Howdy all...I've popped my head into a few threads and figure I should probably make an introduction. Call me Pete...I'm a 40-something guy doing computer networking at Microsoft plus several side hustles in networking, photography, and personal development. Dreaming of a tug in the near future...here to soak up what I can and chime in on rare occasion.
Rather than one of the plastic boats that look somewhat like a tug, you might consider finding a real steel tug and redoing it. I took a 34 foot steel harbor tug, bought is for 8,500 and put about 60K in redoing the interior etc. Turned out a real head turner and great sea boat. It has a 6-354 NA perkins that came out of MasseyHarris 805 tractor. I bought a watercooled exhaust manifold, bolted right up and was ready to go. It had keel cooling so salt water was no problem. Ran about 6 knots, burning 1 gallon per hour.
When I was a lad of about 12 or so, growing up in Cleveland, my next door neighbor was a captain with Great Lakes Towing. He most often captained their tug Washington, and during the summer he would take me aboard to spend a shift (often 12 hours or more) with him. Kind of a take a neighbor kid to work day. The tug stoutness and style imprinted on my brain and my latest, perhaps last boat, is a Nordic Tug 32. Recently I found out that the GL tug Washington was at their docks in Cleveland- hadn't been there for a while, so I ran my Nordic over to have a look see and take some pics. Also there was the larger GL tug Ontario, which had some crew aboard taking a break. As I pulled alongside, taking pictures, they all complimented me on a real nice boat. I think a certain sense of humor has to be had no matter what boat you own; I call the decoration atop my sundeck my 'fakestack', and have been encouraged to get a bubble machine to blow bubbles out of it. I've heard that the fakestacks on other pleasure tugs have been used as coolers for beverages and converted to barbecues. Whatever boat floats your imagination..... everyone at my yacht club recognizes me as 'the guy that owns that tug'.
Rather than one of the plastic boats that look somewhat like a tug, you might consider finding a real steel tug and redoing it. I took a 34 foot steel harbor tug, bought is for 8,500 and put about 60K in redoing the interior etc. Turned out a real head turner and great sea boat. It has a 6-354 NA perkins that came out of MasseyHarris 805 tractor. I bought a watercooled exhaust manifold, bolted right up and was ready to go. It had keel cooling so salt water was no problem. Ran about 6 knots, burning 1 gallon per hour.
If its a real harbor tug, It will be a head turner . What makes it a good seaboat?
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Jack ...Chicken of the sea! Been offshore 3 miles once
If its a real harbor tug, It will be a head turner . What makes it a good seaboat?
It has has a 4 foot tall oak pushing knee on the bow. Has 4x4 oak rub rails. This combination knocks waves right down. The rub rails act like spray rails so water does not climb the side of the hull. It does take green water over the pilot house when the waves are 6 feet or more, but none hits the windshield. The water dumps in the cockpit which has large scuppers thus it just runs out. No worries about getting the pilot house windows getting blown out. It weights 30,000 pounds and has a 4 foot draft.
Great sea boat, punches through waves rather then pounding. Hard chines I added so it does not roll much either.
There is a gentleman docked very near me who is "redoing" a former working tug that he bought off of Seaspan a large tug and barge company. He owns a diesel repair company and often uses his own people to work on it. Not everyone has an opportunity like this or the time or inclination to spend on transforming an older working tug into something they would like to spend "pleasure time' on. So far, over one year. OK, for those so inclined.
Finding ones previously completed would be difficult I suspect and probably for several reasons.
I don't understand the negativism to the "plastic tugs" (as some call them) or the fact that they are not, nor never were "real tugs" and or the upset over the fact that several companies (US manufacturers by the way) have chosen to use the "tug" word in their company name??? These boats have garnered good reputations and followings so they must be doing something right, I would suspect.
Now, if you don't like some of the features of those boats, or even the "tug" look (unattractive to you and you prefer the look of a Carver or SeaRay), then that is your opinion and I have no issue with that. Different strokes for different folks.
Some of us "tug" owners find Silvertons, SeaRays, and Carvers to be "unattractive", for example. That doesn't make them "bad boats", just not my (our) "cup of tea".
"the massive, mechanical, hand-oiled, six-cylinder diesel is the only one like it in the world"
I'm going to make a wild guess that West Marine won't be much help with engine parts. I'm further going to suggest that the skipper's wife better be a hearty soul, willing spend her transits in the engine room with her hand-oiler in hand.
hymm....what would we all agree to call a former real working tug that has been converted into a recreational "boat". My vote is "tug". I'm reminded of an old saying "if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and walks like a duck, it's probably a duck"....just saying.
I’d call the Benford 38 and the Devlin 26 tugs.
The LN Victory Tug is (I think) a bit flawed but I was seriously looking 10yrs ago.
There’s no superlative applicable word for the Sockeye though. +++
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