James Wharram
1928-2021
Pioneering catamaran designer and Polynesian marine archaeologist James Wharram has died at the age of 93.
From a young age Wharram was obsessed with Polynesian culture and sailing, spending hours in the library and wandering museums in search of information on the classic double hulled ships of the Pacific. He was 16 when he bought the book that would remain an inspiration for the rest of his life, Eric de Bisschop's The Voyage of the Kaimiloa.
The book details de Bisschop's voyage across the Atlantic in a catamaran in 1937, but the crossing had gone unnoticed by the mainstream sailing historians. Many still insisted that Polynesian double-hulls were not capable of long sea voyages. Wharram took this as a challenge and set out to reenact his hero’s adventure and prove Polynesian double canoes were ocean worthy.
He designed and built the 23ft 6in Tangaroa, the first British built oceangoing double canoe catamaran, in which he crossed the Atlantic from the Canaries to Trinidad in 1955/56 with his partners Jutta Schultze-rohnhof and Ruth Merseburger. In 1958 he built the ketch rigged 40ft V-hull double canoe Rongo, and in it became the first person to sail the Atlantic from the west in a catamaran.
In 1973 he met his partner and codesigner, Hanneke Boon, and together with his team they designed the 63ft catamaran Spirit of Gaia. It was in this craft that Wharram finally took a selfdesigned boat to the Pacific. In 2008, at the age of 80, Wharram led the Lapita
Voyage expedition which saw him sail from the Philippines to the Solomon Islands in two historic catamarans.
Wharram also sought to share the craft with as many as he could and designed many double canoes to be built at home by anyone from amateur boatbuilders to seasoned pros. He has sold over 10,000 designs and self-build kits of his various cats, ranging from 17ft-65ft, as well as pre-built catamarans. During their development he added many innovations to the world of sailing such as the ‘stitch and glue’ method of boat construction and the Wharram wingsail rig.
In 2009 Wharram was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for his work in archaeological sailing and has been lauded as the father of modern catamarans.