Islamorada Wharram Catamaran Rendezvous 2010

May 14-16 was the spring hui of Wharrams in Islamorada. We had our Tiki 30 down for the event and had a great time as usual. This time we pulled right up on the beach at the Lorelei Restaurant and took people on demo rides all day long.

The wind was a little on the light side so we didn't set any speed records. However the slowest top speed we hit on any trip all day was 10 knots. Not bad for a boat with8-10 people on board.
There were the usual suspects in attendance of course, but also there were a couple of new boats who travelled to join us. The smaller boat in this photo is Rick's Tiki 21 Sandy. Rick and his wife and daughter trailered Sandy down from North Carolina. Rick's boat was very nicely built and they were enjoying her immensely.
Abaco strutting .
This is a crummy photo,but shows The Pahi 31 Surfrider sailed down from Pensacola by Greg Russell with a couple of friends visiting from California.
Scott B. Williams came down for the event and took most of these pictures. He also wrote an article that is in this months issue of Southwinds magazine. Here's a link.
http://www.southwindsmagazine.com/

Everybody had fun, the weather was terrific and we hoisted one in honor of James Wharram's
82nd birthday 5-15. Congrats James and thanks for all the fun. We will get together again this December further north in FL.

Wharram Tiki Catamaran Press

When we let Onne van der Wal use our Tiki 30 in the Exumas last year in exchange for some photos and press we thought that it would be good for us. The whole deal has worked out very well for us. First Onne is a real nice guy and was very easy to work with. Second, the amount of press we have gotten has been great and the photos that he gave us are wonderful.
To start off his son had an article published is Sail magazine in January about their trip on Abaco.
This was followed by Cruising World magazine using a photo of Abaco on the cover of their February issue. Then in March we were there was a short article in Cruising world about Boatsmith being the US builder for James Wharram Designs. April saw a photo of Abaco in an article about simple cruising in Sailing magazine. Then in May we are gracing the cover of the May/June Boat US magazine cover. This is certainly an awful lot of exposure for one Wharram catamaran to receive in one year. There is also a photo of Abaco on Onne's 2010 calender. On the July Southwinds cover there is a shot of Gil Grove's Narai and inside there are photos of Abaco, and a Tiki 21 named Sandy, a Pahi 31 named Surfrider, a Tangaroa named Forever Young, and a Tiki 26 named Inseperable. These were all taken at the Wharram Rendezvous in Islamorada in May.

Boatsmith's Tiki 30 in Sail magazine

The January issue of Sail magazine is a multihull focused edition. And one of the multihulls featured is our Tiki 30 "Abaco". There are some very nice photos of her in The Exumas. Here's a few more to titillate you.

Home from the Bahamas

We had a great time with Abaco in the Exumas this summer. We had delivered the boat to Nassau for Onne van der Wal to take a working vacation with his kids. We ended up with lots of great photos and our boat ready to go in the Exumas. Some of our associates and their families spent time on her and then my family went over for a couple of weeks. I would have some pics of that trip but waded into the water with my camera in my pocket within the first 1/2 hr of arriving at the boat in Staniel Cay

So now it was time to bring the boat back to Florida to make her perfect for the Annapolis Sail Boat Show in October. My niece had just graduated fro college and I suggested that she and her roommate might enjoy going with David Crawford on his delivery back. being smart girls they didn't have to be asked twice. And David just needed a little arm twisting to have a couple of attractive young women for crew. Some guys just seem to get the sweet jobs.

The girls thought that this was a small plane from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau.
That was before they saw the plane from Nassau to Little Farmers Cay.

This is the airport terminal at Little Farmers.The crew is l-r Kelly, David, Sara

The boat was anchored in the harbor. We had a local man keeping a eye on it and all was well.

Sara is delighted with the small galley as she comments that obviously she won't be cooking in here.

This is really the shower?

First stop is a trip to the caves nearby.

Then a trip to the local seafood market for dinner.

While in the islands we added these blue tarp awnings. we rolled them down as required for additional shade. We will incorporate these into our next bimini.

Fresh water is readily available throughout the Exumas due to many RO units.

Even though this is technically a delivery there was time to stop and hike to see the iguanas on Great Guana Cay.

The next stop is the famous Thunderball Grotto.

The last leg is from Great Harbor at the north end of the Berrys to West Palm Beach. The weather report said go now as a front is coming through in 36- 48 hrs. Part of it was a little ahead of schedule as they experienced some thunder storms out in the gulf stream.

The wind was only 5-10 from the southeast. Not really enough to sail fast as they were headed north west.

As the sun was setting and the wind picked up a little my dirty moldy old fouly jacket started looking pretty good to Sara.

Fortunately Kelly had some sailing experience and could spell David at the helm. Sara sang out to David, who was napping below that there was a big cruise ship coming. David asked where and Sara replied over there,when queried which way was it going the reply was that way.

There was a lot of cruise ship traffic in the Northwest Providence channel and crossing the stream. Some of the had video screens on the upper deck that seemed as large as Abaco

One last shot of Paradise.

Wharram Catamaran in the Exumas

I think that the two photos below show why Wharram catamarans are so suited for this part of the world.

These are some pics that Onne van der Wal sent me from the Exumas. The shallow draft makes much more area available for exploration. It also permits anchoring in places where most boats simply can't go. We are flying over Monday morning for some time on the boat.

Boatsmith'sTiki 30 in Nassau

David and Scott arrived in Nassau Sunday morning. They had to motor the whole trip as the wind was right on the nose and light. They could have indeed sailed but the trip could have easily taken over a week and that sure didn't fit into our time frame. This is one reason why a good motor is a vital piece of equipment for most people. They left Thursday night at 11:00 pm and arrived off Great Harbour about the same time Friday evening. That would be an awful lot of battery capacity with an electric motor.


The Berry Islands lie between Grand Bahama Island and Nassau on the south side of the Northwest Providence channel. They are beautiful and not very crowded.

The water is so clear that it looks more shallow than it is. And it is shallow.

After clearing in at Great Harbour Saturday morning the guys went south a little ways to a spot that Scott remembered from previous trips to spend Saturday night.

Here is the latest view of the nav station aboard Abaco. When we installed the solar panel and controller we also added a 400 watt inverter. This is very useful to run a computer and recharge batteries for the handheld VHF and searchlights and cameras and phones. All of the interior and running lights are LEDs and the ventilation fans in each space are fractional amperage. The only other electrical loads are the stereo, the GPS/chart plotter and starting the engine. Our 160 watt solar panel with two 96 amp/hr batteries is expected to handle our needs well.

The boat is quite full. Everything in the Bahamas is pricey, so we tried to put as much stuff on board as we could. Onne and his boys will be on the boat for ten days, followed by my family for ten days, and then David Crawford will come back and spend ten days with his two daughters bringing the boat back to FL.

David and Scott arrived in Nassau Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of Sunday and most of Monday cleaning the boat and getting her ready for Onne. Here is Onne (on the left) getting some orientation on the boat from David.

When we were at the Miami boat show with Abaco, the comment most often heard when people saw the boat was "Wow, that looks like fun." This same comment was the norm once the boat was tied up in Nassau.

This boat is ideal for the Bahamas with it's 2'1" draft. The bimini is also well suited to this climate and the large cockpit and swim ladder make life very pleasurable on board.

When making a passage we store the dink upside down on the foredeck. For short hops we just tow it or pull it up on the foredeck right side up.

We have left the boat with Onne and sons. We are very excited about the photos to come and the time we will spend on Abaco in the Exumas. It's possible that Onne will email me some photos this week and if so, I will post them, otherwise we'll have to wait until we return in about 3 weeks. Cheers David

Haulout and Solar Electric

We hauled our Tiki 30 Abaco out at Cracker Boy Boatworks this last week to prepare her for a trip to the Exumas in the Bahamas. Onne Vanderwahl is picking up the boat in Nassau Monday afternoon to spend some time on her in the Exumas. For those unfamiliar with Onne's work, he is one of the premier yacht photographers in the world. He saw our boat at the Miami boat show and thought that this would be a really great boat to spend some time on with kids. While doing so he will take lots of pics for his and our future use. We are pretty excited about getting some really great shots to use in our marketing and publicity programs.

We have been making continual improvements to our Tiki 30. Above you can see the 3 gallon bucket we have installed for a sink. We had built a LITTLE tiny sink per plan and were all set to drill a hole trough the side of the boat for the drain and realized that the drain hole would be right at or below the waterline. So we instead cut out the shelve in front of the reefer access and the bucket just sits in the cutout.Easy to empty and easy to move outside as well. Seems like a great idea.Hanneke really liked this change from her drawings.

We also needed to install this 160 watt solar panel. We had to have another tube and some tabs welded onto our bimini structure to support the panel. The wire runs down the inside of the tube and through the back of the house through a gland.We mounted a controller next to the electrical panel. The controller controls the charge rate and shuts off the panel to prevent over charging.

Above the panel is installed and charging. We have yet to relace the bimini fabric. Below you can see some reinforcing bands of fiberglass tape we put on the tillers. I was concerned about them coming apart and they are somewhat crucial. We will cover them with some red stayset lashings for a more aesthetic look.

These two photos show off our new bottom paint. Onne takes both underwater and waterline photos and suggested that our bottom paint look its' best. The boat left Thursday evening about 10 o'clock. David Crawford and Scott Williams are delivering her to Nassau for me. I'm lucky to have such capable people working with me. They should be closing in on Grand Bahama Island around daybreak. Onne picks up the boat Monday. Ten days later myself , my wife and our son will fly to Nassau to pickup the boat from Onne and spend a couple of weeks on her ourselves. This boat is ideal for the Exumas. The water there is extremely thin and very clear. We expect to have a wonderful time and will share lots of photos and info when we return. David