What distinguishes the 33 isn’t merely its unstayed rig, but the way its hull, board, and structure were engineered around that rig.
Design and Construction
The Freedom 33 has a balsa-cored hull and deck. Its hull-to-deck joint is through-fastened with 5/16-inch stainless steel bolts and bonded with 3M 5200 adhesive sealant. The bulkheads are tabbed to the inner fiberglass skin while leaving the core intact, preventing hard spots from telegraphing through to the topsides.
Stability comes from 3,800 pounds of lead ballast, cast in wedge-shaped pieces and glassed into the bilge. A 1,200-pound centerboard of lead and fiberglass supplements that ballast. The board pivots in a channel, eliminating the need for a hull-breaching pin. It has a triangular profile and constant chord, and fits closely in its slot to reduce drag while producing hydrodynamic lift at any angle. It’s rugged and doesn’t thunk annoyingly in the trunk.
Early boats left the factory with two-part aluminum tubular masts that were heavy, reducing stability and increasing pitching moment. Tillotson-Pearson responded with a research program that produced one-piece carbon-fiber laminate spars, reducing mast weight by roughly 30 percent while making the rigs considerably stiffer.
The 25-gallon aluminum fuel tank sits deep in the bilge alongside the ballast, a location worth noting for any future owner.
Rig and Handling
The wishbone cat-ketch rig carries wrap-around, two-ply sails loosely connected at the leech. Its wishbone booms allow longer luffs than conventional booms and don’t interfere with draft at the foot, although they do add windage.
Mizzen draft is controlled through outhaul tension. On the mainsail, it’s adjusted by changing the wishbone’s effective length. The rig uses slab or jiffy reefing, but the excess sail gathers around the wishbone in aerodynamically messy folds instead of stacking above a conventional boom. Furling is straightforward: the sail drops into a basket of shock cord stretched across the wishbone, then more cord across the top secures it.
All halyards, sheets, outhauls, reefing pennants, and the centerboard pennant lead aft to the cockpit. A pair of self-tailing Barient 23 winches and an array of sheet stoppers handle the lines.
With the mizzen traveler mounted aft, the cockpit offers something rare among production boats: usable space without a traveler threatening legs or a mainsheet garroting the crew. The pedestal-mounted wheel also sits well aft. The helmsman can stand or sit on a fold-up seat over a teak grate, beneath which the steering cable and quadrant for the outboard rudder are unusually accessible.
That grate also serves as the cockpit drain, feeding scuppers through the transom. It’s a highly effective arrangement for draining a flooded cockpit quickly.
Practical Sailor found the Freedom 33 stiffer and, foot-for-foot, faster than its sisters in the Freedom line. The sail plan gives optimum performance in 10 to 15 knots. Below 10 knots—especially when sailing to windward in chop—the stubby hull, centerboard, and wetted surface make the boat sluggish. It’s also not closewinded, as much because of the hull shape as the rig.
Accommodations
The first design had an aft cabin that consumed cockpit space and a main cabin divided by the centerboard trunk. The production layout did away with the aft cabin and placed the galley at the foot of the companionway. To port of the trunk is a dinette that converts to a double berth; a settee berth lies to starboard.
A 5-foot-long, waist-high centerboard trunk runs through the middle of the main cabin, with the mizzen mast rising from its aft end. Interior joinerwork in oak, ash, and spruce is finished to a high standard, as is the teak-and-holly sole.
Stowage is by far the best seen in a boat of this size. The galley drywell is particularly good, with a sliding section for seldom-used items.
The wide starboard quarterberth is comfortable but has little overhead foot room. The pilot berth on that side is accessible only to someone under 4 feet tall and weighing less than 40 pounds. Forward, the cabin—including the head—can be closed off completely behind its own door.
A sliding door at the aft end of the cockpit houses the propane bottles. The anchor sits in an optional fiberglass bowsprit with man-sized chocks integrally fitted to the teak toerail.
Known Issues
The main structural caveat concerns the deep-bilge fuel tank and ballast layup. With the 25-gallon aluminum tank seated low among the wedge-shaped ballast, any corrosion or fitting failure puts diesel precisely where it’s hardest to reach and most consequential to the structure.
Although well fastened, the balsa-cored hull and deck have the usual vulnerability of end-grain core to prolonged wetness around penetrations.
The early, two-part aluminum masts were a known weakness corrected in production with carbon-fiber spars. A surviving original rig is therefore a downgrade in stability and stiffness compared with the later arrangement.
When reefed, the sails gather around the wishbones in messy folds. This is a handling nuisance rather than a defect. Below, the centerboard trunk intrudes into the main cabin, and the starboard pilot berth is effectively unusable by an adult.
The Verdict
The Freedom 33 is a thoughtfully resolved cruiser. Its unstayed cat-ketch rig, closely fitted centerboard, and carbon-fiber spars deliver stiff, quick motion, while the rig layout keeps cockpit handling unusually clean.
The accommodations trade some headroom and a largely unusable pilot berth for stowage and joinerwork that stand out among boats of this length. The Freedom 33 isn’t a light-air or closewinded boat, and its deep bilge demands respect.
Pros
- Stiffer and faster than other Freedom sisters; carbon-fiber spars reduce mast weight by roughly 30 percent
- Centerboard pivots without breaching the hull and fits closely in its slot to reduce drag
- Cockpit is free of traveler hazards
- Steering gear is unusually accessible
- Transom scuppers drain the cockpit quickly
- Best-in-class stowage and high-quality wood interior
Cons
- Sluggish below 10 knots and not closewinded
- Deep-bilge aluminum fuel tank complicates access in the event of corrosion or a leak
- Starboard pilot berth is unusable by adults
- Centerboard trunk divides the main cabin
- Early aluminum masts are inferior to the later carbon-fiber rig
