This is my friend’s boat, which he thought he was going to sell and I thought I would buy – but is now staying with him, for now. I have collected a bit of information on it from him and the internet, and am using this post as a collection page for it, to make it easy for me and others to find.
These sailing photos are all from just before he bought the boat, 7 years ago. As far as I know, she looks much the same now – he has done work, but the only visible change from the outside would be the new cockpit canvas. Not sure if that is present in the photo at mooring or not, or even when that one was taken.
She is a 1986 Freedom 36, which is a Gary Mull design from Freedom Yachts, their first design commission after Tillotson-Pearson (TPI) bought Freedom from Gary Hoyt, who founded the company in 1976 (or thereabouts). In 1989 Freedom changed the 36 into a 38 with the addition of a sugar scoop swim platform, and the original owner of this boat took it back to the factory for an update, so while she was born a 36, she really is a 38.
The original owner (Dr. Blake Cady) loved most things about the boat, but wanted two things fixed – he wanted more speed, and he wanted the bow to float higher, since the original design had been for the sloop version, and the weight of the mainmast being put right at the bow made her float bow-down. To that end, he worked with Eric Sponberg on two occasions – first, in 1996, they designed and built a prosthetic plumb bow onto the boat, which provided more than 400 additional pounds of bouyancy, and extended the waterline by 15%; then, in 2000, they designed a new rig with rotating wing masts and extremely roachy sails to increase power. The results are the photos seen here, and are quite striking!