The Creation of “Free Spirit”
We love it when people just want to tell us what they know about their treasured boat! Glenn Reynolds wrote to SWS about his 34ft Cutter.
It all begins with a love of sailing, water, building boats and exploration. The late 1960’s were full of baby-boomers exploring the world, trades were in high demand, and young were not afraid to build their dreams. It was the age of man landing on the moon, anything could be accomplished. So a young Peter Brown at the age of nineteen began designing his yacht, MANAPOURI (Solitude of Water)
At 34ft LOD, 36ft LOA Raked Stem, Transom stern
Beam 10ft (3.0m). Draft 6ft (1.8m)
8.5 ton with 4.5 ton of Lead Carvel build (King Billy Pine)
Sail wardrobe: Genoa, Staysail, Main, Flying Jib, Yankee, Spinnaker, Storm trysail, storm Jib.
The half model that Peter made before building the yacht.
From Peter’s tracings I drew up these plans.
Construction Images
Launch Day Images
Early Sailing Images
The Owners
Ships Official No. 355358 Registration No. FSN
Originally powered by a P3 Perkins Deisel 20hp
Being an Australian registered ship she has the ability to be sailed anywhere the wind takes her.
As mentioned before she has King William Pine Planking, Flooded Gum frames and Keelson, 4.5 tons of Lead poured by peter. Her original mast and boom were timber, now alloy. The interior has some Huon pine and Western Red ceader alone with many other materials. She lifts her skirts and loves a close reach to broad reach, but close hauled into a swell is not her best heading.
Her Travels
From humble beginnings in The Derwent River in 1969 Peter sailed from Lindesfarne, north to Sydney, finding work in a growing city. He lived mostly on the yacht for a few years until he met his wife.
1979 - From Sydney we know Free Spirit travelled north as far as Cairns QLD with George Karasz, after spending lots of time in Rushcutters Bay. George is reputed to have worked on many boats around the area, both underwater cleaning bottoms of yachts and many other jobs.
After George it must have been sailed back to Sydney by Wayne and Leslie of Vaucluse.
1996 - When Robert Hawthorne bought Free Spirit he wanted to sail around the pacific and beyond, but he and Glenise only made it as far as Port Stephens, where it was duly put up for sale.
1997 - This is where David & Donna Marshall inspected and purchased her. They sailed her back to the Pittwater area where she was moored for some time, until a mooring became available back at RANSA and Rushcutters Bay again in Nov 2002.
We know from David’s travels that Free Spirit travelled back to Hobart for the 2003 Wooden Boat Festival calling into Eden, for refueling then crossing Bass Straight in choppy waves and windy conditions relying on the Flemming wind-vane to ease the pressure on the crew. They encountered 30 knot squalls and rain while motor-sailing past St Helens and Bicheno. With strong southerlies turning to blustery westerlies, and following seas they sought refuge in Wineglass Bay. Coming out of Wineglass Bay they turned south and proceeded through Schouten passage into Great Oyster Bay, Spring Bay, then on to Denison Canal. They then headed out across Storm Bay heading to their destination of Kettering.
After the AWBF they returned via the Derwent River, Cape Raoul and on to Port Arthur for the night. The following day into huge seas and two reefs in the main and storm jib, they motor sailed round Tasman Isle, thence headed north to Tribunna. From there with a fuel top-up, across Great Oyster Bay and on through Schouten Passage and around to Wineglass Bay. After a short fuel stop at Bicheno, it was on to Eden, then a crew swap to take her back to Sydney.
Where she has spent many a happy Tuesday sailing around the Harbour along with other RANSA and CYC members for many years.
The Present
From a kid sticking a mast into a piece of coolite and a rag for sails, to sailing windsurfers, 12ft skiffs, moths, NS14’s and then racing 30footers on Botany Bay and many others yachts out of CYC Rushcutters Bay.
The dream of owning a yacht, started as early as my teens. But it became entangled into Trimarans, Racing yachts and 21ft Mini-Transats to name a few. What would I settle for? Then I read a book by Lyn and Larry Pardey, sailing in 24ft Serafyn, designed by Lyle Hess around the world. And after meeting them at an early wooden boat festival held at Kissing Point I was sold. It had to have a long deep keel, made of wood and have a gaff rig. Well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. When I crawled through ‘Free Spirit’ she met a lot of my criteria. Lovely interior, good and solidly built from Australian timbers, good length and right price.
So far we have only ventured to Middle Harbour a couple of times along with going in and out the Sydney Heads a couple of times. It’s work in progress, (it’s a wooden boat) always something to sand, paint, varnish, renew, simplify. etc… Still working at getting the best sailing performance from various sail configurations as well.