2025 has been another eventful year for me.
Women & The Wind
It was the year the documentary ‘Women & the Wind‘ premiered around the world. For those that don’t know about this beautiful film, it’s about the voyage of a 50 year old Wharram catamaran ‘Mara Noka’ sailed by three adventurous young women following plastic pollution across the North Atlantic. After nine months of world-wide screenings the film was released for home viewing on Christmas day.
As the senior Wharram woman I was invited to join the ‘girls’ last April, when the film did a screening tour in Brittany, organised by my friend Angie Richard, producer of the film. It was lovely to finally meet Kiana and her crew, and spend a week in their company. I was also able to visit the workshop in which Angie and her husband Remy have now started to build their Narai Mk IV catamaran. They welcome volunteers to help with the boat building. Follow Angie and her projects at Floating Stories Lab.
Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival
My involvement led to an invitation to speak at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival in early September, where the film was again screened to a large audience and the W&W foundation had a popular booth. My talk about ‘My life with Wharram catamarans’ was well attended and I took part in two interesting panel discussions, as well as being interviewed by The Boat Geeks podcast. I again met up with Angie and Kiana, spoke with lots of interesting people and made new friends. I also re-met Kiko Johnson after 33 years. We last saw each other when he enacted the launching ceremony of Spirit of Gaia in 1992 with a Hawaiian chant. He had flown over from Hawaii, specially to meet me and to view the film.
My trip to the USA was altogether a lovely time, including my stay the first week in Baltimore with my sailing friend Betsy (she sailed on two voyages on Gaia). Whilst there, I visited Chesapeake Light Craft in Annapolis, the large kit producers who now sell our Mana 24 kit.
On return to the UK at the end of September I was again required to ‘perform’ at the Southampton Boatshow on the Wooden Boat stage. This was organised by Belinda Joslin of the group Women In Boatbuilding (WIBB). Wooden boatbuilding is only a very small sector of the boating industry in the UK, so this Wooden Boat building section of the show, though small, was a good new initiative, but did not draw the large enthusiastic crowds like Port Townsend.
WIBB and the Sutton Hoo Ship Reconstruction
My involvement with WIBB led to more interesting events at the end of the year. I received an invitation by Belinda to a WIBB Christmas Social at her house in Essex, with a day in Woodbridge in Suffolk to inspect the reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo ship. The Sutton Hoo ship was found (as an imprint in the soil) in an Anglo Saxon ship burial (dated AD 630) that was excavated in 1939 (see movie ‘The Dig’). The burial still contained its treasure of beautiful objects and gold ornaments, which made it famous. These are now exhibited at the British museum.
By a fluke of synchronicity I received an email the same week from an old acquaintance who happens to live in Woodbridge and who was the initiator of the Sutton Hoo boat reconstruction project. He contacted me hoping I could shed light on the possible steering arrangement this boat might have had. He knew about my wide experience of steering paddles and side rudders round the world. So it was great to meet up with Paul Constantine and give him some useful insights.
Then another coincidence happened shortly before the Woodbridge meeting, when I was contacted by customers who wanted a Wharram catamaran professionally built in the UK. Through WIBB I was able to put them in contact with Abbey Boatbuilder, who had recently moved to a bigger yard in Norfolk and enthusiastically accepted to build their Pahi 63 in the coming year. So whilst I was still in that part of the UK, I travelled with Belinda to visit the yard, to meet with Abbey and the customers for the Pahi 63. Abbey Boatbuilder has now been accepted as the authorised builder of Wharram catamarans in the UK. The building of the Pahi 63 started in January.
Spirit of Gaia
This year included two visits to Spirit of Gaia in the Algarve. The first trip was in the spring together with my son Jamie and Liz, his partner. We were able to sail for a week along the coast, into the Rio Guadiana and as far as Cadiz in Spain, before returning to Armona. I then spent some extra time doing maintenance work helped by a lovely Italian volunteer, Federico, who subsequently has been helping Angie in her boatbuilding project in Brittany.
On another short trip to Gaia in October I welcomed a number of new people as crew and we had some lovely social sailing along the coast to Portimao and Alvor. At the end of the week the whole happy crew plus extra visitors helped me put Gaia to bed for the winter, giving them a lesson in taking off sails and folding them correctly. All the hard work was done in just a few hours.
Wharram HQ
Meantime back home, Jamie took over the running of our dispatch office at the beginning of the year and has done a great job streamlining the work we do. During this time, alongside answering the many email queries from our builders and would-be builders, I carried on digitising all our drawings and printing processes, making the production of our plans quicker and more efficient. Perky, our webmaster, carries on the indispensable work of keeping our website running smoothly, whilst Liz is keeping our Instagram page connected with the world.
Plans for 2026
We are hatching sailing plans for Gaia in 2026, with a voyage north as far as Cornwall (May – June) weather gods willing, followed by a spell in Brittany in July where Angie will organise a Wharram Hui (18 – 20 July), after which we will attend Têmpes Fètes traditional boat festival in Douarnenez (23 – 26 July). Those of you with Wharram catamarans start checking your diary. More details about the Hui coming soon.
I hope 2025 was a good year for you and that 2026 will be even better. Look forward to seeing you in Brittany.
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