Multimarine markets a 23 foot long trimaran that can be purchased as a kit and home-built. Of great interest is their concept for building the tri, using some rather easy methods for most home builders. I am thinking the process could be easily converted to an r/c boat of 1 or 1.2 Meter size, and would be able to be built by those with limited building experience or equipment.
http://multimarine.com/L-7/the_boat/the_boat.html#construction is the full size boat site, but their method of kit construction allows the builder to purchase the curved portion of the main hull and floats pre-built in epoxy/glass. It is what they refer to as a “pan”. Then, a simple jig to hold/shape the straight plywood panels, and either a flat deck, one with a bit of curvature, or a second “Deck Pan” is added. A home r/c builder could easily replace the bottom “pan” with a simple chunk of home insulation of 3/4 inch thickness by the length of the hull. Once the side panels are shaped to the top-view profile, the foam is glued to the bottom of the panels and shaped with rough grit sandpaper. Once the shape is done, the entire hull sides and bottom can be covered with a single layer of glass, the deck added and faired in and everything painted.
If more depth is required, for the bottom, from panel edge to keel, a piece of 2 inch thick foam could be substituted for the 3/4 inch, giving optimum shape. For the side panels, the bow could be CA glued and clamped. After cure, inside bulkeads could be installed to fashion the general shape. Once the top view profile shape is acceptable, the pre-built glass “pan” - or the foam (to be shaped) could be added. This would then be flipped over and a thin plywood deck applied. This too could be foam covered and shaped, using the ply as a backer for deck fittings. Before adding a deck, scribe and cut the desired side profile/gunwale shape and then add a transom. Could wait on glass over-covering to this point. Fill glass weave, fair, prime and paint.
Using this concept of building, a shaped deck and hull bottom is possible with slab sides from balsa sheet.
I may give this process a try and document through photos, but for those who have a convern about strip building, this is just another method of building a hull that is quick, easy and takes little experience. Is there a multihull in your future?
Building methods comments anyone ?