Author: James Wharram

All my life people have been helping me with advice, physical work and in providing me with hospitality. Then there are the people whom I have never met, but have provided me with inspiration; sometimes I think it will take several lifetimes to discharge the debts I owe. One group of people who have provided…

These last few weeks, I have been through a soul-searching time. I will record it because I believe many readers of this column and builders of Wharram Catamarans have had similar soul-searching moments on their life direction and sailing. We had been sailing in Greece for three weeks in October and when we came to…

I should have been writing this web letter a month ago. Subject: ‘the Launching and Sailing of the Tiki 8m. “Man proposes, God disposes” is an appropriate cliché. We officially launched the Tiki 8m with a quiet ceremony on Friday July 22nd, off our local Devoran village beach, then in gathering drizzle and gloom moved…

I began my May web letter moaning about the hard work to anti-foul, clean and polish the topsides of my/our 63-foot catamaran ‘Spirit of Gaia’ at her Greek sea base in Gouvia Marina, Corfu. For six days we have been back in Devoran, our Cornish land base. To keep fit and enjoy Devoran’s beautiful scenery,…

My career as a Blogger has recently been in limbo due to technical difficulties. I write this column with a ‘pen’ on ‘paper’. Then Hanneke places this hand written message into a communication machine called an ‘Apple Laptop’. Then, in a manner I do not understand, via minute handheld telephone and a mysterious ‘Entity’ called…

Apparently, putting in the odd personal remark in my letters on this Website makes me a ‘Blogger’. In the North of England, where I come from, we have had for hundreds of years Earth spirits called ‘Bogles’ and ‘Boggerts’. Coming off watch, I frequently drop my clothes at the entrance to my bunk. When I…

The year 2004 has for the Wharrams been a chaotic year. At this moment there are 3 major rebuilds going on. The first is Ruth Wharram‘s knees, maybe it was the skiing she did before she met me, maybe, just maybe, it was the 50 years of boatlife with me, but she needs complete new…

It’s the time scale of building my bigger designs that has led me to put my new bigger designs like the Islander 55 and 65, Pahi 52 and hopefully a new Pahi 60 design into a Professionally Built class. Sadly, since I took up professional building again, I have come into a certain conflict with…

December/January in Northern Europe was cold and wet. January found Hanneke and I attending and tramping around two major boat shows. First to the London Boat Show which after 30 years at the cramped Earl’s Court exhibition hall has moved to its new ExCel site on the river Thames. After 3 days in London, we…

SOMETIMES IN LIFE a series of “happenings” occur which make one sit back and reflect on who one is, one’s life pattern and where one is going. This has been happening to me. Recently, I received a phone call that “Audrey Whillen” had died. Audrey Whillen was the wife of Don Whillen, who died a…