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Wharram’s Legacy
I was delighted to see Yachting World publish the article ‘Wharram’s Legacy’ in your December 2023 issue. I love the drawings by Benjamin Flao, he is an amazing artist and I greatly admire his skills. A longer version was published in French in Voiles & Voiliers, but as many people do not read French I am very happy to see it now published in English.
However, I noticed one change in the text [from] the French version and something I would like to contest. One sentence describes Wharram’s first pioneering Atlantic voyage on the 23ft 6in double canoe Tangaroa:
“Despite a fraught passage, encountering storms in the Bay of Biscay; being suspected of being spies by Franco’s Guardia Civil, and twice nearly capsizing, the trio successfully crossed the Atlantic and reached the island of Trinidad on 2 February 1957.”
Throughout his design life James Wharram strived to design double canoe/ catamarans that do not capsize and has written many articles on the stability of catamarans, explaining their form stability and how with correct design they will not capsize. Though suffering other problems during their arduous voyage Tangaroa never came close to capsize, nor have any of the later Wharram designs.
There are few articles which inspire as many discussions and differences of opinion regarding technique as Skip Novak’s Heavy Weather Sailing series, which can now be found at yachtingworld.com. This reader considers Skip’s storm anchoring advice:
Two anchors better
Good article, BUT two anchors set at least 30° apart are better in bad conditions. There are two main reasons, apart from finger trouble, that boats drag their anchors – one is weed and the other is debris. The best type of general purpose anchor in weed will be a plough of some type, like a Lewmar Delta, genuine CQR or, if you can afford it, an Ultra. In variable winds when the anchor keeps tripping light weed can accumulate until the anchor fails to reset. Debris can cause some real surprises, as all it takes is a tin can on the pointy end, or a brick to result in a dragging incident.
If the wind is too variable to figure out which direction is best for a second anchor, don’t set it, just let
