John G. Hanna

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For other uses, see John Hanna or John Hannah.

John Griffin Hanna was a sailboat designer, famous for designing the Tahiti ketch. Hanna was born in Galveston, Texas, on October 12, 1889. Around 1917, he settled in Dunedin, Florida, and was greatly influenced by the Greek double-ended sponge boats found in nearby Tarpon Springs, Florida. Shortly after his move to Dunedin, Hanna purchased a double-ended ketch-rigged sponge boat that had been built in Apalachicola, Florida by a Greek-American shipwright named Demo George. This vessel, and others that Hanna studied, would inspire the design of Hanna's famous Tahiti ketch.

At least two boats of Hannas' design have circumnavigated the world twice. Jean Gau in the Atom; and Tom Steele in the Adios. (Don Holm, The Circumnavigators page 355).

Hannas design is mentioned in Moden Mechanix and How to Build 20 Boats,.

[edit] References

• John Stephen Doherty, A Ketch Called Tahiti: John G. Hanna and His Yacht Designs . International Marine, 1987.