This can be seen in another photograph:
it was taken in 1984 and compares well with the photograph of " ‘WARROO’ grounded off Western Australia", seen in Doherty's book. Both are good for showing deck and cockpit layouts from otherwise very unseemly postures. Nevertheless, as yet another picture - "Littchen's ‘NAHRA’ on the beach for careening" in one of the 1935 articles shows ‘Tahiti’ does take the ‘hard’ well - for short spells at least.
Also worthy of note is that flush-decking the ‘Tahiti’ to the top of the bulwarks gives plenty of headroom below.
This feature is well seen in a press-photo of the standing ‘Skipper’ (6'3"), fixing breakfast at the galley for the seated ‘Crew’, that was taken just before we left Durban in January 1983.
It appeared in the South African national press on the Sunday morning we departed that port and the article with it’s bold headline which accompanied the photo was to have somewhat dire repercussions aboard ship several thousand miles later. But that comes in a later story!
‘JAHO’s previous owner had put in a ‘feet and shin-bones only’ plastic affair which may well have served as a cruising Bath-tub but was not my idea of a cruising Cockpit especially for the night-watches in a seaway.
So, extricating the wretched contraption, which incidentally was beginning to cause deck-rot problems where the plastic overlaid the wood, I donated it to a new home aboard that large and famous old Colin Archer Redningskoite - ‘CHRISTIAN BUGGE’ - which was being refitted in Seychelles at the same time by two cruising families with young children to bathe. So was found its proper place and all was well that ended well.
This photograph taken in Seychelles’ waters a few months after I had acquired her
shows ‘JAHO’s later and handsome sail-plan of twin headsails - Jib and Stays’l - with a Gaff Tops'l. This, apart from the absent Flying-Jib and Stays'l boom is very like that of von Kaas’ ‘GRATUITY’ also shown in Doherty’s book. The Tops’l sets well and is easy to handle, as no doubt other ‘Tahiti’ owners have found to their joy. In fact ‘Tahiti’ really sails best with the Tops’l set and the first shortening of sail should it prove necessary is easily accomplished by lowering it.
However, much later on the voyage I took the battens out of the Mizzen-sail, and cut out the roach, as they had on one occasion fouled in the Mizzen Shrouds when we were forced to shorten sail further and fast in a sudden hard squall off Cape St Lucia and I can say once is enough to have had to go aloft to clear that sort of malarky!