The 51 foot Tehini was built in the open with rudimentary hand tools on an old jetty in Deganwy, North Wales in 1968. She was James Wharram's dream ship intended to sail around the World via Cape Horn. Orginally rigged as a Chinese Junk ketch, she was a Bemudan schooner and later a bermudan cutter/ketch. A cutter rig was an option in the plans but most examples built feature the cutter/ketch rig.

James typically wrote about the design in glowing terms likening her to American clipper ships.

James crossed the Atlantic twice in her 1973/74 and she made two more crossings with other skippers. Her last voyage was to Brittany in 1982 to film Dr Horace Dobbs' dolphin watching expedition. Many other boats have been built to the Tehini plans too. Only 40 feet on the waterline she is a very "small boat" for her length like most of the Wharram designs and although the hulls each have a centre cabin that is about 10 feet long they have the same basic layout of all the the classic designs from Tangaroa upwards. After Tangaroa James had next designed the 46 foot Oro, and then the Narai. An enlarged 45 foot version of Hina called Ariki and the 36 foot Raka followed. They all had the same layout of a centre cabin in each hull (one as a galley the other a chartroom) and quarter berths immediately for and aft. In the larger designs the berths are classed as doubles although very cosy ones. Even in Tehini only 3 feet wide. The last section of the hulls is either a toilet, storage or a berth. I cannot imagine that the two forward berths were very useable at sea! 

Some builders of Oro, Narai and Tehini designs put a toilet/shower in the middle of the chartroom area with separate hatches into each berth which then had its own "dressing room" area in the cabin section. Others converted a berth into a toilet/shower cabin or a seat and table. Raising the decks between the beams was common and the Narai MKIV in 1975 incorporated that  and the Tehinin plans were updated to offer that. Some builders just raised the hulls and carried the cabin tops forward over the  bunk cabins or used them as a galley, dining room or toilets and showers to improve on the basic accommodation drawn. Adding a covered cockpit on the slatted deck was popular too. Similar developments are then seen in the much improved Tiki 38 and Tiki 46 designs. 

Looking at thefilms and  pictures of Tehini I am left counting the number of people on board and wondering where they all dissappeared to when they went down below!!

From her launch in 1969 James lived on her with his wife Ruth, son Hannes, and his female companions Maggie, Leslie and Nula, joined later by Hanneke. Initially based at Milford Haven before and after sailing to the West Indies, they moved to Ireland in 1976. Although this was a land base and Tehini sat unused and was advertised for sale. They also tried to set her up as a charter business in St Lucia. That failed and the boat was then sailed back to Cornwall and became home to James, Ruth and Hanneke again in 1980 until 1984 when they moved to Devoran in Cornwall.  Until then they were back at Milford Haven with another office ashore. Tehini lay at the end of the garden and was by then showing signs of rot and the glues used in 1968 to construct her were failing. She was used as a houseboat for a while and accommodated guests and she lay looking like an abandoned wreck at the bottom of his garden before he finally burned her. A sad end for a beautiful lttle ship. 

In my view Tehini was a magnificent creation and James was rightly proud of her. Her name was evidentally Polynesian for "darling". But after building Spirit of Gaia (a boat that he wrote about in terms of a man loving a woman) James had obviously fallen out of love with Tehini and abandoned her like a former lover.