Reading through this issue, you’ll notice a common theme: multihulls have made it. Whether it’s an increasing number of them in the ARC or the design trends cementing their place in the consumer and charter markets, it’s hard to even imagine that not so long ago, these boats were something of an anomaly. But an anomaly they were, and so was their champion, James Wharram, the British sailor who designed a generation of early western catamarans based off of ancient Polynesian designs.
At the time Wharram made his famed 1955-56 Atlantic crossing, most Western theorists didn’t believe catamarans were capable of crossing oceans. They were, of course, very wrong, and Wharram proved it, completing the voyage with just two crewmates aboard the 23ft 6in catamaran Tangaroa.
Throughout his career, Wharram…
