James Wharram

James Wharram is one of the pioneers of the development of sailing catamarans. He was the first in the UK to sail with a catamaran offshore, sailing across the Bay of Biscay in 1955 and crossing the Atlantic in 1956. He, together with two German girls, was the first to sail a catamaran – 12m ‘Rongo’ - across the Northern Atlantic from West to East in 1959.

His inspiration has always come from early watercraft and seafaring, particularly the double canoes of the Polynesians with which the Pacific islands were settled. He has made it his life’s career, in the last 45 years together with his design partner Hanneke Boon, to design such type of vessels for other people to build and sail the oceans. They are now well known for a distinctive range of catamarans with thousands of them sailing the oceans of the world.

Since the 1990s, James and Hanneke have been making further studies of canoeform craft, voyaging the Pacific and Indian oceans on their own 19m double canoe ‘Spirit of Gaia’ as well as sailing the 4000Nm ‘Lapita Voyage’ in 2008-9. This voyage followed the ancient migration route into the Pacific on two ethnic double canoes from the Philippines to the Polynesian islands of Anuta and Tikopia. This voyage has proven the feasibility of migrating on canoe craft out of SE Asia, reinforcing the theories of Eric de Bisschop.

In 1968 James Wharram wrote the book ‘Two Girls Two Catamarans’ about his first pioneering catamaran voyages, available from the author's website wharram.com. His second book co-written with Hanneke Boon is his autobiography ‘People of the Sea’.