October 2026  Alanouwoly

By Hazel Brown

Alanouwoly is a 28ft Freedom, converted to junk rig by her previous owners: the wonderful Sally and Steve Peake.

I bought her from them in August 2019 and my dad, Sally and I sailed her from the Isle of Wight to Wilhelmshaven, Germany that same summer.

There I lived aboard her in the marina while I was in the German Navy, and took her through the Kiel Canal into the Baltic the next two summers, to get a feel for how she sailed and how I could handle her on my own.

During the winter, there would always be a variety of projects. I installed an autopilot and a bow roller with an anchor chain box, solar panels, a swim ladder and a new stove. I replaced the diesel tank, which had rusted through and converted to a composting toilet, all with the help of my dad, of course.

When my time with the Navy came to an end, I knew it was time to set off for real. My sister Elizabeth and I left Baltic Germany in July 2022 and headed north. We sailed to Denmark, Norway, crossed the North Sea to the Orkney Islands, went south through the Caledonian Canal and back north again to Stornaway, Outer Hebrides, where I spent my first winter as a cruiser aboard my beautiful new home. The next year took us south through the Minch, to Northern Ireland, the Scilly Isles, France and eventually across the Bay of Biscay to northern Spain, which was my first solo multi-night trip. Alanouwoly was fantastic of course, showing her capabilities close hauled and downwind in rougher conditions.

As I am writing this, I am at anchor in a beautiful archipelago in north-east Sardinia with plans of heading to Tunisia at the end of the year.

She is a comfortable live aboard for one person; two if you don’t mind being cozy, with a V-berth upfront and two settees either side of the keel box. The lifting keel has certainly come in handy on several occasions, plus it makes for an excellent long table down below. I have made a couple of modifications over the last few years, like building a permanent nav table at the end of the starboard settee, and I have a few more projects lined up for the coming winters, like installing a wind vane.

Over these last seven years, Alanouwoly has kept me safe in her high cockpit walls, dry and warm down below (thought sometimes under several blankets), and has allowed me to visit so many places I would never have seen otherwise.

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