1924 Alden-designed Malabar Schooner Liberty:
a classic beauty with a competitive edge

A familiar vessel at the head of Virgin Islands regattas and Antigua Classic. Yacht Weeks since the late 1980s, s/v Liberty is more than just a John G. Alden-designed classic 1924 Malabar VI pocket schooner.

Sure, she’s beautiful. With perfectly slender angular lines, Liberty is always one of the prettiest boats wherever she lies. But her continued racing successes and maintenance since the death of her captain are also testament to the fabric of the Coral Bay sailing community at large.

Originally commissioned as Troubador by M.W. Haskell, of Blue Hill, Maine, Liberty was constructed by Hodgdon Brothers, in East Boothbay, Maine, the year John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution and Calvin Coolidge was president.

When found by Fletcher Pitts and his father, Retired Navy Commander Charles R. Pitts, in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 1975, the 70-foot overall beauty had been neglected for years and was sitting on the hard in bad shape.

Using the opporunity to find something for the young Fletcher to do after high school besides whiling away his days surfing, the Pitts dedicated themselves to restoring Liberty to her former glory.

She became a family project and Fletcher, his brothers Chip and Mitch, and their father set to work. After an initial 18 months rebuilding Liberty in her original wood, the family opened Pitts and Sons, Inc. Boatyard in Hampton Roads and continued work on the vessel.

Two more 18-month rebuilds followed and Liberty spent years as a Pitts family yacht, cruising on the Chesapeake Bay.

Robin Clair-Pitts, who met Fletcher in 1968, was the only one outside the family who stuck with him through the rebuilds, when most of his old surfing buddies had long gone in search of another wave.

“He lost all his surfing friends,” said Robin. “I stayed around and helped in the yard when they had all gone.”

In 1985, in anticipation of sailing her to the Caribbean, Pitts and Sons Boatyard utilized the Vaitses method to fasten 11 layers of fabmat - a chemical bondable laminate of two different fiberglass materials - under Liberty’s keel and continuous fiberglass over the topside and cabin tops mechanically secured to the wood hull by 1 1/2 " inch stainless steel screws every 4 inches.

With fiberglass in place, Fletcher and Robin-Clair Pitts set out for St. John and arrived in Coral Bay on Christmas Day 1987 aboard what would quickly become one of the iconic vessels of the St. John sailing community, Liberty.

The couple raced the vessel with a crew of 10 to 12 skilled local sailors to an impressive number of regatta wins throughout the Caribbean, including the Wayfarer Marine Trophy and numerous first overall and first in class finishes in Antigua Classic Weeks, Sweethearts Classics and Foxy’s Wooden Boat Regattas.

Over the years, Fletcher and Robin lived aboard Liberty the entire time and spent every vacation working on her in one boat yard or another.

“Fletcher was never off the boat since he bought her in 1975,” said Robin, who still lives aboard Liberty in Coral Bay harbor.

Ret. Commander Pitts told Fletcher, "you're my success story," said Robin. "He'd given Fletcher a direction with the boat and Fletcher, dedicated all of his heart and soul to her and saved Liberty."

They did find time in 1995 to get married in Johnson Bay along the south shore of St. John, amid a gathering of close friends.

And their wedding present? A fisherman sail, of course, which still flies proudly.

“It was so beautiful,” Robin remembered of her wedding day. “All of our friends were there and everyone wore hats and there were tons of flowers. Everyone was crying, but Fletcher cried the most.”

Liberty continued to be a regular fixture in regatta rosters —usually crossing the finish line before the rest of the fleet — before Robin and friends said goodbye to Fletcher, who passed on Christmas Day, 2004, 17 years to the day after he sailed into the harbor.

Since then, Liberty has been raced and maintained by Fletcher’s widow Robin and a dedicated group of close-knit veteran Coral Bay sailors who ensure the schooner is still on call to cruise to best overall finishes at all the local regattas.

Sailing her, while a joy, is no easy task. With four top- sails - a staysail, fore, main and that wedding fisherman - Robin, a petite, former art teacher who can definitely hold her own hoisting a main, still requires more hands on deck. .

“There are a lot of strings and a lot of sail combinations,” said Robin. “It takes a lot of people to fly everything.”

For that she turns to a core group of close friends who have been sailing and racing Liberty for 20 years, and who now keep the classic schooner in fresh paint and the keel clean.

But for Thatcher Lord and Vicky Rogers, Sandy and Alan Mohler, Dave Dostall, Jason Dmitrieff, Cat Taylor, Julie Fortunato and Rick Vanasse, carrying on Liberty’s tradition is an honor.

“It’s such a family,” said Thatcher. “Everything had a lot to do with Fletcher, and Robin, of course. But it was personal too.”

The old friends talked about a test of sorts that Fletcher would give prospective crew mates, but not necessarily one that examined any sailing skills.

“We were kind of chosen I guess,” said Thatcher. “A lot of people say, ‘oh, can I please come on your boat.’ But with Liberty you had to be chosen.”

“It was like a test,” Thatcher continued. “But a character test — or lack thereof.” “

You had to have an appreciation for the boat and her design of course,” added Cat. “But in your heart you had to care for Liberty too.”

And Liberty always returned the favor, and continues to do so.

“She takes good care of her crew,” Cat said. “She gives you confidence. If you are going somewhere, she’s going to get you there, and get you there pretty fast and in style. You feel pretty special.”

“There is no experience quite like it — sailing on Liberty,” added Thatcher.

The vessel’s Alden design has something to do with that.

Malabars were one of the eminent boat designers’s very favorite designs and the schooners enjoyed wide success in the offshore racing scene between 1923 and 1932, making a name for the Boston-based Alden.

The boat designer started his company in 1909 and built the first Malabar in 1921. Alden then built one a year until 1930, when Malabar X was constructed. Liberty, built in 1925, is Malabar VI and design number 248B.

The schooner Liberty is an example of the type of design that made Alden who he was, one of the most talented and respected American boat builders ever.

“Why is she so fast,” pondered Robin. “It must be the crew and the Alden design. Malabar’s were one of his favorite designs and it’s not hard to see why.”

Liberty has a length on deck of 52 feet and a 12-foot beam. She draws only about 7 1/2 feet and wand a 12-foot beam. Liberty is also comfortable, though, with six berths and well laid out galley and salon.

What makes Liberty so special definitely has something to do with the sheer aesthetic beauty of her classic lines. The speed with which she fills her sails and elegantly skips past a fleet is surely part of her mystique, but only part.

“She loves the Trade Winds,” said Robin. “The conditions here are perfect for Liberty. That’s why we moved here in the first place, and she’s still happy here.”

Liberty's continued happiness is found in having her sails raised by a group of friends who have become family, and keeping a harbor full of boat owners proud to share here home anchorage.

Liberty is more than a fiberglass-over-wood classic schooner. She tells a tale about friends and a community and the love of something bigger than winning a race.

And none of it might have happened if Liberty wasn’t Liberty or if Robin and Fletcher weren’t who they were or if the St. John community, wasn’t what it is.

“I don’t know if it would happen anywhere but St. John,” said Robin. “We don’t have this community anywhere else. It’s really unique and special. It’s a family of friends.”

While the crew still races her, including finishing with the best course time in the Coral Bay Yacht Club’s 2007 Thanksgiving Regatta and planning another bid at Sweethearts 2008, Robin put Liberty on the market in 2005. She hopes to find a buyer who will keep Liberty maintained and racing in local regattas, but doesn’t really enjoy talking about that.

The idea of not owning Liberty is too intense to discuss with Robin, but it would bring tears to anyone’s eyes to part with such a classic beauty after a 33-year relationship.

“I went along for the ride and look where we ended up,” said Robin. “Fletcher needed the boat as much as Liberty needed him. We tried not to love her too much, but it wasn’t easy.”

And it won’t be easy saying goodbye. So far Liberty remains in Coral Bay but there have been interested buyers from around the world.