Used Special Wharram

[boatsmith]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Wharram-TIKI-34_W0QQitemZ23046110313...
Here is the Wharram that was reported stolen here several months ago. The history on this boat is real strange. I don't know the facts at all but there is lots of bs floating around with this boat.
 This Wharram is very much not built to plan and the workmanship that I saw on about 30 months ago was deplorable. If a non cult member were to see this boat they certainly would walk away with a strong but unfavorable view of the designs. Wharrams like this one are far too commonly the norm on the used market. This really hurts the resale value of the many well built Wharrams that are built. I offered this fellow $2500 for this boat and was somewhat relieved when he turned me down, at leaat I didn't have to tell my bride that I had bought it.
   On the other hand one might say that because it's so crappy but is still here that it speaks well of the toughness of the design. Well that might be true if all you want is aboat to sit on the hard for years slowly disintegrating.

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[Geminidawn]

I've come accross a fair few of these kind of boats, but not all of them Wharrams, a walk through the back end of the boatyard is like a walk through a dog pound for me, going against good common sense you want to save them all.
In my early boat building days I first considered saving a classic 24ft clinker style sailing yacht with accomodation that was abandoned on the river bank. Luckily I had one of my old boat building mentors with me and what he said I still use to this day for boats like this.
He said "Sure you could save it if your willing to spend a couple of thousand euro, but it will cost you three times as much and take you three times as long than if you were to build a new one and at the end of the day all you'll still have is an old boat." Then he said "But there's always the smarter ten cent option."
Of course I had to ask, what was the ten cent option.
He replied simply "A box of matches"

[Ann and Neville Clement]

When I saw my first Wharram it was a total crap pile that had been sailed from Britain to St Martaan and abandoned there. Built wrong and out of crappy ply, it had moldered and rotted but stayed afloat. We saw it painted silver with a spray can, with rotted decking covered with out door carpet and several plastic park type benches installed somehow. It carried several people from hotel beach front each morning and afternoon out to the reef. The fellows operating her had dropped (that is all) some 200 horse outboard engines and huge tanks on the boat and told us she "steered like a pig".

When we went aboard, we found one rudder held by a gudgeon and the other by a pintle and lots and lots of blue polly rope poorly holding them on. It was a joy to see that she steered at all!

Our thought was that if it could suffer through all of that wrong build, wrong maintainence, and wrong care, then it was an amazing design. We were sold on Wharrams from that moment. They are indestructable and the fellows operating that Wharram were earning tons of money off that poor old carp pile which still managed to bring folks out to sea and bring them back safely.

A well built wharram that is maintained is a beautiful sight. That is what we have now.

Ann and Nev

[Geminidawn]

Sounds familiar, I heard of Wharram's for the first time at the dinner table I was aged about 15, my Uncle is the word of wisdom when it comes to all matters of the sea for he's been building, renovating and chartering his boats all his life. It's was pretty much he who got me started.
He described the Wharram Catamaran as " the Landrover of the Sea" and when I asked why, he says because they are reliable, safe and they'll get you where you need to go. He often spoke of them fondly.
I bought a design book and look through it time and time again. But it was some time later when I saw my first one a 90% complete Tiki 21 that came in to yard where I worked part time. It was like meeting a celebrity and I was sold. That is why I have a Wharram today, oh....and two Landrovers! :D

[Kevin Hutchinson]

I stumbled on boatsmith's mystery junky Wharram today. Is it still stolen? because it located in a marina on the Miami river. Alert the Federalies case solved!