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Vasco Pyjama | 2015 Wharram Tiki 46

Vasco Pyjama | Wharram Tiki 46 46.59ft

Us $239,000.

Location - Phuket, Thailand 

2015 Wharram Tiki 46 | Vasco Pyjama

It’s time to take to the sea with 46’ of sailing perfection with Vasco Pyjama . An unmistakable Wharram design, this 2015 build will provide its owners with a classic look and feel to yachting life.

With unrivalled seaworthiness, this Tiki 46 model has been carefully built and maintained to not just sail well, but fast – hitting over 14 knots multiple times during a trip from Brisbane to Phuket.

Vasco Pyjama features four cabins, including a tranquil owner’s retreat, offering plenty of leisure space for kids and guests alike. Her Polynesian-inspired interior inspires a relaxed island feel as soon as you step aboard. The simple interior is functional, with everything you need for carefree cruising, including plenty of solar panels and a fully functional kitchen to remain self-sufficient while out at sea.

The catamaran has an epoxy and glass-over-plywood construction, beautifully finished both inside and out. No detail has been overlooked in ensuring Vasco Pyjama is safe, dependable, and seaworthy. She has been professionally checked and features new batteries, new clears, new antifouling with rigging and engines serviced. The owner has added many useful items such as Starlink and extra refrigeration. This is a vessel ready to go cruising again immediately.

With a new project coming over the horizon, the owner has decided to pass Vasco Pyjama on to her next adventurous owner or couple. This is your chance to experience something classic and breathtaking.

Contact the Multihull Solutions team to arrange an inspection today.

Specifications

• Length: 47ft
• Builder: Mike Carter / Stork Boat Building Services
• Beam: 23' 11"
• Draft: 3' 7"
• Hull: Other
• Status: Active

View More Specs

• Designer: James Wharram
• Keel: Other

MEASUREMENTS

• Length Overall: 46 ft
• Max Draft: 3' 7"
• Beam Measure: 23' 11"
• Total Power: 50
• Engine Brand: Yamaha
• Year Built: 2015
• Engine Model: FT25 outboards
• Engine Type: Outboard
• Engine/Fuel Type: Unleaded
• Engine Hours: 500
• Engine Power: 25 hp
• Fresh Water Tanks: 1 (250 Gallons)
• Fuel Tanks: 1 (250 Gallons)

Accommodations

• Number of cabins: 4
• Number of heads: 1

Inventory – Vasco Pyjama

Vessel Name – Vasco Pyjama                  

Make – Wharram                           

Model – Tiki 46                

Year – 2015                      

Length – 14.02m / 46.00ft                        

Beam – 7.30m / 23.95ft                             

Draft – 1.10m / 3.61ft                  

Displacement – 12 Tonnes                       

Fuel Capacity – 250 L                  

Water Capacity – 480 L               

Hull Material – Ply / Glass / Epoxy / Laminate                  

Deck Material – Foam / Glass / Epoxy / Laminate                          

Keel Type – Mini Keels                 

Designer – James Wharram                      

Builder – Mike Carter / Stork Boat Building Services                     

HIN – Plan #3514.02                    

Place of Registration – Cook Island                      

Registration Number – 2961                    

Number of Helms & Position – 1 – Centre aft cockpit                   

Tax Status & Paid Where – Tax paid in Australia.                            

Lying – Phuket, Thailand                            

Last Antifouling – March 2024                 

General Notes – In excellent condition and ready to head off on her next adventure – turnkey. Lots of spare jerry cans for fuel. Full infrared and ultrasound survey available.                             

Engines                                            

Number of Engines – 2                

Engine Make – Yamaha               

Engine Model – FT25 outboards                            

Horsepower – 2 – 25 Hp                             

Engine Year/s – 2015                   

1st Engine Number – 1001364                

1st Engine Hours ~500 Hrs                      

2nd Engine Number – 1001423              

2nd Engine Hours ~500 Hrs                     

Last Service – March 2023                       

Fuel Consumption – 30 Nm / 20 L                         

Fuel Type – Petrol                          

Maximum Speed – 10 Knots under power. Sailing ~14 knots or more                  

Cruise Speed – 6 Knots               

Propellers – Outboard                 

Drive Type – Outboard                 

Steering System – Dyneema                     

Notes – Engines well serviced and maintained no money spared                         

Accommodation                                          

4 Cabins                           

Double Berths – 1                         

Queen Berths – 3                          

Head Height ~1.93m / 6.23ft                  

Notes – Clean 2 white paint finish in all cabins               

Bathrooms                                      

Showers – 1                     

Heads – 1                         

Heads Type – Macerator electric, new                

Holding Tanks – 50 L                    

Notes – New bedding, pots and pans – 2023                   

Galley                                

Galley Location – Starboard centre                                     

Refrigeration – 60 L Eutectic + in 2023, 2 – 45 L Engel fridge / freezers + 1 – 40 L fridge / freezer

Freezer – As above                       

Stove – 3 Burner gas                    

Oven – Force 10 gas                    

Sink – 2 Stainless steel               

Gas Alarm – 1                  

Notes – Spare sump pump, fresh or sea water pump                  

Electronics                                     

Depth Sounder – B&G                 

Log – B&G                         

Autopilot – Course Master CM950                        

Wind Instruments – B&G                          

Chartplotter – B7G Zeus touch 12″                      

AIS Auto ID System – GME into chartplotter                     

GPS – B&G                       

VHF – Handheld Icom VHF                       

Sat Phone – Starlink Maritime world wide High Speed Dish                     

Notes – Personal EPIRB, Starlink Marine Internet, Canon printer plus spares, electronic charts for Pacific and Australia                             

Batteries                                          

Battery House – 4 – 150Amphr – new 2023                       

Battery Engine – 2 ~120amphr – new November 2023                 

Battery Charger – Outboards plus solar panels                             

Electrical Equipment                                 

Watermaker – Katadyne Power Survivor Size 40E L / Hr 5.7 L at 4 amps                             

Generator – Yamaha 2.4 Petrol               

Genset Hours ~250 Hrs                            

Solar Panels – 3 – 265w              

Inverter – 2.5Kw Outback Inverter                         

Shore Power – 220v                      

Notes – Spare watermaker filters                          

Sail Inventory                                 

Mast Material – Wood                 

Standing Rig Material – Dyneema                          

Standing Rig Age – New 2019                  

Age of Sails – New 2019                            

Main Sails – 1 Dacron Gaff Rigged with battens and lazy jacks               

Headsails – 1 Dacron                  

Bowsprit – 1                     

Furlers – Profurl for headsail                    

Winches – 4 Andersen ST40                    

Notes – Spare 80m & 20m lines, all sails made by Stitch Sails, Redfurn QLD, Australia                             

Safety Equipment                                        

Bilge Electric – 2 New in March 2023                   

Life Raft – RFD 6pax with EPIRB – new 2023                     

Life Jackets – 4 Solas, 2 self-inflating, 5 standard                         

Life Ring – 1 Horseshoe with light                         

EPIRB – GME 406 MHz                

Flares – Various                             

Fire Extinguisher – 3                     

Ground Tackle                               

Anchor – Rocna Vulcan 25kg                   

Chain / Rope – 1.5m 13mm + 80m 10mm chain                            

Spare Anchor – Plow 20 Kg                       

Chain / Rope – 10m 19mm Rode, 8m of 100mm chain               

Windlass – Maxwell HRC 10 with Cockpit remote                         

Deck Gear & Accessories                                        

Tender – CL290 Rib with tube covers and boat cover – new 2023                          

Tender Outboard – Mercury 15 Hp 4 stroke plus spares, includes propeller – new 2023              

Davits / Platform – Stainless steel rotating                       

Deck Wash – Salt and fresh                      

Bimini – Huge boats covers in ‘Sunbrella’                         

Enclosures – Huge boats covers in ‘Sunbrella’                

BBQ – Weber                   

Mooring Lines / fenders – Various                         

Notes – 3 Fishing Rods, spear gun, assorted fishing gear, inflatable SUP, huge assortment of tools and spares                      

Miscellaneous                               

General Remarks – Turnkey with Docs for reimportation into Australia if required                        

Disclaimer The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.

The Multihull Company is pleased to assist you in the purchase of this vessel but may be listed with another brokerage company.

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James Wharram: life and legacy of the iconic designer

• January 29, 2024

Julien Girardot meets Hanneke Boon in Cornwall to discover the legend and legacy of pioneering catamaran designer James Wharram

Falmouth, Cornwall, 1955: a legend is born along Customs House Quay. A smartly dressed young man with wild, curly hair has launched a 23ft catamaran, built in just a few months for the modest sum of £200 (the equivalent of around £6,500 today).

Rigged as a ketch with battened junk sails, the aptly named Tangaroa (meaning ‘God of the Sea’ in Polynesian) marked the beginning of the epic Wharram story.

At the time, catamarans were considered dangerous and eccentric, while yachting was a pastime largely reserved for high society. But sailing already has other visionaries. On the deck of Tangaroa, beside James, are two young women: Jutta Schulze-Rhonhof and Ruth Merseburger. In puritanical post-war England, setting off to cross the Atlantic with two young women – and German ones at that – was downright shocking! But these three young people care not a jot about conventional thinking. They dream of adventure and their enterprise is an act of defiance.

For years James Wharram has nurtured a passion for the history of sailing pioneers and the ethnic origins of the multihull. Devouring every book on the subject he could lay his hands on, he discovered the story of Joshua Slocum, the first solo circumnavigator (1895-1898), and the voyage of Kaimiloa by the Frenchman Eric de Bisschop. The tale, published in English in 1940, of de Bisschop’s attempt to prove the seaworthiness of double canoes by making a voyage from Hawaii to France on a catamaran he had built on the beach, became Wharram’s primary source of inspiration.

Riding out the storm: James Wharram at the helm of Tangaroa in Biscay in 1955. Photo: Julien Girardot

Wharram disagreed with many assumptions of the time, and his first Atlantic crossing was an opportunity to refute Thor Heyerdahl’s theory on the settlement of the Pacific islands. Wharram contested the assertion of the Danish anthropologist who, after his voyage aboard the Kon-Tiki in 1947, affirmed that the boats used were simple rafts. Wharram was convinced that the boats were more akin to double canoes with sails, capable of going upwind and holding a course. These early multihulls, consisting of two hollowed-out tree trunks, were connected by crossbeams bound together with plant fibre. The sails were probably made from what is known as ‘tapa’ in Polynesia, hammered tree bark, which was also used to make clothes.

The three young adventurers left Falmouth on 27 September 1955 on a boat loaded with books, basic foods, and very little else. Despite a fraught passage, encountering storms in the Bay of Biscay and being suspected of being spies by Franco’s Guardia Civil, the trio successfully crossed the Atlantic and reached the island of Trinidad on 2 February 1957.

Without a penny to their name, they adopted a simple island life, and Jutta gave birth to her and James’ first child, Hannes. The unconventional polyamorous family lived aboard a raft inspired by the floating dwellings of the Pacific, nicknamed ‘the paradise island of the South Seas’. Tangaroa, now tired, was abandoned, as Wharram decided to build a new catamaran. By chance, two solo sailors came to anchor in the bay where the Wharram tribe lived afloat, and the legendary Bernard Moitessier and Henry Wakelam helped Wharram build his new design, Rongo.

Wharram, Merseburger and Schulze-Rhonhof aboard Tangaroa in Falmouth, 1955, before their Atlantic crossing. Photo: Julien Girardot

Thanks to the experience of his first transatlantic voyage, as well as knowledge gathered from Wharram’s endless reading, Rongo was much more accomplished. While Tangaroa was flat-bottomed, Rongo has V-hulls. To prove the design’s seaworthy qualities, Wharram decided to tackle the North Atlantic, sailing from west to east with his two companions. This route was known to strike fear into the hearts of multihull sailors of the time, as the two previous attempts had tragically ended in two deaths.

The crew left La Martinique for New York on 16 April 1959, one year after Rongo’s construction began. The return voyage to Conwy in Wales took 50 days, but the gamble paid off, and Wharram’s new design was the first to achieve what many thought impossible. The curly-haired eccentric became something of a celebrity, and following his great Atlantic adventure, James published his first book, Two girls, Two Catamarans. The years that followed were Wharram’s golden age, with plans released to suit every budget and every dream. Soon there were Wharram designs all over the world, connected by a powerful community spirit.

Drawing a Wharram

My own journey to this remote corner of Cornwall began decades before. After 15 years of travelling the world, inventing and reinventing my life, including many years living in the Pacific islands, I felt the need to capture these experiences by creating the boat of my dreams.

Illustrations inspired by a visit to the Wharram design office in Cornwall. Image: Benjamin Flao

While living in Tuamotu, I was involved in several incredible projects to build traditional sailing canoes under the directive of talented local Tahitian boatbuilder, Alexandre Genton (now chief of operations at Blue Composite shipyard in Tahiti). At first we launched small single-seat sailing canoes with two outrigger floats. These are the simplest way to sail: a sheet in one hand, a paddle in the other, which you plunge over the side of the canoe into the water, and it makes a perfect rudder. Then we built a larger version, Va’a Motu, for a hotel in Bora Bora, of splendid stripped kauri planking. Finally, we worked with the local population to build an ambitious 30ft Va’a Motu with a single ama, on the atoll of Fakarava in the Tuamotu archipelago.

Curiously, after many experimental trials at building and sailing canoes, my imagined ideal yacht turned out to be something very close to a Wharram design, which I learned as soon as I shared my first cautious sketches with friends. I realised I had to meet James Wharram.

In October 2021, I dialled the number of JW Designs. A woman answered; James’ long-term life and business partner Hanneke Boon. I tell her my ideas to build from one of their plans: the Islander 39. We began an email exchange and when I asked her what James thought of this model, in November 2021, less than a month before he died, she replied: “James is enthusiastic about your project. He’s now 93 years old and nearing the end of his life.

The Pahi 63 Spirit of Gaia which Wharram and Boon sailed around the world. Image: Benjamin Flao

“He has been looking at the Islander 39 design for several years and often says, ‘I wish I had one myself.’ It’s the only Wharram design that has never been built, so your project is a wish come true for him.”

On 14 December 2021, James Wharram passed away. Out of respect for the bereavement, and due to Covid-related travel restrictions, we decided to postpone our meeting. Some months later on a beautiful spring afternoon, I landed in Plymouth with my friend and artist Benjamin Flao, himself the owner of a Wharram-designed Tiki 28, and headed for Devoran near Truro in Cornwall, the stronghold of the Wharram family.

Hanneke welcomes us into her office. It is a beautiful wooden cabin, warm and bright, overlooking the changing lights of Cornwall. The place looks like a museum telling the story of a life of travel and passion through yacht models, photographs and unusual objects. James is there, you can feel it. A glance at the shelves of the library shows an impressive array of rare and precious books, mostly dealing with navigation and shipbuilding in Oceania, and demonstrates the seriousness with which Wharram and Boon studied the history and technicality of ‘double canoes’.

“I’d like our boats to be called double canoes and not catamarans, which I think is a mistake,” Hanneke explains. The word catamaran, originally pronounced ‘catamaron’, comes from the Tamil dialect of katta ‘to bind’ and maram ‘wood’, as they were actually one-man rafts used to work on the outer hull of ships. The English pirate and adventurer William Dampier, in the 1690s, was the first to describe a two-hulled vessel as a catamaran, but although catamarans might be the commonly accepted word nowadays, it’s actually a mistake.

oon unfolds the plans of the Islander 39, the only Wharram design that has never been built. Many plans were hand-drawn by Boon. Photo: Julien Girardot

Hanneke unfolds the Islander 39 plan on her drawing board. Like all Wharram plans for half a century, it has been marked with her signature. Despite this unique pencil stroke, she has remained in the shadow of Wharram’s mythology for 50 years. Since 1970, Boon has drawn the majority of the construction plans by hand. They’re works of art and the best way to imagine yourself aboard a Wharram. Without her, JW Designs would not be what it is.

Originally from the Netherlands, Boon grew up in a family of sailing enthusiasts. By the age of 14 she was already building small canoes and at the age of 20 she joined the Wharram team and quickly became his co-designer. They criss-crossed the Atlantic twice in quick succession aboard Tehini, the crab claw-rigged double canoe on which James and several women lived for 10 years. Since then, Hanneke has escaped from her office whenever she can to sail thousands of miles on all the seas of the world, always using a double canoe.

Those radical vessels included the Spirit of Gaia, also built on site, through a sliding door next to Hanneke’s office. It was aboard this 63ft Pahi, Wharram’s flagship, that the Wharrams sailed around the world from 1994 to 1998. James described Spirit of Gaia as “a beautifully shaped woman he was in love with”.

Boon’s design office is adjacent to the Wharram HQ in Devoran and looks out over one of the River Fal’s many creeks. Photo: Julien Girardot

In Wharram’s wake

James and Hanneke’s home is a former veterinary surgery. The furnishings are basic, with only the essentials, but the doors close by themselves, thanks to an ingenious system of weights, ropes and pulleys. Benjamin and I offer to shop and cook, and in the living room, we put the dishes down and eat on the floor, like on the deck of a Wharram.

Jamie, James and Hanneke’s son, joins us for the meal with his partner Liz. “James has remained the icon of the business, but it’s really Hanneke who has been doing the job for the last 10 years. She is JW Designs,” confides Liz.

Jamie is at first more subdued, but talking to him you soon discover a true character. Given the world he grew up in, it’s surprising to learn that sailing is not really his thing: “I get bored quickly at sea and I’m sick most of the time! I prefer to be underwater. Above the line is not my thing.

Evocative illustration of the Wharram workshop in Devoran, Cornwall. Image: Benjamin Flao

“I do like the calmness of the ocean though, that parenthesis effect, detached from our hectic lives on land. In fact, I think the best thing about sailing is remembering long voyages, not making them,” Jamie jokes.

But he is keen to preserve Wharram’s legacy and the couple are thinking ahead to when Hanneke can no longer hold the fort. “As long as Hanneke is alive, the business will be run in her own way. But it’s certain that something will be put in place to enable people to continue to acquire the building plans, at the very least, this service will remain guaranteed.”

Back in the office next door, Nicki John answers clients and sends plans around the world. She’s only been with JWD for a couple of years, but that’s long enough for her to fall in love with the company’s story.

“One of the things I loved about James was that he came in every day. He’d knock on the door and jokingly ask, ‘Do you have time for some gossip?’ And then he’d tell me all sorts of stories. His travels, the women he had shared his life with, it was fascinating. When he was 18, he hitchhiked to Europe, smuggling coffee on the black market to finance his adventures. James’ story is just phenomenal.

Mana 24 is available as a CNC-cut self-build kit boat. Photo: Julien Girardot

“One day James came in, took out a plan, unfolded it as he sat down, and said, ‘Aren’t they beautiful?’ James was deeply convinced of Hanneke’s talent. He never stopped admiring her,” Nicki says fondly.

The community Wharram fosters is unique. Nicki shows us a photo that defines the ‘Wharram spirit’, of the hull of a Wharram being lifted out of the second floor window of a home in England. With no shed to build their Wharram design, they decided to use their living room as a boatyard. “This picture shows that if you really want to build a Wharram, you can do it anywhere,” says Nicki, “During Covid, we sold a lot more plans. Confined, people dreamed of freedom and took time to figure out how they wanted to live their lives.”

Now it’s Hanneke’s turn to shine as the head of JWD. In contrast to the technologically-led path that sailing often follows, James and Hanneke’s ‘low tech’ approach drives those who follow it to reconnect with past knowledge, practices, and philosophical approaches to our relationship with the world and the way we live in it.

Their love of minimalism is also at odds with many trends in modern yachting, but it brings its own luxury. The joy of not having too much of anything allows you to make room for the essentials, and for the beauty that surrounds you.

My dream of building Wharram’s unfulfilled plan, the Islander 39, remains. I’m in no hurry. Like the libertarian vision of James Wharram, it endures.

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• Wharram Cats

Wharram catamarans currently on Brokerage

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The first of the Pahis, designed in 1979 after the building of a 35ft prototype, which successfully sailed the 1978 Round Britain Race. The PAHI shape has proven itself in rough weather conditions, in speed potential and ease of motion. At only 31' she is still capable of ocean voyages. Standing headroom is under a large raised hatch.

The original Pahi 31 rig is a Bermudan cutter, with low cut, anti-twist, loose footed mainsail, but now she is also available with the Wharram Wingsail Rig, giving more clear centre deck space as the mast is placed further forward.

• Multicoques
• WHARRAM MK IV

WHARRAM MK IV Multicoques Madagascar

WHARRAM NARAI MK IV : Robustes, simples et très marins, les catamarans Wharram naviguent un peu partout dans le monde. Ces bateaux originaux répondent à une véritable philosophie de la mer, leurs propriétaires forment une communauté soudée. travaux réalisés courant 2020 : état extérieur, quille, safran, pont, cockpit et peinture. (par un pro) travaux a prévoir. liste et devis sur demande. Possible de faire les travaux avant livraison. Pour plus d'infos, photos, visio, n'hésiter pas a nous contacter. QUENTIN: 00261327916308

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