Tuesday, July 6, 2010

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.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

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.