AT-34 Launch

We launched our new to us American Tug 34 on the Columbia River yesterday. Will have to spend a few days getting her back together from her trip across country. Pictures of the launch:

Congrats on your new 34! She's a beaut! I always get a little nervous when I see my boat suspended in the air like that.

Love the Tigard/Lake Oswego area. Spent a night there a few years back and was very impressed with the experience. Found a great brewpub on the Willamette with a long deck out to the river. It would be one of my top choices for places to live in the Portland area.

Where was the boat transported from? How did that over-land transport go? Any lessons learned?

FlyWright said:

Congrats on your new 34! She's a beaut! I always get a little nervous when I see my boat suspended in the air like that.
...

Click to expand...

The higher the suspension, the greater the nervousness.

Congrats and welcome to the club!

Congratulations. Great looking boat! More pictures when you have time!

Welcome and congratulations on your American Tug! It is one great boat and you are going to love her.

Hi Al, The yard that unloaded her was very professional and their equipment looked well taken cared for. I checked out the lifting straps and they looked good.

There are a lot of good brew pubs up here in the Portland area. Also a lot of coffee shops. I think our mild wet winters here breed them!

We bought the boat out of the mid west. There are not a lot of boats moving across country so it took forever to get a truck to move the boat. The trucking company we used did not damage the boat. But they really hammered us on the price. They gave us a price and then when the boat was loaded on the trailer came back and raised the price by 20%. No negotiation, he said it was for the oversize permits & construction detours. Bait & switch?

We are spending the weekend remounting the upper deck ladder & railings. Then need to clean her up, she is really dirty from the trip.

Mark, you win on the height! Not to mention hanging over steel containers instead of water. Looks like they had good rigging.

Juksey, Bligh, Larry: Thanks, It took a while but we are very happy with the boat.

Have reinstalled all the upper SS rails & radar mast. All went together fairly well with only a little 3M-4200 pookum in my hair

We have taken her out a few short shake down cruises. She handles well and docking her is easier than I expected. Need to finish the vacuflush rebuild so we can take an overnight trip.

At our temporary moorage: My wife enjoying the helm:

Anyone know of an opportunity/availability to change the 'destroyer' type wheel with an old fashion wood spoke wheel?
The design of the American Tug begs for a wooden wheel.

Maybe one from a Nordic Tug would fit? If so, you could find someone local and trade?

kpoling said:

Maybe one from a Nordic Tug would fit? If so, you could find someone local and trade?

Click to expand...

That might be best and least expensive way.
The man who does my carpentry is excellent and I am sure he would be very happy to build one for me but, I don't have any children to give him in trade.

They are in such demand, they do not take on new clients. To get him to work on your boat, you have to had him work on your boat before. I think I was either his first client or one of the early 5 clients. He did significant work on my Nordhavn and now, he does a little bit of work on my AT.

Always top notch, he can see a design before me and I supposedly know what I want.

Hmmmm, I wonder if I can rent out my place in line to others. LOL

Welcome and congrats! You will enjoy your AT 34 - best couples boat out there.

David

kpoling, if you dont fall in love with your boat, may I suggest you seek emotional counseling? LOL
Once you get used to the 1/2 hanging closet all will be fine. That is assuming your wife allows you 1/2.

The only problem that I have experienced in limited space helms such as you are showing and spoke wheels is that you are always running your leg into one of the spokes when moving side to side and not thinking.

OldDan1943 said:

That might be best and least expensive way.
The man who does my carpentry is excellent and I am sure he would be very happy to build one for me but, I don't have any children to give him in trade.

They are in such demand, they do not take on new clients. To get him to work on your boat, you have to had him work on your boat before. I think I was either his first client or one of the early 5 clients. He did significant work on my Nordhavn and now, he does a little bit of work on my AT.

Always top notch, he can see a design before me and I supposedly know what I want.

Hmmmm, I wonder if I can rent out my place in line to others. LOL

Click to expand...

Interesting, the fellow must be on up in age too. This does have a way of slowing you down for doing a lot of tedious work while having lost your patience with consumers. [my experience anyway] That's the hardest thing these days attempting to educate most consumers to how long it takes to do absolutely nothing, or so it seems . This translates into dollars for sure.

Scratchnsaw said:

The only problem that I have experienced in limited space helms such as you are showing and spoke wheels is that you are always running your leg into one of the spokes when moving side to side and not thinking.

Click to expand...

Either will do but, really need a cord to tell us when we are getting closer to centering the rudder, that is assuming the rudder was centered when the AP was shut off.

OldDan1943 said:

Either will do but, really need a cord to tell us when we are getting closer to centering the rudder, that is assuming the rudder was centered when the AP was shut off.

Click to expand...

Well that is if you only have one turn for hard over to hard over. Have you considered a rudder indicator wired from your rudder stock?

Scratchnsaw said:

Well that is if you only have one turn for hard over to hard over. Have you considered a rudder indicator wired from your rudder stock?

Click to expand...

Yes, I have 2 rudder indicators independent of each other, both attached to the rudder stock.

Well I am a bit confused. You said that you wanted to know when you were close to centering the rudder. So the indicator that you have should do that. No?

Scratchnsaw said:

Well I am a bit confused. You said that you wanted to know when you were close to centering the rudder. So the indicator that you have should do that. No?

Click to expand...

Of course but sometimes I find myself just looking down at the wheel.

The Smart craft, "SmartCraft" has a little bitty rudder indicator. The 2nd indicator is mounted, along with the separate depth sounder, in a box just below eye level.

Well just figure your turns hardover to hardover and then go half away and see if your indicator is showing center. Then whip you a line on your wheel. With the spoke type wheel your key and sprocket may not be located in such a manner that you will end up with a spoke in the middle and upright. Of course if you got one made, you can figure all that into play when building it.