60 years since Wharram crossed Atlantic

It’s sixty years since James Wharram and his two German girlfriends crossed the Atlantic Ocean from West to East aboard the 40ft catamaran Rongo. The boat was designed and built in the   West Indies after the trio successfully sailed his 1954 £200 23ft 6in plywood catamaran Tangaroa from the Canaries to Trinidad in 1955/6. Rongo sailed into the Conway River in North Wales on the 30^th September 1959 after crossing the North Atlantic from New York.

She was the first catamaran to make this difficult passage, and she helped prove to the world, as had Tangaroa, that catamarans can be long distance and seaworthy boats. James has recently celebrated 60 years as a catamaran designer and always says he could not have done it without the help of the late Ruth Merseburger and Jutta Schultze-Rohnhoff.

In the 1950s catamarans had not yet been acknowledged in the west as viable seagoing sailing vessels and Wharram pioneered their concept and proved their inherent seaworthiness with his Atlantic voyages.

The adventures, including his open relationship with both women, led to his pioneering book Two Girls, Two Catamarans, which was published in 1969. By then James had started designing catamarans for other people and this had blossomed into a thriving business of designs for self-builders. Hundreds, and over time thousands, were built and many have made incredible ocean voyages, including the smallest catamaran to sail round the world in the 1990s, the Tiki 21 Cooking Fat sailed by Rory McDougall.

Wharram Designs are nowadays a very distinct type of catamaran with very traditional looking lines reminiscent of Polynesian double canoes, and they can be seen in harbours all over the world. They have a worldwide following of builders and sailors who follow the philosophy of Wharram of how people can become SeaPeople by living a simple life on the sea.

 

With the expanding development of luxury catamarans for the charter market in the last 30 years, Wharram catamarans still stand out by being different; with their many traditional touches they remain simple, and are based on plywood build materials, so they can be quickly repaired if anything breaks. One was recently used by Matt Knight as the support vessel for Ross Edgley who swam around the entire British isles last year.

 

Pathé video of first crossing

To celebrate this first epic Atlantic crossing of Rongo Wharram says they are reprinting the original Building Plans of this design, beautifully drawn by Jutta in 1960. These will be available as a presentation box-set including a photo book of the history of Rongo, and the story of her further Atlantic voyages in 1960-61, plus a signed copy of Two Girls Two Catamarans.

These Building Plans can be used to build a model or a full size replica of this famous design. The presentation pack will be available in numbered editions, maximum 60, for the 60 years since her first West-to-East Atlantic voyage. Cost of Presentation box-set, £225, orders taken in advance, with sets to be sent out by Christmas 2019. Further details on www.wharram.com

 

Update: James sadly died in December 2021. See:  HERE