During his childhood he was afflicted with deafness following scarlet fever and lost a foot in a traffic accident.
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.
[3] His 1926 Story-built ketch Faith was later purchased by director John Ford and renamed Araner.
[4] At least two boats of Hanna's design have circumnavigated the world twice: Jean Gau in the Atom; and Tom Steele in the Adios.
He was let go by the Rudder after a drawn-out feud with L. Francis Herreshoff, who was also a columnist there, and debated acerbically with Thomas C. Gillmer over Tahiti's design antecedents, as well as with Philip Rhodes, and Howard Chapelle.