Fram

After more than forty years of sailing monohulls, I felt the need for a new dimension in sailing. Not because the monohull fell short, but because experience and curiosity eventually demand a deeper exploration.

I have done nearly everything I once dreamed of as a young sailor. Long passages, heavy weather, self-reliant sailing, maintenance and modifications along the way. That experience provided not only confidence, but also the calm needed to devote time to a project that goes beyond sailing alone: building a boat myself, one that would take the dynamics of sailing to a higher level.

A trimaran offers that different dynamic: speed without ballast, stability without weight, and a direct, almost dinghy-like connection with wind and water. Once you understand what that means, your perspective on sailing changes.

There are many good reasons to buy a production yacht or a second-hand boat. Building a yacht from scratch is rarely the cheapest option, and certainly not the easiest. The decision to build Fram was therefore not driven by economy, but by the desire to fully understand the boat, to control quality, and to create a vessel that truly fits both my sailing ambitions and my engineering background.

From desire to decision

Like many long projects, this one started as a vague idea. Over time, that idea developed into a serious study of multihull concepts, design philosophies, materials, and construction methods. The choice eventually converged on the Farrier F-39: a fast, seaworthy ocean-going trimaran with folding capability and an exceptionally well-engineered structural concept.

A substantial part of this website is therefore devoted to the reasoning behind that choice: why a trimaran, why Farrier, and why this particular design.

Study, preparation, and development

Before any material was ordered, a long preparation phase followed. This included studying construction plans, learning composite theory, experimenting with materials, and developing practical skills. Special attention was given to laminating methods and structural quality.What started as traditional hand lay-up evolved into vacuum bagging and ultimately into full vacuum resin infusion.

The Practical Test

The real test, however, only comes in practice. To verify both my own capabilities and the chosen construction techniques, I deliberately phased the project. As a first step, I built only one half of a float hull. If that experiment had failed, the loss of time and materials would have been limited.

However, in that test phase, everything came together: design, construction method, materials and execution. The result was convincing. The test hull was a complete success and provided the confidence to proceed — only then were the full quantities of construction materials ordered and the project truly committed.

A key decision in this process was the use of controlled vacuum infusion — a laminating technique rarely applied at this scale in a one-off project. This method made it possible, even as a single-handed builder, to achieve consistent and repeatable laminate quality, with excellent control over weight, strength, and working conditions.

Building Fram

From that moment on, Fram grew into a full-scale building project. Hull construction, interior structures, beams, daggerboard and rudder, and eventually the assembly of all components into a complete trimaran. This website documents not only the successes, but also the doubts, experiments, simulations, and practical lessons that made it possible.

The construction chapters describe the build step by step: hulls, beams, interior structures, daggerboard, rudder, systems, and rigging. Thousands of photographs, diagrams, and detailed explanations are included, many grouped in extensive photo galleries. Together they form a complete technical record of the build.

Although the construction of the hulls themselves represents only a small fraction of the total build time, they form the foundation on which everything else depends. Much of the effort described here is therefore about accuracy, process control, and repeatability rather than speed.

Launch and sailing

After years of preparation and construction, Fram was finally launched. Sailing the boat closes the circle: design assumptions, structural decisions, and construction methods are tested in real conditions. The sailing chapters describe that phase, not as a conclusion, but as a continuation of the project.

This website

Fram.nl is very extensive, with more than 200 pages and many thousands of photos. The menu and sidebars provide good navigation. If you don't want to miss anything and want to go through the document from start to finish, take the tour through the 'next' button at the bottom of each page.

Fram.nl is intentionally free of advertisements, is secure and does not use cookies. It exists primarily as a personal record, but also as a resource for others interested in advanced amateur boatbuilding, composite construction, and vacuum infusion techniques.

Visitors are warmly invited to leave a message in the Guestbook. Feedback, questions, and shared experiences are appreciated and often lead to interesting exchanges.

If you find the content on this site valuable and would like to support its continued availability, a donation via the PayPal button in the footer is very much appreciated. Contributions help cover hosting costs and maintenance and ensure that the site can remain independent and ad-free.

Feel free to explore the chapters via the menu and sidebar, and follow the project from its first ideas to the water—and beyond.