The Next Fiberglass Boat hull, please give feed back!

[Eyekandyboats]

Hello Everyone!
I am going to be starting on a Plug for making a boat mold.
I have quite a bit of experience building boats out of molds as i have the STV boat molds and have made many great running boats!
now I am going to scale down.
I plan on Skater Cats as a model. WIDE hull something that can run a corner FAST!.
but length is something i am not sure of, what would YOU as my perspective audience like to see for size wize.
id like to be able to have this hull catered to the racers as well, like OPEN offshore class
I am going to be starting some plans tonight
gel coat and finish is yet to be determined, right now i am going to focus on making a plug for the boat, all the framers will be made out wood, on a lazer cutter so it will be VERY accurate.
boat will have a flat back with a slight overhang

[twissted]

I'm thinking that bigger hulls are what is needed. Bigger and better electronics will push people to look at the bigger hulls. They handle rough water better and are more fun to watch. I'm building a 56" currently, will try a 72" next.

[Richie the shipwright]

I dont really run cats (yet) but i would suggest that anything you build should comply with class rules for namba etc. If your boat turns out a real winner at the races, they will sell themselves. Just like the old saying...... . Win on sunday...Sell on monday!! Its quite hard coming up with something really different that still works. Best of luck to ya mate!

[Eyekandyboats]

Thank you.
Please Continue to Vote.
as it looks like right now the boat will be 39.5 inches long, this is perfect for Q offshore on 6S and still large enough for twins.
I have the drawing all set up, and they can be scaled very quickly to a different size ( larger or smaller depending on the prototype)
I'm cutting the parts up tomorrow, and have started on a Base for it to lay the frames out.

[Eyekandyboats]

frames cut.
there are 39 frames in total, one frame every inch.
I made a running change after i had cut these pieces. I am widening the tunnel about 15%,
you will see how i'm doing this later.

i have my board layed down and i printed off on my vinyl a lay out of the hull with the framers 1 inch apart, all square,, so it will be easier for me to line up with a adjustable square

[Eyekandyboats]

Thank you all Voters!
it's coming along! there will be little progress tomorrow i hope, gotta try and head out to my pond and flood it for skating and hockey tomorrow,

here are some updates photos

[srislash]

Mmm,my next twin Cat?

[Chilli]

I'm a little late on this thread but here is my opinion on cat hull lengths. This is from a racing perspective. Bigger boats are cool but in this economy they are not going to appeal to allot of people. Choices are limited for good handling cats under 40 inches. The Aeromarine Sprint Cat (40-.60)/Team Believer is a great handling hull and with a length just over 34 inches puts it in the Q class for racing. Looks and FE friendliness have probably kept some people from going for this hull but the new Avenger hatch that Remy has come out with might change all that. The Fighercat Cheetah is another hull thats just over 34 inches so I'll lump it in the same category though I havent read any reports on how she handles in race water. Now drop down to 4S power or the "P" class and you have many more power options at a lower cost which will appeal to more racers and sport boaters. For nice turning cats that fit within this class the Mean Machine comes to mind but at only 29 inches, she can only take so much power before becoming unstable. Most of the other offerings in the "P" size range are scale looking offshore boats with narrow beams and turning characteristics that leave allot to be desired. So I would love to see a great handling, good looking cat thats just under the 34 inch limit for the P class. At this size she would only be a half inch shorter than the other 6S cats mentioned so they should also run well together in the Q Class if the owner so chooses.

[properchopper]

Taylor,

Interesting project. I know that you're aware that there's an emerging group of big "sport" Cat builders who will be a target market for a hull at 39.5" and likely be twin powered. This group seems to be very concerned with overall scale appearance and usually finishes off these builds with high end paint/graphics. This boat should appeal to this crowd.

But as Mike astutely pointed out, there's not a big choice for the racer in the Cat department, particularly in the 30"-34" size. While there's some regional clubs doing Q-class heats, the action is picking up in the P-Ltd Cat Sprint Class which involves choosing a Geico or it's Mystic/BJ29 varients, the Motley Crew, or the Mean Machine, period. Here in NAMBA D19, in addition to this class being run as an exibition class at the 2012 FE Nat's, we raced P-Ltd Cat Sprint in two SCSTA events last year and there's THREE events we'll run similarly this year. And (SPOILER ALERT) a D19 proposition was just passed to create a NAMBA CAT CLASS (in all power & hull length specs) which will be offered and run as Sprint Exhibition heats (until it can be put to an all-NAMBA national vote.) With the P-Ltd class being the most accessible class to likely be populated (although my P-Cat Cheetah is ready to roll and hungry for battle once I shorten the tips 1/4":closedeyes:), give some thought to providing a scaled down version of, say, 29"/30" for Ltd and/or 34" for P.

92291

[Eyekandyboats]

Thanks Chilli, And Tony for your feed back,
I am glad to get the advice from NAMBA Members!

A smaller boat is already in the works which scales in at 33 inches. As you may know I have made a couple boats in the past, Rigged insanity being one of them ( for sale on OSE), altho it wasn't the best in terms of easy to construct, it was very good for the hi power P rigger setups with ample room for batteries and motor options.
so i took construction out of this boat, It will be my first model that is offered in a fiberglass/carbon fiber layup.

My plan is to try new techniques for boat building on this model,which will help me while I build my larger tunnel hulls( full sized)
This boat is going to be a resin infused hull. Which means vacuum bagging and resin infusion through vacuum pump.
no hand lay ups here. ( my goal for my full sized boats
resin infusion offer many advantages over just vacuum banging a hull, perfect resin coverage with no "wetting" less waste, stronger layup, less time, less clean up, faster setup times.

A smaller boat is defiantly something that will come VERY soon after this model has been proved, in build process and layup process and in the water.

[Eyekandyboats]

Just a little update on TWO projects.
here are some photos of my hull comming along.
AND i pulled my race cowling out of my mold for my STVs

[jcald2000]

Your going to love the Resin Infusion!!

[Richie the shipwright]

Be interested to see how you go with the infusion. I dabbled with that a few years ago, but didnt really dig it much. I found better results with conventional vacuum bag layup using an autoclave. (youd need a BIG one to do your big boats tho!!) Have you looked into using pre-preg carbon? That stuff is pretty funky. :-)

[twissted]

So what is the sale price for what your looking to build? And what hardware is planned to make this build haul.

[Eyekandyboats]

I'm excited for resin infusion actually!. I'm going to experiment on this model before i do infusion on my larger boats.
This model will cost probably around 250 bucks or so, maybe less. depending on how I finish it.
No hardware yet, however i have some CNC drawing made up for scale" nxt-1 AKA no6 dry sumps" for it, i will make a prototype and then cast them to keep costs down

[properchopper]

Taylor,

You're probably way ahead of me on this, but as I look at your sponson running surfaces they seem really wide. Great for handling, but lots of drag which'll need bunches of power to keep the hull going at decent speed. I imagine you've got some narrower ride pads in mind to deal with this. Just for reference, here's four cat bottoms to check out :

92456 92458

92457 92455

[Eyekandyboats]

Thanks Tony. I will be doing a small ride pad. just a small one tho.
here are some pictures of a bit of progress ( not much been busy with my full sized STV's)

[Eyekandyboats]

Little Update
white gelcoat.
also i have my vacuum pump and reservoir and 16 yards of 60 inch carbon fiber!, carbon fiber epoxy boats any one ?

[properchopper]

:popcorn2:

[iridebikes247]

Looks great, I can't wait to see the finished hull.

[twissted]

:popcorn2: This is a fun build to fallow. I'm enjoying this alot. Can we see what you have got going with the hardware? Thx.

[blowNover]

I'm in let's see it!

[Chrisg81983]

Anything new

[olwarbirds]

Cool stuff Taylor, lookn forward to seeing finished product. Hopefully I will be able to get one from you.... DJ

[glowplug]

Can't wait to see the finished project. Great to see someone applying newer FPR techniques to build models. Resin infusion can save a bit of weight during lamination and you are better able to control your resin to glass ratio. Learned these technique building custom sportfish boats that had to be light,strong ,and fast.