Yacht Liberty Joins the Southern Wind Family

What happens when an owner is an experienced sailor and has a professional racing sailor as an advisor? You get a project like the yacht Liberty, hull number five in the SW96 series from Southern Wind Shipyard.

This repeat Southern Wind customer signed the contract in 2022. He was attracted to the ability to enjoy both comfortable family cruising and more of a performance edge. In fact, he was able to request further emphasis on racing from the shipyard and the design studios Farr Yacht Design and Nauta Design. For instance, she has EC6+ carbon rigging, which saves weight and has favor among racers participating in everything from high-profile ocean races to superyacht regattas. The rigging also has a double backstay already set up for both a pinhead and a square-top mainsail. This combines with a Hall Spars high-modulus carbon fiber mast and carbon fiber boom. It helps, of course, knowing that previous SW96 owners have pursued racing, too, along with bluewater cruising.

On the cruising side, meanwhile, the yacht Liberty provides her owner and his family with a raised saloon configuration. Windows all around in the coachroof bring sunshine in, brightening up the lounge and TV area forward of it. (No details are available yet on the décor.) Southern Wind Shipyard says that the portlights aboard Liberty are the largest ones yet for the series, too. That makes the three guest staterooms and owner’s stateroom more welcoming.

Additionally, the project incorporates the newest version of Southern Wind’s twin-fold transom. This affords a great experience when the sailing superyacht is at anchor. The aft portion of the deck and the transom door both open. This therefore doubles the swim platform’s surface area, making it about 108 square feet (10 square meters).

At the launch ceremony, the owner asked Niki Jennings, the in-house project manager for Liberty, to be her godmother and christen her. “Every yacht we build represents an adventure, and the one with Liberty has been a memorable one,” she remarks. ‘To the owner and his family, may you make happy memories of your time aboard this yacht. May she bring you joy and adventures. To the captain and his crew, take good care of her, as she will of you.”