No the kids are up and grown. The oldest (34) is in Okinawa with her family, they may be transfered to England after that, however they have a house near Gulf Breeze, Fla. My middle girl(32) is here in Seattle as is my son(30). I have 3 grandkids already, a week from today I will be 55, got an early start, then almost killed myself working too hard and never learned to play much. I needed to listen more to Buffett.
I have some acerage about 20 miles north of Lake Ponchatrain, which I think is going to be my building site. I'm going to recycle an old hay barn a friend is going to tear down to my property and make it my boatyard. With the timbers it will look like one of those island yards you find in the South Pacific.
I expect the Keys a couple times a year, once for the Hemingway Festival and I hope Cuba opens up for us in the not too distant future. I think my middle girl and her husband will be ones to sail with me the most. They are adventurers, they travel to some other part of the world at least twice a year.

Can I get thestudy plans from you? ch

Thank you! I ordered a set of study plans for a Tiki 46 and a design book today from the online store. You can honestly tell them that it was your recommendation. I want to look at a variety of things. I have busied myself today reading building blogs and collecting links to Tiki 46 sites to start building a information data base. I have not completely sold myself on the 46, but I am a big guy, 6'4" 250. I am currently building a Ulua and stretched it too 24 feet for paddling, some sailing and fishing and felt I needed the room. Thus my leanings to the 46.... however in my collecting the last couple of days I have starting adding 38 sites as well.

I mentioned the boat to my daughter today, at our dad and daughter, Jen I knew she would be the one, weekly lunch and she was already planning trips with me inviting her friends*lol*. She and her husband want to return to Belize and Costa Rica. She had a double major in college a marine biolgist and French and loves adventure. I would expect she would want the Tiki when I pass.

Bill, who had his built in Phuket, mentioned some issues with steering and tender location and seems something about rigging the head sail issues, got to read it again. Any idea about what those issues might be? My plan is to go through the blogs and sites and write down my questions and then see if I can get clarifications on the forums. That way I don't bother you all the time.

Your idea about small parts is great. I have built or help build a couple of planes to include a warbird trainer. When money was short we would do just as you suggested and build or repair the small parts which all needed doing.

You have my word that when it comes to purchasing plans my order will be through you.

Cheers Mates!
Chuck

Hi Ann and Nev, i guess the unconventional bit is that we are based in a part of the world where wooden sailing boats are not common. The other bit is that I have played with building materials that are new - polycore to be precise. Very light, and works out about the same price as ply in Australia. On that subject, we do love our Narai, but for a number of reasons, we are thinking of building a new boat.

Hi Ann and Nev, yes, the Nevilles of the world are a relatively small group. I think you may have met our boat, Alli-Nui, before she sailed across the Pacific. She is a beautiful boat. Our problem is that we have had to do a lot of work cutting out rot (hence the wood turnoff) - we live in Australia's wettest area, 5 metres + of rain per year. If we could cut the lines in the next 12 months, we would keep her. If I need to work longer, the idea of a new boat to retire on becomes attractive. Nui has a similar rig to Peace, we like it. T46 is high on the option list, as are the Easy 12m, and Waller 1100. The fact that JWD has approved foam is very interesting - as I mentioned, have built a dinghy from it, very easy and quick to work with, and would suit the Wharram hulls well. I like the idea of laminating one side (smooth finish), and applying most of one panel per side. We actualy have a set of Narai plans - were going to build when Nui turned up, but we would now go T46.

Forgot to add on the last comment - we are watching Bertrand's progress with great interest - I have no doubt that he will be successful with the biplane rig. There was a T38 built in NZ a few years ago with a biplane junk rig, not as well developed as Bertrand's and Schionning have stock plans with a biplane rig. Abig Wharram with all that space available..great!

Finally got the photos of your stack pack and propane tanks loaded to the site.

Hi ann and nev, thanks for the complement on my boat. I have enjoyed your writings over the years, especially the letters from
peace IV on the Wharram site a few years ago. I would love to meet
you along the coast of N.C. this fall as you travel south. Just let me know and I will be there.

Hi Ann and Neville, We won't be at the wooden boat show this year. It really isn't a show that we expect sales from. We were there last year to meet James and Hanneke. It costs us quite a bit to truck the boat up there and launch her.I will sure be there for your gathering in September. Our Tiki 30 leaves for Nassau Bahamas tomorrow night. Onne Van der Wal is going to take her and spend 10 day's in the Exumas taking pictures. He is a big dog in the yacht photo biz and we are very excited about this. When he's finished Debra and Michael and I are going to spend a couple of weeks playing on the boat ourselves. We are hauled out right now putting on fresh bottom paint and putting on a solar panel and touching up a few details . See you in Sept. with lots of photos. David

Hi, signed up as there are some interesting people and discussions going on, so yes looks a great site.
We are getting geared up slowly for extended cruising to see whether we like it before taking the plunge, would very much like to make the Florida meet, but Helen teaches ......
All the best
Robert

Guess when the winter school term starts :-( Will just have to wait till we can go extended cruising.

Who is on your boat with you in the pictures?

Ann and Neville

Hi my name is James Attianese, I live in Casco Maine about an hour north of Yarmouth. I don't know how much longer you will be in Yarmouth, but if you need any amateur help working on the boat let me know. I have Friday's off from work.

Jim

Hej Ann & Neville thanks for the reply...Sarah, mentioned that you might know of 3 of the same Cats going for sale in the UK..... :))

Hej Ann and Neville, once again thank you for the info , we are at this very moment bidding for Rhiannon...but still not sure about it ...we dont have much knowledge about Catamarans and never been aboard one. but have read alot of positive things about Wharrams ..so I will email the lovely lady and get more info....Cheers.... :))

Hej Ann and Nev, you dont know her name by any chance ??? I would like to use her name when writting to her :)))

Hi Ann and Neville, I am flying into Providence Sat late morning.I will see you shortly there after. David 561 632 2628

Hi Ann and Neville, I rented a car. Would love a flat spot to sleep. David

Hello Ann & Nev,
Thank you for your reply, it's greatly appreciated. Right now I'm in the "look around, get a feel of things stage". Eventually I would like to be able to do the "Grand Loop" with the ICW as well as the Bahamas, etc. A lot will depend on the maximum size boat that can still ply the ICW. Hopefully we will get a chance to see you at one of your stops.
Take care and we'll be chatting soon.
George

Ann and Neville,

Thank you very much for the invite to come aboard while you're in the NY/NJ area. I would dearly love to accept, however I'm currently out of State (I must update my profile!) My job was a victim of the financial crisis, so I took the opportunity to move my family to Hawaii a couple of months ago for a change of pace and scenery. My wife is Japanese and I am a Kiwi, so we're much closer to home now.

It’s great to be in contact with you via this forum as I had a brief, but memorable chat with you both and James at the Woodenboat festival in June 2008. I came away extremely impressed with Peace IV and ever more so with your monumental achievement in building her. Speaking with you both encouraged me to start thinking of tackling a Tiki build myself.

Prior to leaving NY, I also visited Jacques terrific Tiki 38 build and gained a further insight into the building process.

Is it correct that you are the US distributor for Wharram plans? If so, I’m looking forward to placing an order with you in the future.

And I hope that I’ll be able to visit with you during your future treks.

In the meantime, fair winds,

John

Hi Ann and Nev

Yes, Marie-Helene is well behind the mask. I spent this day to make a digest of the building of our Tiki46 building after to have prepare it these last days.
The 9-9-2009 I broke my left arm (on the top of the humerus) and injured a lot of muscles from the hand to the shoulder. Tomorrow I'll have a check at the hospital and hope to recover all the use of my arm at the end f this month.
Sure that will delay a little our launch day, but I'm always optimist to launch her at the end of the Spring or during the Summer in order to sail off toward the Antillas next September and to meet you in the Bahamas in the beginning of 2011 before you start to sail to the north.
Have a good sail toward your winter anchorage in the Bahamas.
Love from Bertrand and Marie-Helene

Hi All,
Bin away for a bit - just became a Grandfather! Zachary Joseph Abramson made port to say Hi on 29 SEP 09 at 1518 hours. He's 7lbs, 14oz and 20 inches long. If I knew how to upload a photo, I would.
Take care,
George

He already has a toy sailboat (monohull though :<( ), a toy scuba diver and a Harley Davidson Onsey. He's definitely being spoiled very well!
Take care,
Proud Grandpa, George

Hi Anne, Neville,

Time to go proactive and thank you for your welcome. Been a bit quiet as we had yet to finalise our decision to have a boat built. After 3 weeks on a Tiki 38 in Thailand in February (bare boat charter from Makz Jurgens, Siam Sailing, Phuket, as we had never spent anytime on one before, we came away with a clear decision to go Wharram.

We have now finally settled on the Tiki 46. We are in the planning stage still and wanted to ask you both for some input around what changes you would now make to your own boat if you had the opportunity all over again? We would be really keen to know what things really worked for you and what didn't?

We are thinking two inboards with hydraulic motors as the hydraulic system on the Tiki 38 worked extremely well and was pretty much bullet proof. WE have been also looking at a restructuring of the layout to have access to the galley on one side of the cockpit and the ablutions on the other side. This really worked well on the 38, and in particular allowed good interactions between the galley and the crew on watch etc.

We are also thinking that the back platform brings little advantage over a slatted deck and drop down ladder/ramp = more useful space for doing jobs such as cleaning fish and washing up.

The other major item was the size and height of the day cabin. It appears to only give shelter up to lower chest height and we are thinking one way around this is to make it slightly wider (30 cm) and higher (20 -30 cm say) in an attempt to keep the proportions balanced. Any thoughts on this?

No doubt there will be other ideas that occur to us and so if you are happy to respond we will be pleased to have your input.

Best regards, Tony, Nannette, Brett

Hi Ann and Nev, We hae now committed by buying the plans for a Tike 46 - we are Hull # 42. The boat is to be built in Thailand by Gunther and we are deeply immersed in plan understanding prior to finalising the details for the building.

I have spent part of today making a mock up of the Centre pod (day cabin) as I started out being concerned that the height gave very little weather protection ( I have spent a lot of time off shore in 6-12 m power boats where wave spray can be a big issue) and then sitting inside the mock up it became clear that there was no head clearance at all on the chart table side (assuminghte seat is 30 cm - 1 foot high). Is that how it is on your boat?

I then changed the mock up to add an additional 15cm (about 6") in height and that was much more comfortable. I note that James makes it clear in his Q&A section that he does not approve of increasing the height, and certainly not to standing height, as it may effect the stability of the boat. The question remains if a 6" increase in height would be an issue? I figured from an appearance point of view the cabin would need to be widened slightly - say 10-15 cm on each side if you increased the height by 6".

You comments on this would be very welcome as it is the one thing that actually really concerns me about the design.

The other change we are planning is the actual lay out. We want both the galley and the access to the heads to line up with the cockpit
for safety reasons, and allowing communications between the galley and the cockpit. It makes for a smaller galley but we are not to concerned about this at this stage. I have attached a diagram of what we are thinking and again would be very pleased to have your comments.


best regards
Tony

Dear Ann and Neville; Greetings! So sorry I haven't written in a while. Thankfully busy with work. I'll be @ the WoodenBoat Show in Mystic the whole weekend, working the booth for WoodenBoat School. (Free ticket to the show, dontcha know!) Would love to see you both again, and, of course, "Peace". Regards, Wes

Hi Ann and Neville,

I remember that you commented that you had purchased 2 new 20hp 4 strokes, and i would love to know how they are performing. I should be completing the purchase of a tiki 46 within the next week, and i may need to get some new engines pretty much straight away so i would love to hear your opinion before i splash out.

Thanks

Marty

Hi Ann and Nev,

Well my purchase is nearly complete, contracts have been signed, and as soon as the cash arrives in the sellers account i will be the new proud and very nervous owner of the South African Tiki 46 "Shark" (plan 19)

She needs plenty of TLC to bring her back to new condition, but i am sure that with lots of hard work and lots of sanding she will be a great boat.

I will be registering her on the uk SSr part 3 and i understand that as the LOA is greater than 13.7m she comes under regulations covering Class XII vessels (pleasure vessels of 13.7m in length and over) and as such needs to comply with certain safety and fire regulations, one of which requires compulsory carriage of a life-raft. Now from what i can ascertain, and i am no expert, i don't believe that the stern hung rudders count towards LOA, and as i haven't busted out the tape measure yet, i am actually unsure of the exact length and how the LOA calculations are performed / measured.

There is a commercial 15 man ( or woman! ) raft currently onboard, but is out of service by 8 months and as i want to reduce the size down to say a 6-8 man i don't really want to pay for the service of the 15 man raft at a cost of about 200+++ euro for the stuff inside ie flares etc that would effectively only be for the delivery.

Now, i will say that i am not trying to wriggle out of the regulations and that i fully intend to have a life-raft onboard once we start cruising wether the regs say i need one or not, its just that if i buy a new raft now, by the time i actually start cruising i would have wasted about 1 year of its service life. I am looking into renting one but no joy as yet.

So my questions for you, and i am sure there will be plenty more over the coming months, is, do you carry a life-raft and follow the class XII regulations, or does the tiki 46 actually measure less than 13.7m ( by the LOA calculations) and is thus exempt.

Thanks and i look forward to your reply.

Marty

Hi Ann and Nev,

Thanks for your prompt reply, much appreciated.
I had actually never made the mental connection regarding why life-rafts were needed (or not) on a monoslug with that heavy weight keel. I just assumed that nearly every boat would sink if it took on enough water and i just never questioned the "accepted" logic that a raft is needed if you sail offshore ! DOH

Now that you have enlightened me i am questioning the need for a life-raft as your argument that without that heavy keel why would the boat sink makes perfect sense. I guess that the boat would just settle deeper and deeper and eventually reach a state of equilibrium, where the hulls may be flooded but still afloat..

Another great bonus that i never realised!

Cheers

Marty

Always interested in a sail Ann :) I saw your invite and am trying to sort out the family schedule to come down for a visit/sail. I'll let you know as soon as it's sorted out.

Hi Anne and Nev

Thank you for your comments.
Although I work hard since last Spring I will be unable to launch our Tiki46 before the end of this summer as expected. The main reason is now I work almost alone. Our boat building is not a priority for Marie-Helene and especially since our oldest children began to have children. At the beginning of this summer we've had the visit of Benoit from New Caledonia(you met him in Martinique) with their little girl of 6 months ; now he has got a new job in Melbourn Australia and his wife is waiting for a second child. And present time we have at home our eldest daughter Kristen with her twin boys who were born the last 5th August......
Happily some times one of our other children come to help me for big operations and in the next days we are going to paint the outside of the boat.
After the last big work will be to build our 2 masts in wood. I hope to finish them before the return of the cold days.
So it's difficult to make predictions and I hope to be ready to launch our Grand PHA at the end of the next winter and after a few sailings to test she, we'll cross the Atlantic to meet you before the beginning of the hurricane season.
When I begun to build this boat I was very far away to imagine I'll need 12 years before her launch!!! It's the first year we have no sailing at all, only building and it becomes vital for me to launch she as soon as possible.

Yes good solar panels are the best choice to have a minimum of free energy on board. I plan to put 2 x 24V solar panels on the short hard bimini I'll built above the cockpit.

I hope the expected hurricane will not produce too much damages in your area.

We are so very impatient to meet you again, Love, Bertrand and Marie-Helene

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm sure I'll have a good little party as well. My family and I were fantasizing about where we will cruise in our new (to us) vessel, and coastal RI came up. Will definitely look you up when and if!

Randall

Maybe I could come see your TIKI tomorrow. I would love to see one up close. Call you in the am?

thanks for the comment . seems that you two keepthe wharram wheel turning on that side of the world eh. we have now grown a deck house & are working at tidying up the interior n doing some plumbing . its goin in the water this summer ready or not

Thanks for the comment. I have my eye on the Hitia 17' to start. My dream is to build a junk rigged cat and cruise for my retirement ( at least 15 years away). I loved the Wharram cats the first time I saw the website. I was doubly thrilled to see Bertand's PHA on this site as he had implemented so many modifications I had been dreaming about, especially the parallel junk sails. PHA # looks like it's going to be my dream boat

Thanks
I don't know if I sent my previous comment or not, so I will repeat it.
The good part was that I was able to use it most of the time I was rebuilding it.
I was hoping to meet you guys at the gathering at Lorilee in Islamorada.
Greg

Hello Ann and Clement, thanks for the warm welcome! I did realize this webpage (wharrambuilders) not earlier - it is a real good and open forum!

And if you have the opportunity to come to Hamburg - you are welcome!

best regards and fair winds Frank

Hi Ann and Nev,
Made wood and epoxy pricing run yesterday. I think we're going to use Progressive Epoxy Polymers. They've got good reviews (from Wooden Boat forum and others) and they're about HALF the price of even discounted MAS. We have to economize where we can. PEP's MSDS is equivalent to MAS and System3. We're going to erect a smaller tunnel in the larger shed so not so much to heat while we build this winter. Just some PVC tubing and builders plastic - cheap. Things moving along slowly - the economy is a just a grind right now, but we'll get there. Hope you guys are well. Boises.

Thank you very much, that is a very kind offer.
We are flying out to Atlanta to stay with friends the weekend before and will give you a call as they may have arranged something.
We are looking forward to sun, warmth, seeing some bigger wharrams and learning about sailing on the Eastern seaboard in case we make it over in fall 2011 or in 2012.
Robert and Helen

I have contacted you off-site per your request, but have yet to receive a reply.

Hi Ann and Nev,

  thanks for your note and kind words.  It would be great to be anchored next to you guys some day!  Glad to hear you are having/had a good Wharram meet.  I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing between Christmas and New Years..... want to get myself out of this bone-chilling weather: 20 degrees with 15 knots of wind.   Been perusing the crew-wanted sites but it's risky travelling somewhere to be on a boat with people for a week when you have never met them or have any mutual friends that can give you an idea of whether the dynamics would work.    I'll let you know what happens.  Merry Christmas!

 warmest regards,

Tom

Sorry Ann and Nev, but I'm unable to tell you the date of the launch day and when our 2 Tiki46 will be tie together with a party on-board.

These last weeks I work very  hard to make the maximum for the big party Marie-Helene planed at the beginning of this year to celebrate the end of our building last week end but although our cat is able to go on the sea, all is not yet finished : the bimini, the rear platform, the 12V circuits and the rig. The reason of the date was the visit of one of our sons from Australia with his familly.

There was a lot of people during the party : family, friends, neighbours, amateur boat builders, Wharram owners and builders and their questions were when the lauch and my reply was as soon as possible!!!!

It' a pleasure for us to see our Tiki almost finished and we were very happy to sleep on board to free our house.

Due to the last big work with the rig : masts + wishbones, I expect her launch not before next September.......I'll try to make an effort next weeks to continue my blog.

Enjoy your stay in Providence with your family, we regret to be enable to join you this summer.

Thank you for the very encouraging comments. It is much needed. Ralf

A big hello for "Iron Annie" and "Wise Neville", from Jim ex of Colvin schooner "Pilger"

Hope this finds you both well, i'm still having fun searching for either a cat to rebuild or a plan to build.  After receiving my second wharram catalogue in 20 years, maybe, just maybe this time i'll end up building one!  The design that I like the most is the Tiki38, not surprising given all of the time i've spent looking at Peace.  The gaff wing sails in sleaves look very good (read FAST) and that alone has me thinking seriously about this design, but with a sheltered helm station and those good looks, who knows ....    In my experience choosing a design to build is much much harder than the actual building - because once you commit, you can't start building a Wharram and just decide halfway thru that you want a Gemini or god forbid another healing rolling monster with only one hull.

cheers,

Jim in Picton, Ontario

Many thanks for your nice and affectionate words. Wish us luck for a save and short building time. We are calculating with appr. 7.000 hrs (5 years +/-). Will see...
All the best Demi & Dirk

Hi Ann,

My problem is a small one I think and we are half way to resolving it. I will try to post a pic to this thread .
So the small cracking is at the join of the mast case to the cheeks of the bowsprit where the mast box is joined to the bowsprit plank. There are two vertical cracks at the join of the box section and the inner anchor roller cheeks. I think it is caused by the bowsprit flexing and the box section not flexing thus putting all of the stress on an epoxy joint. The joint is heavily glassed but I think the lever arm is too much once the bridle lashings stretch. Looking at it in my problem solving mode, that whole area is where the outer bowsprit attaches to the mast box and it looks obvious that its a week point due to a stiff section joining a flexible section.
Our remedy is to glue and bolt a 1.3m long hard wood plank that is 50mm thick and the width of the bowsprit plank. It is going to run from the mast to forward of the anchor rollers. There will be 8 bolts, 4 forward and 4 astern of the problem area. I will then glass the new plank for weather protection...That should stop the flexing of the bowsprit at the critical area. Basically I think the epoxy join is just not flexible enough to withstand the very slight flexing of the outer bowsprit as it is at exactly at the pivot point of the rigid mast case and the flexible bowsprit.
I wish I had seen the threads where you describe your issues before now but I was busy building and not reading. My plan is No 19 and there isn't a big doubler shown on the plan and I built it exactly to the plan that I have. It never occurred to me there may have been a revision. The original builder launched in sept 2001 I think so she must have been one of the first tiki 46's to get wet... Oh well my first on water repair!!
The only other issues so far have been a very creaky lashing on my port aft beam No5...Of course this happens to be my cabin and it sounds horrendous.... But that is the next job after the bowsprit. And some very minor cracking on the stern ramp and again is caused by the ramp twisting and flexing more than the epoxy joints can handle... This doesn't worry me at all.....

Other than this the boat is fantastic and I am super happy... Top speed so far is 14 kts and she just purrs along at 10 knots straight downwind with only the spinnaker in 25 true/15 kts apparent, What I am seeing is that boat speed is around 50-70 % of apparent downwind and around 30-40% of apparent when beating, but we have had relatively light winds whilst going upwind and have been taking it easy since seeing the cracking.

We have currently covered around 1000 miles from st Francis bay in South Africa and we are now in luderitz Namibia and as soon as we are ready we are heading to st Helena and then brazil... I can't wait for warm weather and we have been ticking off the degrees as we head north.

I will of course be adding lots of pictures but I just haven't had time lately to get online and post due to the unavailability of a reliable Internet connection and the pressures / stress of dodging the bad weather whilst getting out of South Africa... It's been a great experience in South Africa but as any sailor will tell you this part of the world can be punishing if you get caught out... Only a few days ago they were reporting 50-60 knts in Cape Town, boy am I glad to be 500-600 miles north and getting into the trades...

Thanks for your quick reply and I appreciate any advice you can give....

Cheers

Marty

Hi Ann,

Just thought I'd drop you a line and let you know we made it to brazil without any problems and that the fix for the mast case has worked brilliantly, no sign of any cracking at the problem area.
I must say I am super impressed with the tiki 46 after this crossing. Fast, stable, well behaved, what a machine! We averaged 7 knots from luderitz to cabalero and would have been much faster if we didnt have 4 days of no wind and I didn't pull back the reigns and slow the boat down once we exceeded 10 knots which was frequently. Top speed was 18+ knots when we surfed down a 4-5 m swell with the spinnaker up in a 25-30 knot gust, needless to say that kite cape down very quickly after that! The whole journey was directly downwind and once we had 15 knots apparent (25 knot true)we generally brought down the kite and ambled along under either jib or fore main alone at a leisurely 5-8 knots. What I need is a smaller heavier kite for the stronger winds as we found the symetrical kite perfect for running straight downwind. We could have tacked downwind but found that it was more uncomfortable and we sail for comfort over speed.
It is currently raining here in jacare and I have been plagued with computer problems lately but once the sun comes out I will take some pics of the mast case fix and post. I still have to glass and paint but I,m not in a hurry to do that as I want a few weeks of sun to ensure the hardwood is completely dry first.

Cheers

Marty

Hey Guys,
It's not quite so dramatic as it seems, I've been slowly doing repairs to inside and outside their house and this room at the far end, kind of like a granny flat situation, is next on the to-do list so the mess is a precursor of what is to come.
Cheers,
Shaun