Island Freeport 41- History and Sailing Characteristics

[rickkramer]

Greetings! I am considering the purchase of an Island Freeport 41- in the 1978 range. Can anyone provide background on the boat. Quality of construction, sailing characterists, other pros and cons.
Thanks!

[swabbmob]

Hi Rick,
Bob Perry design. They are known to be stout boats with pretty decent living space. They are heavy and not particularly fast, but would keep pace with many other cruising boats - what's the hurry? I certainly like them, and looked at a couple, but was not large enough for our family. I used to dream about owning one back when I was about 15 when I would see it in the sailing magazines. Get a good survey.

[Stevens 47]

You know what they say about opinions, every body has one.

Mine is that they are is they sail like a pig on water, I like the Islander Freeport 36 much better, another Perry design it sails much better. Some of the hulls where built of vynlester resin a good thing. From my experience some where sold as hull and deck with the owner to finish. Would make a respectable live-aboard.

[Insearchof]

We were looking at Islander 41 Freeports, they are very nice. We have heard/read however, that they are extremely prone to blister. You would need to do a bottom peel, and reglass to avoid them coming back. Or for a quick fix they can be fixed on an individual basis, but they usually will return. The other problem we have read about them is the hull to deck joints were substandard, with whatever bolts or screws they had available to join the two. They were not always careful with the sealant placement, so usually you would need to remove the rail and then dig out all the sealant, replace it with something like 5200 and some folks needed to scarf some wood to have something for the bolts to bite into. Use the blister/joint problem as a bargaining point for the survey, and maybe you can get a good deal, knowing up front you will need to do some work!
Good Luck.