James Wharram, Hanneke Boon and Klaus Hympendahl (2008)
For more than 50 years, James Wharram has been designing, building and sailing catamarans. 10,000 people have bought his designs ranging in size from 21’ to 63’. They are all based on the principles of Polynesian double canoes.
Hanneke Boon has been Wharram’s design partner for 30 years. Her artistic/practical input into the designs has made Wharram’s concepts more accessible to the public.
From 1995 to 1998 Wharram and Boon sailed around the world on their 63’ (19m) catamaran SPIRIT of GAIA studying Indo-Pacific canoe design, visiting the island of Tikopia.
Klaus Hympendahl is a well-known German author of maritime books and articles.
While sailing round the world (1986 - 1990) he visited Tikopia. In 2003 he raised funds to rebuild the small island-clinic (the only western building) which was destroyed by cyclone Zoe in 2002.
Klaus Hympendahl sadly died suddenly in February 2016. The Lapita Voyage would not have been possible without Klaus’ organisational work and efforts to raise the money to build the boats.