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Comment by David King on February 13, 2014 at 2:55pm

Hi,

Thanks for the nice comments.

Rio is a Tiki 31 Espace. I have never heard of one of these before and is very unusual in her construction.

She is GRP foam sandwich construction. fitted with a Nanni 21hp three cylinder diesel on a Sonic drive leg that is hydraulically lifted out of the water when sailing.

Although she is a 31feet I think the builder made her a little longer, I will measure her and let you know.

The layout is; Port side forward double berth, port centre Galley fitted with diesel hob and oven, sink etc, port side rear single cabin(used as storage at present). Starboard side forward double berth, starboard centre Heads, starboard rear  single cabin. Centre Pod at present has a massive chart table and two single berths. The sail plan is the most unusual aspect of the boat. She has twin masts but has a roller reefing genoa to each mast with a larger than usual mizzen, there is also a topsail that fills in between the forward mast and second genoa for light air use. So I'm not sure weather she is a ketch or cutter or cutter rigged ketch. 

To date I have not had the sails up as I have been renovating her. I did one trip to move her closer to where I live. I used the engine all the way (140Nm) the wind was on the nose all the way and at times up to high force 7 low 8 so a bit lumpy as this was in the north sea off the east coast of the UK.

She behaved brilliantly and is a lot more capable that I had imagined.

Our plans are to finish the renovations and when my girlfriend has learned the ropes, go see some of the world.

I have been having some trouble uploading photos as can be seen from my profile it keeps giving me an error message, but I'll keep trying.

David

Comment by Andrés on February 14, 2014 at 8:05pm

It seems to be "Big Tiddles", a very interesting boat built by Steve Turner for Dave Hender. There are several articles in the Sea People magazine about their travels. 

Comment by David King on February 16, 2014 at 7:05am

Hi Andres,

I would like to think she is the big tiddles you speak of but I'm not sure. The previous owner told me her husband named it after their very small kitten. I would be very interested if anyone could give me some information about this beautiful boat. my knowledge of her to date is that she was built in 1994/95 and the previous owner bought it 6 to 7 years ago after it was sailed back from Portugal.

If anyone reading this could help I would be most grateful

David

Comment by Andrés on February 16, 2014 at 7:22pm

I have some old pictures from Big Tiddles taken from the web many years ago, when she was for sale.

She looks very similar to your boat.

Comment by Andrés on February 16, 2014 at 7:25pm

Another pictures

Comment by Andrés on February 16, 2014 at 7:28pm

I don't know why but I can include only one picture in each comment, here is another one.

Comment by David King on February 17, 2014 at 9:29am

Hi I checked with the previous owner and now you have sent me the photos it is definitely the same boat. The interior shots and cockpit show that it is the same. Wow.
I have started to read the articles you told me about, they are great. A good source of all things Wharram.
I am really grateful to you Andres. If you have any more information or photos I would be very greatful. It would be fantastic to follow her past voyages and find out about her build and alterations. Thanks once again
David

Comment by Andrés on February 17, 2014 at 10:44am

Hi David, I am glad the information was useful. I will put below the other pictures that I have.

Comment by Andrés on February 17, 2014 at 10:45am

Comment by Andrés on February 17, 2014 at 10:49am

Last, but not least!

Comment

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