Freedom Yachts for Sale

Freedom Yachts existed to prove a point about rigs. Garry Hoyt founded it in Rhode Island in 1976 and revived the unstayed cat rig, whose ancestry runs back to the 19th century New Haven sharpies, because he thought stayed sloop rigs gave poor sail shapes and endless maintenance in return for their complication. Every Freedom was built for the company by Tillotson Pearson, and after some lean years Hoyt sold the business to Tillotson Pearson in 1985. The yacht division was sold on again in the mid 1990s and the company ceased in 2008. The range ran from the Freedom 21 of 1982 up to the 45s, taking in the original Freedom 40 cat ketch of 1976, the 28 cat ketch, the 32 cat sloop, the 39 pilothouse and later boats such as the Freedom 24.

On the used market the rig is still the whole proposition. There is no standing rigging to replace on schedule, no chainplates to leak, nothing to tune, and the sails are usually self tending, which is why these boats suit a couple or a shorthanded sailor who wants to go somewhere without a foredeck crew. What you give up is pointing ability and, on some models, a settled helm: they need steering. Survey accordingly. The masts are carbon and unstayed, so the step, the partners and the bearing surfaces carry loads a conventional boat puts into wire, and any sign of movement or wear there is the first thing to price. The hulls and decks are balsa cored, so moisture around deck fittings, stanchion bases and through hulls matters. Replacement sails are specific to an unstayed rig, so use a loft that has cut them before. Nothing has been built since 2008, which makes the owners' network and a rigger who knows the type more useful than any warranty would have been.