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

Still Improving Our Tiki 30

It has been a very long time since I've updated this blog. Sorry 'bout that, got busy and/or lazy.
In December we showed the Tiki 30 at the Saint Petersburg Boat Show. There were only 5 multihulls there. We had a good spot and the boat was very well received. We had people who had heard of James Wharram, full blown Wharramites, and folks who had never seen anything like it at all. We planted lots of seeds and met lots of people,some Wharram owners and some who want to be.

In February we were at the Miami Boat Show. This is billed as the largest multihull show in the world. There were many large catamarans being shown. There were two smaller tris, but every one else was larger than we were. There certainly was no shortage of condomarans. About a third of the people walking by didn't even see us, we didn't even register in their brain.Another portion looked casually and kept moving. But about a third of the folks saw us and got excited. Either they were familiar with Wharram boats or they just recognized a fun boat when they saw one. We were swarmed with visitors the four days of the show. We met lot of people and have since sold two Tiki 26's from contacts made at this show. There will be more about that later.
The photo above is our Tiki 30 sailing with 7 people on board at the Wharram Rendezvous in Islamorada FL held the middle of May. There were 8-9 Wharrams in attendance and maybe 50 people. We showed off our boat and gave lots of rides. Lots of fun.

Just some more details. Above is our motor cover/cocktail table/instrument panel /winch base. A couple of photos down is a view with the cover up. Below is looking into the port side cabin.

Below is an action shot of the rear tramp. This was en route to the Saint Pete show Thanksgiving weekend via the intercoastal waterway between Stuart and Fort Meyers.

Here is a view of the aft tramps with the swim ladder down.

This is a shot of our bimini. We had it made for us by High Seas Fabrication of Stuart FL. IT has worked out better than we had imagined.

This photo was taken at the Saint Pete show.

Below is a view of the radios and the electrical panel
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We will be doing some more work during the next 2weeks to get the boat ready for a trip to the Exumas in the Bahamas. We are having photos taken by Onne Vanderwahl and then a vacation.
I will post more soon.

Ice Box and Anchor Locker, Bow Roller

This is probably the last post concerning the ice box. The good news is that it works very well and has met our expectations. We put two bags of ice cubes in for the delivery to the Saint Petersburg boat show and ten days later their was still ice. Here is the exterior hatch with it's latch.

This is the insulation plug for the hatch. This ice box has 5" of insulation all around it. When you insert this hatch plug it settles down into the hole slowly as the air squeezes by. Nice fit.

With the plug removed the shelf is visible below the hatch.

The wooden square with the handle is the interior access to the main ice box. It also has 5" of insulation on it and slopes downward into the box to minimize cold leakage. Also visible in this photo is the propane burner and the galley sink. Not visible here is the foot pump below the shelf below the icebox access.

Adjacent to the galley side companionway is this cooler in the cockpit. While it only has 2" of insulation it too worked very well and is very convenient.

Here is the trap door to the box which hangs below the forward deck to store the anchor rode.

I
The box handily holds 20' of 5/16" chain and 150' of 7/16" anchor line.

Here is a view of the box from underneath and forward. Also in the fore ground is the roller for the Rocna anchor .

We have completed the outboard window change out and the results are good. More light is allowed into the cabin and there is a more open felling. This is the interior view.

Here's a fairly close view of the window from the outside. You can also clearly see the dead eyes and chainplates with terminators and the shroud lashings. The sliding hatch for the companionway is also very clear.

A port side view of Abaco showing the window and also the bimini. The bimini was built for us by High Seas Fabrication of Stuart FL. They did a real great job for us. The bimini provides lots of shade, standing headroom and as an extra bonus good hand holds at crucial locations. We did however forget to put a window in to be able to see the mast head and mainsail leech. We will have to have this added.

This picture was taken right before the bimini installation and shows the starboard side view .

More Ice Box and Anchor Roller

All that's left to complete the new window installations is to repaint the house sides.

You may recall how many times this custom ice box has appeared in this blog. Well here it is again. This photo is looking down from the deck and shows the cleats we have installed to hold the shelf where the blocks of ice will sit and also the cleats that will hold the top plug.

Here is the top plug and the shelf. The plug is 4 1/2" of foam covered with 4 oz xynole polyester cloth ans epoxy and is ready for final fairing and paint. The ice shelf and the cleats that support it have epoxy inserts in way of the attaching screws to prevent water access to the wood and still permit removal for cleaning and maintenance.

The next two photos show the plug and the shelf in primer. The plug fit very snugly, tight enough that it settles slowly while air eases out.There is an arrow carved into the top of the plug to indicate proper orientation. The holes in the shelf are to permit free air flow.

We have outfitted this boat with a 22 lb (10kg) Rocna anchor. This anchor has a reputation for setting and resetting quickly and being able to handle changes of direction in pull. But it did need a special roller built to hold it ready for deployment. Below is the roller almost ready for primer.

This box will be bolted up under a trap door hatch in the teak foredeck. It will hold the primary
anchor chain and line.

Lots of Fit Out Details

We got back from the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic and unloaded and parked the boat. We had a large teak deck to template, fabricate and install on a large yacht in san francisco that required all hands for the better part of three months. This wsn't all bad because if we had put Abaco in the water we would have bought into a whole lot of stress due to the fact that several hurricanes had south Florida in their sights this year. While none of them ended up coming here, we still would have had to deal with the threat. If you wait until you know for sure you're going to get swatted, then it's too late to take any action.
But we are back in the groove again and have lots of things to complete on our Tiki 30.The rudder lashings were not shapedjust right and needed some reworking of the aft edge of the stern pos and fwd edge of the rudder.Then a layer of six oz cloth to seal every thing up tight and some new paint.
The photo below shows 1/2 of a pvc tube glassed onto the bottom of the cockpit as a conduit for the battery cables and fuel hose. We originaly installed this tube in the cockpit, butit turned out to be a toe stubber and prevented water from draining out of the strbd side of the cockpit. Seems obvious in retrospect.

This tube is to provide a condyuit for the wiring tha passes between the strbd hull and the port hull. It wasn't something we thought about until it was time to actually run that wiring and realized that there really wasn't any appropriate location where the wiring would be out of the way and secure.

We also moved the spinnaker halyard inside the mast. It seemed a shame to have the aerodynamicaly clean wingsail rig and then have both parts of the spinnaker halyard just dragging in the breeze. This will get one part in the mast and also position it properly to use one of the halyard stoppers at the base of the mast.

One of the first comments on the boat at Mystic was that our outboard portlights were too small.This thought was expressed by many others who have seen the boat in person and online.I really didn't get it until I saw the boat from a distance, and then had to agree.

Here we have removed the port light

Below you can see the new window frame on the port house side.

Once the shape was finalized we cut out the lexan and rabbeted it into the back side of the frame. Due to the high expansion factor of the lexan, we attached the lexan to the plywood frame with 3M 5200.

Here we have glued the frame with the lexan to the house side, also with 5200. The little wooden blocks are attached to the boat with super glue and then small wedges push the frame against the house side. Once the 5200 sets up (a couple of days) we will fillet in the frames and add a layer of fabric to seal it off. Then some fairing and we will repaint the house sides.

We used 12 mm Dyneex for the headstay bridle. Also visible here is the lower end of the jib on the Harken roller furling unit.

When we first went to hoist the mainsail, it was a no go. We followed the plan and used a double block for the upper end of the halyards, being careful to run them in opposing directions. What happened was that the block layed over on its side and the throat halyard wore a groove in the block cheek and jammed up tight. Perhaps if you pulled upboth halyard sat exactly the right time it might work. But we changed the double block out for two singles and the gaff and mainsail went up as smooth as silk.

We are now preparing to take this boat to the St. Petersburg, FL "Strictly Sail" boatshow in early December. We are having a custom rigid tube bimini fabricated By High Seas Fabrication in Stuart FL. They are a custom shop that does great work. They are building the top and will install it next week when we launch. We are also having trampolines made for the aft end of the boat on either side of the boarding ladder. The tramps are being made by John MacNally of Gulfstram Sailmakers of Jupiter FL. We are closing in.