Once upon a time I was ready to travel to Germany to buy Bjorn Wedel's Pahi 31.  But every time I was ready the dollar dove or the Euro rose so it remained beyond my budget.  Then I considered building one.  I ordered study plans of both the Tiki 26 and the Pahi 31 and lofted their cross sections on the wall in such a manner that I could sit in them and go dream sailing.  I measured my building space.  I read and read and then read more about the two boats.  In the end it was for a tree that I set forth with the Tiki.  I could build it in the space I had without harming that tree.  

Thomas - Have got to respect your priorities there.And you ended up with a fine boat.

Super photos. I see the cutter rig but it looks like a conventional main with horizontal boom. I have a boom angled up about 30deg. The sail is not attached to it [ except for clew ] it acts like a sprit to stretch the sail out. I see no advantage in this for sailing but the boom is mounted on the back of the tabernacle so no pressure-point on the mast, and it works as a crane for lifting the mast, also you can swing bicycles etc. on board with it !!

I present you my Pahi 31 in Brittain (France)

Super photo-thanks. This is the original sail-plan, I was starting to think I was the only one still using it !! Every type of rig seems to have been used on this boat, there used to be one in Cork a bermudan ketch.

I wouder how many were built ? my own sail number is 32.

I am presuming this Brittain France is Brittany ?

Hello, does anyone out there have a Pahi 26? They seem to be very rare.Has any new ones been built within the last10 years?

Kohala 20 

A few years back I posted musings about the long lost Pahi 20 design. Inspired by Wharrams sketches I developed my own version of the Pahi.

I call it the Kohala 20 after my parents old home in Hawaii. About two years ago I built a model version of Kohala. It sailed well and I think it looks  good. I wanted more "roundness" to the V-hull shape. So I added about 2"(scaled to the model) of camber to the hull sides. I believe that the ply can be safely tortured to about 3" which I think is preferable. For comparison the Tiki 21 has about 3/4" of camber.I have also been tweaking the design in my computer as well. I hope some develop plans for it eventually. My latest thinking is to build the boat out of foam. More time any money up front but no more time and money wasted fixing rot.

Growing up sailing Hobie cats I always wanted a bigger more rugged catamaran with some cool styling. I wanted it to be big enough to sleep in the hulls yet small enough to still be trailerable.I think this concept would make a great weekend camp cruiser with limited offshore capabilties. The Kohala 20 fits the same niche as the well proven Tiki 21. However I think the Pahi styling would make a nice alternative to the 21.......Aloha Kevin

Very pretty model. By eye I think the P31 has about 3" of rounding in the side panels. It makes a difference to the space inside.

There has been much discussion on the sailing performance of the small Pahis. Seems fair to say that for every owner who is happy there is one who is not. Bear in mind these designs are 35 years old. I am of the opinion that they need some mods. to get the best from them.

The curve in the side panels reduces the angle at the keel - so less grip. The lack of rocker reduces draught - more of the same. Low draught leads to shallow rudders - less grip. JWD put daggerboards on these boats. In my experience I need one.

Wharram designs are less simple than they look. Many critics pick a single item in the design to lavish their criticism on. All designs are a collection of decisions woven together in one big compromise. Once you decide on deep "V" [ possibly for construction purposes ] you must use a short waterline to avoid losing light air performance through too high a wetted surface. This in turn limits the amount of rocker and/or how "sharp" the ends can be or you will suffer excessive pitching. Many of the critics of these boats would "cure" one "problem" at the expence of creating two more....

Alex - Apologies for taking so long but here is the proa. Definitely is a Pahi so it is at home here. Looks like a P31 main hull with a shorter cabin and only two crossbeams. From your photo it seems the prototype was not as drawn here. Seems they used an existing P31 hull.

The experience of "JZERRO" etc. seems to show that a leepod is an essential part of a cruising proa as a last source of righting.

It has been posted here that this boat capsized and JWD lost interest. Also at this time the Tiki range was being created and occupied all their time so that the older designs were left to one side.

I love the idea but when you start including leepod etc. the design starts to increase in complexity to near a bridgedeck boat.

One idea I have never seen used for the reversing rudder problem would be two spade rudders with the forward one allowed to rotate through 180 then simply locked fore/aft as a daggerboard while the aft one does the steering. No tricky lining-up so that it can be lifted. No case to build.The underwater profile would be identical to what I have with my board down and I know that works. Drawback would be a fixed draught of 30" [ 700mm ] or so.

At 1.5 ton [empty] 550 /22" on a draught of 420 /17". 

At 2.0 ton 750 /30" on a draught of 490 /20".

So the ratio [empty] is 13.4 : 1

These are as given on my general arrangement sheet. This tallies with my own measurements for painting the a/foul. ie. 600 /24"measured on the side panel.

I had never really considered this before and just had to do some calculations. The draught is so low I felt the displacement must be wrong. Right enough applying the fairly full Prism./Co . of 0.6  I came up with a disp. of only 1 ton. I have never weighed my boat but from experience of towing I believe the 1.5 ton is closer to the mark. So like any lazy schoolboy I set about "cooking the books" to get the answer I wanted. Casualty No, 1 was the Prism./Co. The mid sections in the Pahi 31 have no taper or rocker at all so there disp is simply crossection x length. The bow / stern taper [obviously!!] and trhe Prism./Co. of 0.6 seemed appropriate here. Add it all up and there I had it - the magical 1.5 tons !!

However never one to let good enough alone I worked backwards from this displacement to get a Prismatic Co. for the design as a whole - a staggering 0.88 !! 

This all ties in with my experience ie. a great load carrier that gets up to 8kn easily with little wake and is good in waves [no pitching] but starts to drag a marked wake at 10kn.  A top class sea-cruiser.

J.W. has recommended the Pahi 31 as the minimum boat he recommends for ocean crossing [ wnile recognising that others have used smaller].

Sorry no for 42. My figures above for P./C.are only "Guesstimates" based on assumed weight etc. Still they do fit in with my experience of the boat in a general way. Interesting that I calculated what it would take to put her down 24" /600mm and it is 2.4 tons ie. a full ton of loading. I think she could carry this 'tho I have never tried. You would still have good freeboard with 24" / 600mm clearance under the cockpit and 36" /900mm under the fore deck. Some of the more "modern" designs cannot match this even when empty ??  She is also far more stable than some of similar size all in all well suited to long passages.

Pahi 35 - I cant speak for JWD and while I saw the 35 it was a long time ago. As I remember it the 31 [from memory !!] is a "compressed" 35 ie the same crosssections with reduced spacing. That is the 35 is not really a seperate boat but a stretched 31. A 35 should really include extra head / elbow room not just extra length. The 35 was designed remember specifically for the Round Britain Race where low narrow hulls [for their length] might be seen as an advantage. On a cruiser the head / elbow room is perhaps more appropriate to a boat of about 30ft.

This is all guesswork based on possibly flawed memory.

The success of the Tiki seems to have put the Pahi range on the backburner for a long time. Comments at the time show that James realised the 31 needed a Mk11 [this boat is overbeamed etc.] but this was never done.

Working s.a. 370   Max 450. The working sails  as shown on the plans are only about 230 and are more appropriate to F6 ie. 2nd reef. I am convinced it was fitting these undersized headsails that caused so much disappointment to early builders.

I would like to see many of the older Wharrams revisted and updated  especially the small Pahis.The Sail area is not enough for most of the designs compared to almost any other modern cat. I also dont sail in the North atlantic! Here in South Florida its very rare for the wind to get stronger than 30knts unless a Huricane is coming .

One thing I am learning on this site is that a "good" boat is just a boat that is suited to your waters. Even in our calmest month June the chance of a gale is 5 times higher than the chance of a calm. So I am a little jealous!  This was a wild year I would say the wind was 25 - 30 on a lot of the days we were out. I have great respect for our forecasters they get it so right. Being undercanvassed is not a problem when you are reefed down most of the time.

Still on a "good" summer this is heaven to cruise.

Is it just me ? 5000 usd ? No rig no engine no trailer seems there is room for some bargaining here ? Would be nice if someone took her on tho'

Picking up on Galway Bay's comment  inviting me to pipe up on this group, I admit to having previously thought about doing so. But what had stopped me was concern about conflict.......let me explain - I consider myself a Wharram friend and have in fact even been invited by James to pop around for a beer. However as a keen student of ancient seafaring I do not fully agree with Capt Cook's ideas about sailing canoe evolution....I am convinsed that shunting canoes are the sailing prototype. There are also other design details in which my thinking differs from JW, so it is difficult to speak without maybe causing friction.....gotta go now, am late for a bus

OK. I was on time for that bus……..which was a good thing since I had to drive it. Winding along the shore of the Whangarei harbour towards the heads is always a pleasure and an inspiration to get my sailing canoe back on the water.

While owning the Hinemoa I could not help thinking how I might improve the boat by converting to a small Pahi configuration…….and to answer what I mean by saying this; a Pahi to me is a double canoe with end for end symmetry but which is bi-laterally  asymmetric.

As I warned in my previous message, conflict may erupt from speaking out because a Wharram Pahi is not what I have described above and with due respect this remains so.

Anyway, instead of modifying the Hinemoa I sold up and have concentrated effort towards getting my outrigger sailing canoe back on the water as well as making some progress on the small Pahi.

Although I have managed to achieve nearly as much in the way of creature comforts on the outrigger canoe compared to the Hinemoa, this given a similar overall length, both are minimalistic.

To gain more in the way of habitation, carrying capacity and power, my choice goes to a small Pahi, and by small I mean 20ft LOA.

Sometimes I think there should be a  "Not-A-Wharram" group here to include the "....And Friends" in the title. Also the "And Other Ply Multi...." on the log-in page. Budget Boater who started this site intended it to be so and this was one of the attractions for me when I first found it.

I paddle Kayaks a lot and it does seem true that the smaller the boat the more enjoyment. The design of a truly minimalist but functional cruiser is a fine design challenge. I agree that an assymetric multi is an excellent starting point.

Small multis with bi lateral asymmetry certainly meet my own minimalist needs, which require almost complete independence. Had I been more of a communal type person I probably would have followed the Wharram way quite happily instead of looking long and hard for an alternative.

James’ Pahi designs are well suited to group input and perhaps this is why a minimalist aspect such as overall dimension has not been part of the mix.  When a canoe hull is small, then cabin accommodation for more than one person is near impossible, especially if Wharram Pahi design and lines are adhered to.

I saw a Pahi 31 one for the first time last May at the Wharram Hui in the Keys.They sea

m to be very rare on the East coast of the US. I know of one in the Bahamas doing camping charters,  I saw  Greg's boat in The Florida Keys is there any others in the US?

My plans are from about '87 and my sail no. is 32. I wonder how many were ever built ? I remember James in an article "guessing" that about 1/3 of plans sold eventually turn into boats.

I am reliably informed that epoxy saturated rocking-horse doody is the composite material of the future.