Minimum cruising cat-size & cost

Pahi 41, Pahi 42. Close enough. So I'm off by a foot on a boat I haven't looked at in over a year.

A "deckpod" isn't a deckhouse. I was looking to put a deckhouse on one.

I hadn't seen Richard's V hull designs. I had only looked at his more modern designs, apparently. Here's an example of the underwater profile of one of Richard's designs I had looked at:

 

Scott Brown's multihull forum has a guy on there (Steve Turner) who has done many wharram modifications including fixed beams and deck cabins. A lot of the builders use the plans as a starting point and roll there own additions. In the pre internet days there were a lot of variable results but most boats now are turning out pretty well with the features their owners want. If you add a deck cabin most people now realize you have to add a board or LAR keel to make up for the windage.

 

As it has been mentioned here - shelter is of prime importance as well as the windward sailing ability. South African waters are dangerous and there is no place to hide. The Cape can blow hot and cold within hours.

So i am sure the other 10'000 hippies out there that are still sitting on their plans are also gonna get to it - sooooon

So the point is you simply dont need to build a wharram any more, there are enough of them out there going for a song, the yellow one by us you could probably have for free, because it hasn't seen its owner in 3? years and mooring is costing him ZAR 10 k/a which is around US$ 1300 per year.
Like I said many of them were well built and you can now modify and add to it to your hearts content. Just like the other poster that bought that piece of **** on the hard - the box on top of 2 semi submerged pontoons with 2 huge diesel engines that went "missing"
He is also a bit cheesed off because nobody wants to help him - "all negative comments" fact is he should have asked before spending his hard earned cash

Oh well it sure takes all different types and tastes to make up the boating community
please just remember to tie down your "tent" on your "raft" properly loooooong before the wind starts to howl - and never forget - check those ropes my son, check those ropes, then you can add suntan lotion and have passionate sex under the sun and stars. And the remeber the hula girls are also waiting for you in their grass skirts TOPLESS just like your raft

 

Any comments from owners?
Why do people seem to either love or hate wharram's?
For those with a limitted budget (not necessarilly limitted skill) there is a quick and easy boat available...... and people do seem to modify as required.

 

Thinking about this - and part of the cruising"thing" is "the dream"....
Apart from hippy bashing - it is cool to be green these days
Why do more people not sell wharram type 'dreams' - it obviously sells!?!?!?

 

Alex,

This is my point. Wharrams cats aren't any less expensive to build than other catamarans, considering the materials for the hull make up a very small percentage (20% in my case) of the total cost of building a boat.

It makes no economic sense to build a Wharram, given the fact that they cost the same to build as any other catamaran. If you think you are going to build a Wharram for much less than, say, one of Richard Woods' catamarans, your numbers are off. It will cost the same to build, but will be worth much less on the used market when it comes time to sell.

Wharram markets these boats as boats for people on a limited budget, but don't be fooled. They aren't any cheaper than other ply/epoxy/glass catamarans. You're still buying all the same materials. You're just configuring them into a tiki bar with V hulls instead of something of a more modern (and more valuable) design.

I'll repeat this: They are the lowest cost boat on the market, per foot, in the used market. If you build one for the same price as a good boat, you are going to lose a lot of money.

What this also means is that if you are looking at used boats and you like the Wharram, buying one used is one of the best things you can do.

I don't hate the Wharrams, other than the tiki hut theme decorations all over them. I had looked into modifying a used Wharram or building a new Wharram and did so with an open mind, imagining I could remove all that decorative tiki hut crap and make it look like a boat, rather than a bar. Yes, I hate the styling of them, but the boat itself was something I was looking at. Once I finished my research, I realized the points I mention above. It's a big financial mistake to build a boat that has little resale value when you have to spend the same amount of money, no matter what boat you build.

I know resale value isn't at the top of the list of considerations, but there will come a time. I'm a younger guy in boats for a Yankee. I'm 38. My wife is 30. I want my boat to last for *her* lifetime, but... I still keep my eye on resale value because even if I'm dead, there will come a day when my wife may want to sell the boat. I'd rather she be able to get money back out of it. Same story if we were to have some physical limitation which would prevent us from sailing. You want to get your hard earned money (and time!) back out of the boat. Wharram builds, despite the dream, shortchange you on this. They're just not worth as much on the used market.

Alright, I'm done. Just really want to help. I am a guy on a very limited budget and I came at this problem from the same place you are coming from. The above is what I came up with after many long hours of research.

 

Wharram was very good at "Selling the dream". As was Arthur Piver. They both wrote books which influenced a lot of dreamers.
The predominent failures seemed to involve the crossbeams, although I am sure most of these failures were due to faulty construction by the home builders. However Wharram himself suffered crossbeam failure in a Round the British Isles race in the 1960's.
The best Wharram I have sailed on was a 52' Tehini, built in Toronto Canada.
It had steel RSJ beams through-bolted to well re-enforced gunwhales. The size and section of the steel joists was specified by a structural engineer and made a very stiff platform for the Bermudan Sloop rig.
That boat endured a grounding on a sandbar during the night on its way to Florida. It thumped its way across during the night and finally floated it'self off on the morning tide with no damage. Says a lot for the structure.

 

Suppose anything i build/design would be worth even less......
But i'll be sure to not make it a tiki bar
HMMMM -then gain, topless wimmen and sex under the stars doesn't sound that bad....

 

Wharram with deckhouse!!

 

Alex I am an old fart and my generation is actually the "original" hippies. So when I joke I actually refer to myself and my other old fart buddies. Man - did we have the dreams of far away islands - sailing into the sunset! Then we lost the dream and became "baby boomers" and mortgage slaves. Big big very big mistake. Now most of us are facing the "empty nest" syndrome and if you have been with the wife for 30 years she actually will quite happilly wave you goodbye at the harbour. My missus has no dreams of sailing into the wide blue yonder. When I visit 99% of the yacht clubs anywhere and everywhere the place is filled with MEN on their own. The joke goes that when you start building a boat the missus gives the ultimatum - choose me or the boat - man I am going to miss the missus

Point is the guys want to go too big and too ambitious. Like the guys have pointed out here the hull is 20% of the cost, so why build old and ugly. Search around and you will find sites where the guys started building big cats when the kids were small - the boat still is nowhere near finished and the children are grown up and couldn't care about daddy's dream of sailing away.

Boat design and in particular catamaran design has grown in leaps and bounds over the last 10 years. If you look around you will find old Dean cats that are in mint condition but are so outdated that its scary. The really big builders like Foutaine Pajot have spent mega bucks on research and that will clearly show the basic design principles of modern catamaran design. You will NOT find anything even remotely close to a wharram design.
The magic allure of the cruising cats has been space and speed. The speed thing is a misnomer because a cruising cat is usually loaded so speed is compromised anyway AND out at sea the guys like to cruise at 6 to 8 knots for comfort. There are many sites on the internet of cats cruising around 6 knots.
Modern light mono's with bulb keels and centerboards also give very good speeds so the criteria for speed has shifted to light and so much just cat.

In South Africa today premises cost on average R5k/month and you need at least between R5k and R10k a month to feed a good building program.
We are really going out of our way to find quality materials at affordable prices and as you can see the boat budget just never ends. I am systematically buying small stuff and fittings every month so even if it looks like nothing is happening the money is still flying out the window. And I am building at home and my buddy is building the 8m cat in a factory that he owns so neither of us are paying rent.

So no offence to wharram - but if you want to save money go smaller and go mono - cruising cats by their very nature are big boats with lots of luxurious space and extra costs

 

An awful lot of anger here fellas. Ifn you don't like a design, don't build it. Many people like Wharrams, some don't don't get your knickers bunched

 

This is a Nigel Irens design. ( Wharam look alike ?) Certainly like nothing else on the market. Looks pretty good to me. I bet it will hold its value.

 

Does look like a wharram....
Didn't Ray Aldrich have a Tane and like it?

 

One reason people keep building Wharrams is they are easy to build and don't use a lot of expensive yacht gear. Less building, sanding and fairing = sailing sooner. I wonder how many of the Wharram detractors have actually spent much time sailing them? Their forums offer builders a great way of sharing information and innovations, if a boat needs more light wind sail area word gets out pretty quick. To be sure there are a lot of deals out there on many kinds of boats to upgrade etc... try to sail on the boats you like before you build or buy. You'll become a better sailor and learn more about boats in the process.

 

This is another of my points. How is there less building, other than the fact that you aren't building deck level shelter from wind/rain/seas/sun? Is it not constructed from plywood and epoxy? Do you not glass the hulls' exterior? Do you not put at least 6 layers of epoxy on the outside of the hulls?

Also, how is there less sanding?