Liberty Yachts is a small family company, owned and operated bythe father-son team of Nicholas and Joseph Corvelli. Nick’sextensive background in advanced composites, combined with Joseph’sbackground of marine engineering and naval architecture, providesLiberty with the concentrated knowledge and ability to producestrong, effective fishing machines.
Liberty Yachts has been building boats since 1976. And althoughthe company’s heritage principally lies in 28-foot sailboats and38-foot cruisers, for the past few years they’ve commenced buildingboth express and flybridge versions of a 42-foot sport-fisher.
The base Express with 450 Cummins C Series engines tops out atover 32 knots; other engine packages will reach 38 knots. However,speed does not come at the price of efficiency at Liberty. AFlybridge model with 510-hp V8 MANs burns 30 gallons per hour at 30knots.
The deep-V bottom provides a soft, dry ride to the fishinggrounds, and while trolling or drifting, the 7-inch-wide hardchines provide stability. The 42 rides high, up on her chines allthe way to the transom, with significant flare and sharp entryforward to keep spray off the boat.
Liberty builds its hulls with vinylester resin, with a lay-up ofalternating plies of offset biaxial glass for a lighter, strongercomposite structure. The hull bottom is solid, and the sides arecored with corecell, using vacuum-bagged construction. Stringersare hollow fiberglass-bonded and glassed-in. The decks and cabintops are cored with Divinycell, and the bulkheads are cored withstructural closed-cell foam. The boat contains no structural wood,and all fiberglass is glassed in to create a one-piece boat thatdoesn’t creak.
The base Liberty 42 Express comes complete with many featuresoften found as upgrades: Mathers Microcommander controls, fightingchair reinforcement, fresh and saltwater washdowns in the cockpit,Halogen lighting, entertainment center, Corian countertops,trolling valves, automatic halon fire suppression, PSS shaft seals,Hynautic steering and more.
Of course, sport-fishers are built to fish, and the Libertyholds her own in that department. Its large 100-square-foot cockpitand 14-foot, 10-inch beam create an open platform for a full crew.Two large in-deck fish boxes are insulated and removable and can beplumbed as desired. Two fishing stations contain space for tacklepreparation and storage – a sink, cutting table and storage to portand a freezer box/livewell (depending on choice) to starboard.
For more information, visit www.libertyyachts.com.
