Liberty’s jib, main and fisherman
sails take advantage of the steady
trade winds off Coral Bay harbor.
Liberty,
LIFE,
FRIENDS & fair winds
Written by Jaime Elliott
Photography by David D’Alberto
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 Week events 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.
Originally commissioned as Troubador by M.W. Haskell, of Blue Hill,
Maine, Liberty was built by Hodgdon
Brothers, in East Boothbay, Maine, in
1925, 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 beauty
had been neglected for years and was
sitting on the hard in bad shape.
Using the opportunity 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 father and his brothers
Chip and Mitch 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 used the Vaitses method to
fasten 11 layers of fabmat — a chemi-
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cally 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.
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 Week, 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 boatyard 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 topsails — a staysail, fore, main and that wedding fisherman
Top: Open mahogany hatches allow the breeze to cool the
galley and salon below decks; Middle: The spacious main
salon in Liberty offers ample space for meals and includes
expanding sleeping berths; Bottom Left: Classic wooden
oars in beautiful condition are stowed in Liberty’s V-berth;
Bottom right: Voltage, pressure and fuel gauges line a wall
near the navigation station, aft of the main salon.
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Liberty cruises past Flanagan
Island with all sails full on a
perfect Caribbean afternoon.
— 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 Vicki
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,”
“She takes good care of her crew. 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.”
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 designer’s 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
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A VHF radio, compass
and charts are within close
reach of a full bunk in the
captain’s quarters.
Alden design. Malabars 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 and 1/2 feet and weighs in at 16 gross
tons. Liberty is also comfortable, though, with six berths and
a 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 her 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 Lib-
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erty 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, 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 Harbor, but there have been interested buyers
from around the world. SJM
A collection of old photographs show Fletcher with his father Ret. Commander Charles
R. Pitts, Sr., above center, before Liberty was restored in 1975; Pitts with caulker
William Smith in 1976, top right; Liberty being restored in the Pitts and Sons, Inc. Boat
yard in Hampton Roads, Virginia; and under sail in the Chesapeake Bay.
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Photo by MaLinda Nelson
Coiled lines, sail ties and wooden
blocks fill a locker aboard Liberty.
St. John KidsAndTheSea
a lasting legacy 20 years later
While Fletcher Pitts and Robin Clair-Pitts were sailing the local
the V.I. sailing in the Beijing Summer Games.
waters aboard Liberty for almost 20 years, the couple also dedicated
While other KATS programs dissolved over the years, Fletcher
their time to sharing their maritime knowledge with the youth of
and Robin and a core group of volunteers, who include Thatcher
Love City as founders of the island’s sailing program St. John Kids
Lord, Vicki Rogers, Cat Taylor and Jennifer Robinson — none
And The Sea.
of whom have any children
Best known by its acroof their own — kept the St.
nym, KATS, the program
John program thriving for
was originally launched in
the island’s youth.
the Virgin Islands in the
Now 20 years later, Robin
wake of the drowning deaths
and the dedicated group of
of three Boy Scouts from St.
volunteers still devote most
Thomas.
Saturday mornings to the St.
“Three
Boy
Scouts
John KATS program. Despite
drowned in 1986 in Pillsbury
not being able to sleep in on
Sound,” said Robin. “They
a Saturday morning for 20
had been camping on one of
years, the volunteers behind
the small nearby islands. They
KATS couldn’t fathom doing
didn’t have any life jackets or
anything different.
safety equipment and their
“We’ve gone through a
skiff flipped over.”
lot of changes and it’s such
Rotary Club members on
a great group of volunteers,”
St. Thomas first raised the cry
said Thatcher. “It’s not someto begin a youth sailing prothing you can walk away
gram which echoed throughfrom. KATS is part of our
out the V.I. and Puerto Rico.
lives.”
“People were saying, ‘this
“We’ve seen so many kids
must never happen again,’”
grow up and go to college and
Robin said. “So they got the
become world class sailors,
University of the Virgin Isit’s incredible,” said Robin.
lands involved and the UniWhile the small group of
versidad de Puerto Rico and
instructors has stuck with the
maritime interests in the Virprogram for the long haul,
gin Islands. The first KATS
each year brings new volunstarted in St. Thomas in 1987
teers who ensure the St. John
and in 1988 St. John said, ‘we
KATS program continues to
Fletcher Pitts shows a few young sailors the ropes
in the late 1980s, during the early days
want one too.’”
teach the island’s youth boatof the St. John Kids And The Sea program.
Fletcher was working at
ing safety and the ways of the
Coral Bay Marine at the time
water.
and committed himself to
“There are so many people
bringing the program to St. John, Robin explained.
who keep KATS going, it’s a big effort,” said Robin. “We have so
“Fletcher heard about it and said, ‘this is what we’ve been waiting
many volunteers and supporters, it’s really special. I don’t know if
for — a chance to give back to the Virgin Islands,’” said Robin.
this could happen anywhere else.”
And so one Saturday morning in 1988, Fletcher and Robin and
Looking back, it’s hard to imagine St. John without the KATS
a small group of volunteers began one of the longest lasting sailing
program, but what kept Robin going in those early days was the
legacies on Love City — the St. John KATS program.
man she stuck with through endless boatyard haulouts and youth
Meeting most Saturday mornings between 9 a.m. and noon
regattas.
throughout the year, St. John KATS was started with only a three“Fletcher was the wind in my sails,” said Robin. “KATS was reboat fleet. Now the group boasts an impressive 10 lasers, 20 optially important to him and it’s really important to me.”
mists, 10 sunfish, two keel boats and a slew of chase boats.
Thanks to the both of them, countless children on St. John over
An impressively large number of children have taken advantage
the past 20 years have learned what to do on the water with wind
of that fleet and have gone on to sail on college teams across the
in their sails. SJM
– Jaime Elliott
country — and one former student has a good shot of representing
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