News

A month from today Hanneke and I will begin our flights out to Andy Smith Boatworks’ yard in the Philippines. A month later, on November 1st we will begin our Lapita Voyage, 3800Nm, south through the Moluccas, along the North coast of New Guinea, passing through the Solomon Islands and on to Tikopia and Anuta,…

David Halladay, owner of Boatsmith, Inc. in southeastern Florida, has recently entered into an agreement with James Wharram Designs to be the authorized builder of Wharram catamarans in the United States. This agreement was signed after James and Hanneke met David and his wife Debra at the 2008 Wooden Boat Show in Mystic Connecticut and…

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…

Ruth Wharram has finally found time to put together a collection of her articles, newletters and diaries, ranging from Living Aboard the “Tangaroa” in 1955 to more recent letters while voyaging in 1994-1997. It is a facinating booklet telling the most amazing stories of her adventures. You can order this booklet from our webshop –…

The Kon-Tiki Museum and the Norwegian Maritime Museum, Bygdøynes, Oslo, Norway. ‘Early Man and the Ocean’, an adventure film festival where new and classic documentaries of great sea-adventures and marine experimental archaeological projects are screened, will take place at two museums and on five screens simultaneously. Suitable for anyone who have an interest in ancient…

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…

After many months of work, building plans for the Tahiti Wayfarer are finished. They are a work of art, with all building details sketched out in fine detail, so anyone can understand how to build her. This is a pure Ethnic Canoe you can build for under £1000 (for the double canoe, less if you…

Anuta in TRIBE series on Televison If you have been interested in the Tikopia Project and are in a location where you can receive BBC2 television, you may be interested in the program on Tuesday 4th September at 9pm UK time. The 3rd episode of the latest ‘Tribe’ series takes Bruce Parry to the tiny…

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…

We received the following letter together with a cheque for £700 from the ‘Multihull Group’, a UK association of businesses dealing in Multihulls. Dear James, Ruth and Hanneke, Having decided to dissolve the Multihull Group, everyone was in agreement that any remaining funds in the account would be donated to charity and be divided between…

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…

The Beale Park Boatshow was successful. £354 was raised from a raffle for the Tikopia canoe project. The winner took home this fine hand crafted model of the Tehini.. The prize The Tahiti Wayfarer attracted a lot of attention from Beale Park visitors James Wharram Designs at Beale Park Winner of the model Tehini JWD…

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…

I begin this Web letter with two pictures. Look at them. This single hull boat shown is a traditional ‘Friendship’ sloop. The man who is sailing it understands practical sailing, the ability to use rope and every scrap of ‘canvas’ to get maximum speed in light sailing winds. He is a ‘Sailor’. Good boat builders…

In my last Web letter, written in September, I revealed that I had visited Mongolia this year on a Wharram Designs related trip. Since then, several people have written, asking: “How can an ocean sailor and designer of Ocean Sailing boats end up with a sailing project in Mongolia?, surely Mongolia is right in the…

Three or four months can be a long time in a sailor’s life. In that time he/she could have crossed oceans or sailed many coastal miles calling in at many different lifestyle ports. When I last sat here at my writing table, I was looking through my studio windows at the cold, storm-driven rain of…

Spring has come to Cornwall! Hanneke my Design Partner is in Corfu refitting our 63′ Pahi ‘Spirit of Gaia’ with a working crew of 2 Dutchmen and 1 German. The common language is Dutch! This refit is the first major refit since the Gaia was in Brisbane in 1997 – a refit organised by Steve…

If the rest of the year 2002 continues as has the first month, January, I can imagine the day when myself “James” will return to our 63′ Pahi, ‘Spirit of Gaia’, hoist sails and sail away to the peace and solitude of the oceans. Positive excitement and work can seem great but too much of…

Steve Goodman, Webmaster, has been urging me to write of the ‘Spirit of Gaia’ summer voyage, 1200 nm from Corfu into the Adriatic Sea, northwards to Venice, then across to Croatia, South and back to Corfu. The idea is to encourage the Wharram sailors on this website or write privately more of their journeys for…

Looking out, as I write this, at the swans floating in our quiet Restronguet Creek, it seems odd to think that two weeks ago, in a three week visit, I was climbing the mountain temple of Borobudur in Java to be shown the stone carvings of the great outrigger ships that sailed in Indonesian and…

I must thank Lee Shipley, Ben Mullet, Colin Flynn for their recent discussion on aspects of Wharram Catamarans on our Web Forum between 16 January and 4 February (under headings NARAI Mk IV and Tiki 46 Rig). Lee Shipley for writing about the advantages on open decks, i.e. no or minimum deck cabins, Ben Mullet…

As I sit at my writing table, there are 70 mph gales and rain once again battering this house. As they have been, almost non-stop since late December (or at least it seems that way). On the 10th of December 2000, Pete Goss’s 120-ft racing catamaran Team Phillips, costing 4.5 million pounds to build, was…

As I write this, the first snow for ten years is falling outside the office windows. (An unusual occurrence here in Cornwall) It seems so recent when at this time of year we left Christmas Island and Indonesia behind us and were sailing aboard GAIA to Sri Lanka, from there to Oman, then non stop…

I have been back in Cornwall for three weeks, most of the time stuck in ‘The future of the PCA’ problem. But life has to go on, and many serious people are interested in ‘How did the 21ft. Ethnic design, the ‘TAHITI WAYFARER’ sail? How did it steer with no rudder just a steer-board paddle?…

Steve Goodman, the Webmaster, is at me again: “James, you must write a Website Newsletter”. I would sooner slide out into the workshop to see the finishing stages of our new ethnic design, the 21ft. (6.40m) Double Canoe ‘Tahiti Wayfarer‘, tomorrow to be loaded onto a new trailer and taken to the Douarnenez Ethnic Boat…

This update has been written by Ruth, who is “taking care of business” while James and Hanneke are on an expedition to Iceland (more about that later…). In reply to the recent Internet forum discussions forwarded to us about the fact that James now only rarely writes articles including his “Jim’s” column for the PCA,…

The l6ft. ‘MELANESIA’, using two sheets of ply for the main canoe hull is our modern solution to the shortage of suitable trees for dugout construction. The ‘MELANESIA’ is to be used in the traditional manner as a small inter island sea truck, for daily commuting to their gardens, for out to sea fishing or…

The Wharram Website is now “On”. Steve and Don, the guardians of the Website, have asked me to write more (and more and more). I can see how a Website can become addictive, becoming a public diary, but I do have to remember the many in the world who do not have access to computers.…

We now have an official Wharram Website. Some people will say: “At last, Wharram has been dragged kicking and screaming into the late 20th century!” In fact, the electronic computer era and Wharram have grown together; for the electronic computer, the home port of the website, is as old as the Wharram double canoe/catamaran designs.…

The following is a magazine extract from the November 1982 issue of Cruising World: For Cruising World’s 1982 Design Competition, we were looking for a new and innovative trailable gunkholer, designed for use on protected waters and with accommodations for at least two people. For ease of trailering and launching with a small car, a…