Over the last two weeks of July I was being interviewed by a French yachting journalist (Jean-Yves Poirier – one time Wharram French agent and long-time friend) for an extensive biographical article in the French Yacht magazine, Chasse Marée.
Going through my past life and old files we were constantly distracted by the many offshore voyages – single handed, couples, families - made on Wharram catamarans. These people were/are not following a ‘master’, but are themselves ‘masters’ who use my design ability to become ‘People of the Sea’. One of these people is Rory McDougall.
In my last weblog about the Jester Challenge I wrote:
“In the early hours of Saturday 26th June Rory sailed his Tiki 21 ‘Cooking Fat’ into Newport, Rhode Island, finishing second in the Jester Challenge, just 2.5 hours after the Russian 25ft yacht ‘The Grand’, having sailed in 34 days from Plymouth, UK. ….
“I could not be at the start of the Jester Challenge as I had just had a knee replacement operation. From my armchair I was quietly confident in Rory’s planned voyage. I knew Rory knew what he was doing and the boat would look after him, simple as that. …..
“Take care Rory, our thoughts will be with you. We look forward to welcoming you home.”
The July issue of Classic Boat magazine features the winners of this year’s design competition for an Eco Fishing Boat.
They wrote: “The brief was for an under 10m boat that would not need a license for fishing under sail or oar. Many entries nodded to traditional types, but the winner was surprisingly radical.”
They chose the new Wharram Ethnic design, the 27ft Amatasi double canoe, the only catamaran entry. The design is developed from the 21ft Tahiti Wayfarer design and inspired by the Ethnic canoe craft of the Pacific. The hull lines are derived from the fishing canoe hulls of Samoa (bonito canoe, Va’a alo or Amatasi) and similar canoes in the Society islands. They have very shallow draft and are easy to row and beach. The boat is steered with steering paddles.
In the early hours of Saturday 26th June Rory sailed his Tiki 21 ‘Cooking Fat’ into Newport, Rhode Harbour, finishing second in the Jester Challenge, just 2.5 hours after the Russian 25ft yacht ‘The Grand’, having sailed in 34 days from Plymouth, UK.
In this office it was joy and Laphroaig whiskey all round.
Congratulations Rory, you have done magnificently!
Photo Credit: Mary Beth Pike
Photo Credit:Dave De La Cour
Monday, June 14 2010 @ 10:47 AM BST
Contributed by: Admin
Views: 126
Boatsmith has delivered two Tiki 8M sailing catamarans to the beautiful Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort on the west coast of Florida. These boats are used for captained day sail charters for snorkeling, shelling and dolphin watching excursions. These boats were custom made to serve the needs of this resort. Their shallow draft allows them to be pulled up to the resort's beachfront for guest boarding. They feature a separate cockpit for the charter captain, custom cockpit seating for passengers, a large comfortable trampoline area, and a full marine head. The captain's are very happy with the performance and report that their customers love the comfort features and sailing experience on these boats.
If you are on the West coast of Florida, stop by the Marriott and sign up for a sailing adventure on these beautiful vessels.
Please note that the sailrigs on these catamarans are not the standard Wharram Wingsail
Mahiya was launched Saturday December 6th 2009 at about 6 pm (just as it was getting dark and the wind was picking up for a little blow! Ofcourse we were rushing to get her in the water and have not finished eveverything but she is floating (right on her loaded waterline).
We had a big launch party Saturday night with a big buffet dinner and live band at a resort on the beach and were able to look out and see the anchor light bobbing in the building swells. Latter after the party we rowed out to spend a fitful first night on her as I lay awake bolting at every new noise as she got used to her new environment.
Motored around to the lee of our island (Panglao) the next morning and finished rigging her.
She is now peacefully anchored in the lee on Alona beach a short walk from our rental house, in front of the dive shop where I sometimes teach.
Still more work to do, but I am finally free of the drudgery of 6 days a week in a boat yard!
Mahiya is in the water!! (Click 'Read more' for more photos)
It wasn't easy to get permission to sail to the outer islands of Kiribati. Immigration blocked the process until I complained to the Ministry of Tourism. It's a similar situation in Tuvalu so it isn't surprising that I saw only one other yacht in Kiribati during the four months I was there. I did eventually get to spend three months at two different remote villages and found the hospitality and friendliness there to be just wonderful. At the first village I was given more food than I could eat; tuna and flying fish, breadfruit, swamp taro, coconuts, bananas, lemons, edible leaves, palm syrup, etc. I dried enough bananas and fish to last for months. This was a spectacular place for snorkeling on the ocean's edge and I had the fortune to swim with dolphins for the first time ever. The little kids would yell my name from the beach in the evening until their little voices were horse and cracking. At the second village I was invited right into a home both eating and sleeping with the family. The extended family slept all together in one room which was mostly without walls, wide open but for the roof. There was though some separation between nuclear families due to sleeping in different mosquito nets. There were several days of meetings of the "old men" of the island which included entertainment evenings mostly dancing performances and public dancing. The women were so hospitable as to keep me dancing until I was exhausted.
...the strange foolish vanity of the camp, which said, "beyond our light and our order there is nothing," turning their faces always inward toward the sinking fire of illuminating consciousness...
DH Lawrence
The Rainbow
Village life continues to be almost completely self-sufficient, almost everything handmade and little light at night but for the golden glow of cooking fires glinting through the trees. Virtually everyone goes barefoot. Canoes are made of hand sawn planks of light breadfruit wood sewn together and painted but using neither metal nor glue. Most houses are made of sticks and leaves tied together with hand made string. I was especially interested in the houses because a thatched hut on Manu Rere's deck has been part of the design concept from the start. So I studied the houses getting a lesson on the characteristics of ten kinds of trees. The most useful sticks for construction come from three mangrove tree types. So I spent many hours hunting good sticks, wading the miles of tanbark red sea flooded tunnels hacked through the extensive mangrove forests around the village. The thick legs of the house are made of the aerial roots of pandanus trees which also provide the leaves for the thatch. One friend even built me a model of a house in order to illustrate every aspect of construction. The house I built on deck is almost completely traditional only being extra strong in the legs so that it can be dragged around to get it out of the way of rigging and being sized so that the roof panels can be removed and fit into the hulls through the big hatches for a storm. I didn't make either the 300 feet of string required or the panels of thatch and had help installing the thatch which involved a surprising amount of technique and two specialized tools.
Art connoisseurs value the hand made rather than the machine made, for example a machine made Persian carpet has relatively little value. Considering this it seems to me that villagers like these who have been overlooked by "development assistance" live their whole lives surrounded by art. Aesthetics was a large part of the reason I wanted this type of deckhouse.
In the picture of the hut on deck also note the coconut husker which I produced myself and the traditional Gilbertese paddle underneath which is made efficiently of breadfruit wood blade tied to tough slender mangrove handle; glue and metal free. The anchor was made to my drawing by a shipyard in South Tarawa. This old-fashioned type of anchor is the best there is, pound for pound, for penetrating hard seabeds such as those made of the coraline sand of the tropics, which, being calcium carbonate, tends to rapidly cement. Note however the large size and critically important angle of the flukes.
The four months tourists are permitted in Kiribati having ended I had a smooth sail to Kosrae Island in the Federated States of Micronesia this week. The capital of FSM, Pohnpei,collects $95 in fees for clearance so I plan to skip it and spend the next five to six months at outer islands, beyond the reach of communications, until arriving at Yap in December.
To clarify a little I don't recommend Kiribati to other cruising folk. Along with the obstruction and hostility toward yachts openly displayed by senior immigration officials, the visiter will note, there is nothing there. Meanwhile French Polynesia, Vavau Tonga and New Zealand have it all.
After waiting weeks in Funafuti, Tuvalu, for contrary Northwesterly winds to stop, I was rewarded with several days of smooth sailing bound for Tarawa, Kiribati. Instead of the direct course Northwest I sailed North hoping for continued Easterly tradewinds, which seemed less common further West. Just when I was far enough North to make a turn to the Northwest, the wind came back from that direction so I beat on North. In addition to the contrary winds I also saw that I was being set by a current to the East, very unexpected south of the equator, and not a small current, but one which carried me some 50 miles per day in the wrong direction.
This winter there has been a major El Nino event. The wind just South of the equator changes from the Easterly trades to Westerly and the current also reverses in a flow to the East called a 'Kelvin Wave'. Bad timing. I had zero chance of sailing the 50 miles per day, against fickle equatorial Northwesterlies, required just to hold position. In fact for several days I was swept helplessly directly away from Tarawa. However, I knew that the no-fail way to reach Tarawa was to get far enough North to ride the rock solid Northeast trades. Meanwhile I had lots of food and water and books to read and was perfectly at home. I might even end up visiting Baker Island not far to the East.
There were a couple of very beautiful days and nights at sea while I inched my way north. While trying to take advantage of stormy evening squall winds, they sometimes become so fearsome that it was best to drop the mainsail and heave to for the night, but nothing broke. Otherwise making the best of one or two knots of breeze between calms.
As it happened the current stopped at the equator so I skipped Baker. A few days later the trades came in, and with 150 miles per day instead of 20 - 30, I made Tarawa in just 3 more days. Three weeks total for some 800 miles.
This photo was taken almost a year ago in the Marquesas
Best wishes to you all from a chilly UK.
I have entered into the Jester Challenge 2010 to sail Cookie 2800 miles singlehanded from Plymouth UK to Newport USA. We take off on 23rd May and hope to take 4-5weeks. For more info on the Challenge go to http://www.jesterinfo.org/thejesterchallenge2010.html
I am raising funds for the Sir Francis Chichester Trust which is a very worthy cause. The Trust send disadvantaged youths on outward bound courses to help their self development through adventure.
Please can you help me to raise funds for this charity as I sail across the North Atlantic on Cookie and set another benchmark as the smallest catamaran to do so.
Recently we received photos of Tahiti Wayfarer Nr. 8, built and launched in Istanbul.
She was built in an upstairs living room, lowered out of the window, then assembled in a garden and finally launched on the beach.
We can count 10 people on deck of 'Tai-o-Tai-o' on her maiden trip. Wish we could have been there too!
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