James Wharram

Who is James Wharram?

James Wharram is a multihull pioneer and designer of catamarans.

In 1953, after long studies into the records of boats of the Pacific in the libraries and museums of Britain, he designed and built the first British ocean-going double-canoe/catamaran, the TANGAROA, which meant the beginning of cruising and transatlantic crossing with a catamaran. He was also inspired by Eric de Bisschop’s book ‘The voyage of the Kaimiloa’.

In 1955-56 James Wharram, with the help of two German women, sailed TANGAROA across the Atlantic to Trinidad.

No scholars in the Western world at this time believed that the Polynesians had boats capable of directed ocean voyages. James believed otherwise and set out to prove it by doing it himself. He followed this first Atlantic crossing by building a 40’, V-eed hull double canoe, RONGO, in Trinidad in 1957/8, with Bernard Moitessier's help and sailing her across the North Atlantic in 1959 from New York to Ireland. This was the first West-to-East crossing of the Atlantic by catamaran/multihull.