THE SHIP

Liberty is our boat. She is an old fibreglass lady who turns 50 this year. Built in the US of A in 1959 she is an Crystaliner production designed by Wirth Munroe, model name Arco 33. She is 33 feet (or 10 metres if you prefer) length over all, beam (width) 3 metres, she draws 1,5 metres with the centerboard up, 2,5 with it down. Furthermore she is long keeled and rigged as a cutter.

The hull is produced in solid fibreglass and is 28 mm thick (!), built as a tank! She is not equipped with a rolling furler, which means we will have to go up on the foredeck to change foresails. However it also means one less thing that can break down. Foresails include genoa (the original one from 1959!), jib, yankee, storm sail and staysail. We also have a gennaker that we hopefully will learn to use someday.

Other equipment the sailing geeks might be interested in includes 2 CQR anchors (25+35 lbs), a fisherman anchor, 45 metres all-chain rode and electric windlass, SSB radio, VHF, Yanmar 2 cylinder, 18 HP engine (new '96), two-blade propeller, Monitor windwane, Avon liferaft, Avon inflatable dinghy, EPIRB. We carry 40 litres of water in a forward tank, 115 more in 5 plastic containers in aft storage, these can be connected to the boat's watersystem so we have, at most, 90 litres of water accesisble «on tap». We also carry 40 litres of diesel plus an additional 70 litres on jerrycans.

Liberty has a big v-berth up front that can be made into two single berths, whatever suits. The cabin settee can be folded out as another big double bed. However at sea when doing watches we tend to use the quarterberth. We also have a grumpy two burner gas-stove with oven that works most of the time.

Being an old lady (Liberty is produced in the infancy of the fireglass boatbuilding techniques) she is incredibly sturdy; lots of the original hardware like cleats and winches are still on in it's all it's original bronze beauty. (The centerboard is made out of 200 kg solid bronze!). She has had an interesting life of which we only know bits; she has spent years cruising the great lakes in the states, the Bahamas, she has been through the Panama Canal and has spent around a dozen years cruising the Pacific Islands.

We have absolute trust in our ship, and should our little trip fail at any stage it is not likely to be caused by the ship letting US down.