Author: James Wharram

It is a beautiful bright Monday morning, I should be out walking along our creek, or better still, sailing down the creek into Carrick Roads, but alas with all our travels non of our small boats are yet ready for sailing. Hanneke, the ‘Ringmeister’ here at JWD has just dropped a bombshell (as I was…

My last Blog (God, how I hate that ugly word) was about our visit to Mumbai, India, the Mumbai Boatshow and our new Professional builder Rajesh of Viking Boats. Before we went, Hanneke pointed out that Phuket, Thailand was also in Asia, i.e. on the way and we had three good reasons to visit there.…

At the moment my dream is to sit aboard a Tiki 30 in a quiet creek with access to a bay and the open sea. I wish to sit there for several days with a stack of books, simple good food and wine and DO NOTHING, just wait for the peace and oneness with nature…

I no longer like the cold of northern winters. During the winter months I now have an escape excuse, to visit my Franchised Builders in the Philippines, Thailand and now India. Late October there was still glorious autumn weather in Cornwall – but I, with Hanneke, was aboard a Cathay Pacific airplane bound for the…

Recently I was commiserating with a friend of mine, a Yachting Editor. I wrongly suggested that he had less freedom in his magazine than editors in the past because of advertising imperative, i.e. advertorial writing. He corrected me “No James” he said, “what burdens me is the emails. When I was a junior yachting writer,…

I do not know how you people feel, but when I wander around boat shows, I sometimes feel that I am in an alien world. Still, I have been sailing, coastal and around the world, for 55 years. Progressing from terrified, to bewildered, to the belief that if you trust your boat, plan ahead and…

Cookie was back in the office this morning, she had been away for her father had died. Fortunately, she had been able to go to Venice with her husband the following week for a Hoby Cat organisation meeting, which helped her to move forward. Cookie has been working in the Wharram office this last year.…

It has been a long time since my last ‘Web Letter’, and I will begin this letter as I ended my last one, with acknowledgement and thanks to Steve Goodman for the hard work and determination he put into establishing this website 7 years ago. Amongst many other things, this summer, Hanneke and her two…

Woe, oh Woe, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa. I have neglected my Website letters for months. Last year, it was 50 years ago since I/we began our first major offshore catamaran voyage from Falmouth, England. At that time, 1955, the accepted opinion was that the ancient Pacific Double Canoes could not sail to windward, would break…