Kirt,
Good point.
I just gave up two weeks of sailing and took a week off work to build a 40 metre retaining wall with a fence on top and then paint the front verandah.
The wall and fence are a segment of an circle with a 60m radius just to complicate things a little more.
All good fun.
When all this is done I will progress the RAZOR AND get some sailing in.
Regards,
Phill

Ah yes!! "Honey-Does"! I know them well! They have often gotten in the way of my sailing as well! I'm in the middle of putting together a 40x54 ft building- hopefully then I'll have a nice spot to build another boat- Perhaps a RAZOR?? But I did take 2 hours yesterday to get out on the Taipan at least!

Take care!
Kirt

Folks,
I have been sidelined for around a month now meeting some very important family obligations. Most of those have now been taken care of so I can get back to the RAZOR.
So far I've put in probably around 12 hours and I need to start assembling the hulls. Had the panels been CNC cut I think so far around 3 hours of my time would have been taken up. Just what is needed to glue on the gunwales and sub-deck stringer and mark in the position of bulkheads etc.
I'll try to get some more pics up either today or tomorrow.

Regards,
Phill

The hull panels need a stringer.
To stop the staple gun from bruising the timber I cut up an ice cream container which is the burgundy bits of plastic that you can see.

This shows the panels required to make up the skin of the hull.

RAZOR looks sharp

You actually stapled the stringer on to the panels to let the glue set?

Rolf,
The answer is yes and I also stapled the gunwales on too.
I didn't bother with the plastic on the gunwale staples because that will have a layer of glass tape over it.

Regards,
Phill

I got up at 6 so I could get my ride in before the heat .
On the plus side it gave me a couple hours to work on the RAZOR. So I added some pics to the album.

Regards,
Phill

Phil,

Now I understand. You meant to design and build the RAZOR first then design and build the BLADE.
This thread could go on forever.


Thanks for the progressive images.

Regards,

Peter

Peter,
As far as this thread going on forever!

I may be a bit slow when I build- but not that slow.

More pics added to the albumn.

Phill, great picts. thanks for keeping us updated on you project. In the last picture where the hull halves are being joined up, could you post a picture of the underside of the hull? I am interested in the way you shape them, is there a cutout piece, like an outside bulkhead, to hold the shape? And are the two narrow strips across the bottom stitched to the side panels, like a stitch and glue kayak?

Also, on a completely unrelated topic, our media finally picked up on your wild fires, awful picture, 130+ dead, etc. My thoughts and prayers are with you all down there, I hope you get some rain soon, they did mention it was flooding in the north but no relief down south.

Tim,
There are 4 frames made from scrap timber. These are used to sit the panels in while they are wired together. The frames are not the shape of the hull but they are designed to make sure the panels join at the correct angle for the intended shape which is formed later when the bulkheads and subdeck are added.
It looks very box like right now but hopefully that will change.
It is stitch and glue like building a kayak.I think the photos you are asking about are in the catsailor photo albumn
and the link below should take you there.
http://www.catsailor.com/gallery/index.php?cat=10302

Let me know if they don't cover what you want to see.
***
The fires are bad news.
The people of NSW and Vic are all hoping for rain. Victoria is in flames and will be for weeks- already it is the worst natural disaster in the countries history in Victoria.

On the other hand the people in Queensland want the rain to stop- with record 12 metres of flood waters in places.

Regards,
Phill

Ahh yes, those are great pictures and answer most of my questions, worth well more than 1,000 words! Now, are the hulls fully symetric, as in, you build port/starboard exactly like the other, or is there a separate port/starbord hull and frame set? It looks symetric in the photos but I wasn't sure.

I really need to clean out my garage, get rid of all the kid's old bikes, trikes, etc. and start a project like this, but I think (since I already have a Blade) I would like to try a 20' trimaran. Build the center hull only, and use old Inter 20 hulls for the amas and rig/sails.

Tim,
They are symetrical.
You could always dig up a set of plans for a Farrier Trailer Tri 680 (22ft) and just build the centre hull or better still build the lot. The amas on those were a very simple shape and would be pretty simple to build. I have a friend with a 720 and he and his family get a lot of use from it. Although his later designs are much faster. Having a boat that you can sleep on and rig in 20 mins would be a great family boat. I know you have a lake house so the rigging may not be an issue but it may open up other options.

Regards,
Phill

Phil,

I am fascinated with what one can do with stitch and glue.

Some question...

why did you butt strap the bottom panels after stitching instead of scarphing them before?

why is this a faster method to build than the standard Blade method?

or are you just expecting better speed because of the chines?


regards

xuraax (currently building my own version of the Blade)

xuraax,
The Razor is about simplifying the building and the butt strap joint is simpler than the scarf. The keel panels are flat and do not need a scarf joint. In hindsight I think the side panels will take a butt strap joint too. The curve will not be that great and the joint can probably be made of after curve is induced.
Along the same lines the chines are easier than steaming the hull to coach the ply to take the intended shape. This design is much less stressful for both the builder and the ply.

Regards,
Phill

i actually did not need to steam the panels to coax them to bend. What I did was to bend the hulls as far as I dared and then left the wood to settle into the new shape for some hours. then i squeezed some more.

Thank you so much for designing this! As soon as I get out of grad. school and resume having a "real" income, I'm building one. By the way, I vote for butt joints all the way! They're so easy.

I built two stitch-and-glue boats from Bateau.com, and I've been incredibly impressed with that method. I don't have the patience or attention to detail required for tortured ply, but stitch and glue is right up my alley.

Folks,
I've not touched the Razor since February.
I've been busy with outside home improvements.
But since it has been raining so much lately I thought I'd take the opportunity to get back to it. So I put a couple more pics into my albumn. Just some shots of the keel glassed. It starts to give a bit of an idea of the under water shape.

Regards,
Phill

Phill,

it will be interesting to see your approach for putting the sides on, or are they already in place? Pretty hard to tell much from the picture really, but it do look kind of flat