Photos from the Rendezvous

I'm really glad I made the trip to Islamorada last weekend to attend the 3rd. annual Wharram Catamaran Rendezvous to be held there.  What a great bunch of people and an inspiring collection of Wharram catamarans.  Here are a few highlights, as well as a link to a slideshow of all of my rendezvous photos:

The anchorage near the beach at the Lorelei Restaurant is a perfect location for a gathering of Wharram cats.

Shallow-draft catamarans can come right in to the dining area, as David Halladay's Abaco did throughout the event, picking up and dropping off passengers interested in test rides.

There was a decent breeze all weekend, allowing for some fun Tiki 30 sailing with the spinnaker up:

One of the highlights of the show was this nicely-built Tiki 21 trailered down from North Carolina by Rick Hueschen, who built the boat, sewed his own sails from nothing but the plans, and designed and built a custom, expanding trailer that allows him to easily launch and retrieve the boat.  Rick and his wife and daughter slept aboard the boat using a custom deck tent he also designed and made.

Here's a comparison view that gives a somewhat distorted idea of the size difference between the Tiki 30 and Tiki 21.  I was using an ultra-wide angle lens, so the difference is not really this extreme.

And out in the anchorage, here's a shot of Greg Russell's Pahi 31 and Gene Perry's Tiki 26:

Greg Russell, with the help of his friends Paul and Matt Garcia, sailed the Pahi 31 down to Islamorada from Panama City, in the panhandle of Florida.  In light winds, the trip took 7 days.  They are somewhere out there on the way back now.

Gene Perry is an inspiration to us all, still sailing his Tiki 26 at age 85.  He sailed down from Hobe Sound with the help of a friend.

Dan Kunz, who keeps a Tangaroa Mark IV Plus in the marina at the Lorelei, worked hard to put this event together and organize everything so that it went really smoothly.  I hope this spring rendezvous continues as a tradition for many years to come.

I also got a chance to take a look at a Tiki 46.  This is Kitty Wake, sailed by the Kittles family, who built her in Michigan and now live aboard full time.  They did not make it to the rendezvous, but were moored nearby in Boot Key Harbor at Marathon.

To see all of my rendezvous photos, check out this slideshow hosted on my photo site:

http://photography.scottbwilliams.com/p102437205/slideshow