start. Now I just need a pic of each to send them as well?!

Great forum by the way...its fantastic there are so many like minded souls out there!

Emma
F33 Crossjack VI - Southampton, UK

[katorpus]

I'm not a copyright attorney (or any other kind), but I think that once George put that photo out on the internet (here) without a copyright mark on it, the photo became fair game for anyone else to claim and/or use...in fact...methinks that the MAGAZINE now holds copyright on his work.

My "horsehair" banter, etc was intended to be "all in good fun"...sorry if I offended anyone. We colonists sometimes forget our place.

Michel...don't look HERE for improvement in your (already good English)...there's no hope for us, as we reside in a country where the "football field" is an acceptable unit of measurement...as in "That aircraft carrier is over three football fields long".

[THATBOATGUY]

Oh my goodness, I am so far from angry. Life is way too short.

Thanks Emma, I'm sending you our snail mail address. Happy to pay for postage and price of the magazine of course.

Michel, If you can get a copy of "Strunk and White" it answers all questions.

I'm also emailing Lord Strathcarron who cruises the Freedom 40 "Vasco de Gamma" and see what his take is on all this... heh heh! I mean I wonder if he realizes how very "American" his interior is? If that doesn't get the magazine editor's nose to drop to the point where he is not looking down it at us, then I suppose it's a lost cause, and I don't bother with lost causes unless they are noble ones.

Life is so short...

George

[Michel]

George, thanks for the suggestion of Elements of Style of Strunk&White. Sounds fun.

Michel - and your English is perfect! Veel dan beter mijn Nederlands!
Seems like we may have a list of all the Freedoms which is a great start. Now I just need a pic of each to send them as well?!

Emma
F33 Crossjack VI - Southampton, UK

Hey Emma, you speak Dutch! Where did you pick that up? Or did you have Google translate a sentence for you?

If you look in the documentation section on this board, you can find a lot of material, including photo's of many Freedom models. I am mostly into the two-mast Freedoms and have collected material since some 15 years, so I could supply photo's of most of the ketches and schooners.

Here's the only photo I ever found of the Kriter Lady II. It was built by Freedom UK; it bears the official Freedom sail logo. This is not the boat sailed in the OSTAR 1980 by Naomi James, that was Kriter Lady. Kriter is a Champagne brand and sponsored several race yachts in the 70s and 80s. I could not find for which race Kriter Lady II was built, who sailed it and if it was successful. I vaguely recollect that there were wishbone problems that ended a race prematurely. Not sure if that was an OSTAR. any info on this is appreciated.

Kriter Lady II.jpg (26.38 KiB) Viewed 8431 times

[Crossjack]

Wow what a picture. I wonder where she is now?

Sorry Michel - I dont speak Dutch...cant you tell!!

I have started to think of a suitable response to YM and I may even use that image to get them going a bit. I do think that Freedoms need a bit of promoting as the UK magazines spend their time going on about Moody's and Sigmas etc and Freedoms NEVER get a mention.

Since Mike Golding hired Crossjack twice in the last 2 years (as he couldnt get his Ecover Open 60 up the Beaulieu River), its clear that Freedoms are just awesome boats so we just need to tell everyone!

[Michel]

Emma,

I have tried to uncover facts on Kriter Lady II and on the Freedom Freighter (with the cargo hold) since about ten years but there is nothing to find. Perhaps your acquaintance Mike Golding (wow, that you know him; he's one of the gods!) can dig up something about Kriter Lady II.

[Castaway]

Some really sloppy proof reading here, too! Just look at the dimensions of the F33/35, with a waterline longer than the LOA; there must be a dimensional twist in there if it's true. Everyone seems to have a different value for the draught with centerboard lowered; I've seen everything from 1.8 to 2.2m. Does anyone know what it really should be?

In their centenary edition, I think, they produced a "Hundred Best Boats" supplement, which included the F35, with a nice, but tiny , picture of Castaway, so they aren't always scathing about Freedoms. Castaway made the cover of YM once, when the PO wrote about an Atlantic knock down (it was only published after he had sold it to us!).

Gerald

[Michel]

Some really sloppy proof reading here, too! Just look at the dimensions of the F33/35, with a waterline longer than the LOA; there must be a dimensional twist in there if it's true. Everyone seems to have a different value for the draught with centerboard lowered; I've seen everything from 1.8 to 2.2m. Does anyone know what it really should be?

Gerald, I measured it once when my UK built F33/35ck 'Tumlare' was on the hard. Total draft was 2.3 m or 7.5' . Don't know it's the same on the US built F33s.

In their centenary edition, I think, they produced a "Hundred Best Boats" supplement, which included the F35, with a nice, but tiny , picture of Castaway, so they aren't always scathing about Freedoms. Castaway made the cover of YM once, when the PO wrote about an Atlantic knock down (it was only published after he had sold it to us!).
Gerald

Gerald, I would be interested to read this article on the knockdown; do you have a copy of it?

[Tom V]

Attached is a paragraph from the home page of Eric Sponberg's website re. The three-masted Freedom. His website is ericsponbergyachtdesign.com


In March, 1980, Eric joined Tillotson-Pearson Inc. (TPI) of Warren, RI, as a staff engineer, responsible primarily for the production engineering of fiberglass windmill blades that TPI was building for US Windpower. At that time, TPI was also building Freedom Yachts, J-Boats, and Alden Yachts. By July of that year, TPI named Eric their Chief Engineer, and at that time, Freedom Yachts were undergoing a redesign of their free-standing masts from aluminum to carbon fiber. Eric carried on that effort which culminated in the three 65'-tall carbon fiber free-standing masts for Garry Hoyt's 70' Freedom schooner Kriter Lady II, intended for the 1981 Two-handed Transatlantic Race and that year's Whitbread Round-the-World Race. At that time, and for many years afterward, Kriter Lady II's masts were the tallest and strongest free-standing masts in the world. Eric has been one of the primary advocates of free-standing rigs ever since, and his latest designs, such as for the Freedom 38 Wobegon Daze, can be seen in the FREE-STANDING MASTS section.

-- a friend passed this info on to me. He's also a friend of Sponberg, and has e-mailed him to try to find out a bit more.

Tom

[marno]

I was talking to someone who said he was connected with Freedom in the UK towards the end. He claims that one of the three masted boats sat unused for a very long time and I believe he said there was a lot of rot in it (built as glass over ply or something like that), which pretty much meant that it was a write off. But I don't know if he really knew or was just blowing hot air.......