Background. This series discusses American Tug options as an alternative forum because the owners' group site is restricted to owners. I support that restriction, yet it's also helpful for build options to be discussed in an open forum before someone becomes an owner! The previous posts in this series were a few months ago. Part 1 was about deciding on an AT vs other makes, while Part 2 was about deciding on a specific model (in our case, the 41 foot "395"). Part 3 discussed the choice of engine.
Today I describe a few factory options during the build process including some things the factory recommended and disrecommended. (Another time soon I'll discuss a few things we have updated since delivery. The boat has been amazing with no major problems; those updates are just minor things we added.)
Engine. To recap briefly, AT currently installs single Cummins inboard diesels in all models, except that they use Volvo in the "362" model for space reasons. They do not make dual engine boats (although I think there might be one or two out there from the past). They do not install "get home" engines and I have not heard of any catastrophic engine failures. We went with the Cummins 550hp option (instead of standard 380hp) for reasons described in Part 3. For this post, I'll discuss other options we selected.
Stabilizers. We did not get stabilizers, on the recommendation of the factory for cruising in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and British Columbia northward. Our primary concern is stability while sleeping / anchored, and fins don't help much with that. A gyro system might fit in the lazarette, but would require constant generator usage (and thus wouldn't help at night, when gensets are strongly discouraged or even banned in the PNW). The waters here are most often either OK for an AT (whose hull handles waves well) or are so bad that they are a no-go regardless. Unlike say, the ICW, we don't worry as much about close passing wakes. We concluded that the marginally added comfort on the go in the PNW would not be worth the cost, systems complexity, and maintenance effort. (Eventually I might try a flop stopper, which I imagine could work well with the AT's semi-displacement hull.)
A/C. ATs come standard with diesel heat in the PNW (no A/C) and reverse cycle Heat/AC elsewhere. For especially hot days, we decided to add A/C but only for the staterooms. The pilot house and salon stay relatively comfortable in the PNW on almost all days with windows open and fans. However, the A/C helps the staterooms stay comfortable at night. We can cool the down before going to bed (using generator in the evening but not overnight), or if we are in a marina with shore power, run the A/C overnight. The A/C for staterooms in the 395 is a modest 6000 BTU unit if I recall correctly. BTW, with that size A/C, we kept the boat on a single 30amp shore power system, which is convenient.
Heat. As mentioned above, the standard heating system in the PNW is a diesel forced air Webasto system. It works great but we would prefer the advantages of a hydronic system such as zone control and quieter operator. However, the factory will not currently install hydronic on a 395 model due to several concerns include future maintainability. Some owners add it later; for now, we just have the factory installed diesel (plus reverse cycle from the A/C unit if we ever wanted to use that).
Chartplotter. When our boat was built in 2024 (and still today as far as I know), the factory would only install Garmin systems. We might have chosen Furuno instead, but the Garmin systems have worked well to date. We went with the option for dual 16 inch chartplotters, which have been great. I would definitely do those again. I will add that we asked about the 17 inch plotters but AT said that a pair of those would not fit the helm. The 16 inch ones have been plenty.
Radios. We installed a pair of ICOM M605 radios, one on the helm side and one on nav side. We went with the M605 because it has a keypad for direct entry of channels instead of turning a knob. (It has other nice features including automatically recording the most recent transmissions, which are available for playback.) We upgraded the antennas to Morad antennas.
Backup camera. We installed a Garmin WiFi camera on the mast but after using it, I strongly recommend NOT to install a WiFi camera. The problem is that marinas and busy waterways are swamped with WiFi signals and interfere with the camera. In fact, it would blank out unpredictably and probably half of the time in marinas. We recently replaced it with a Garmin wired camera that has been 100% reliable so far. (BTW, we looked into the Garmin 360 surround view camera system. That might have added $30K to install, mostly for the complexity of all the thru-hulls, so we passed!)
Wind gauge. We installed an Airmar 110WX wind gauge, which uses an ultrasonic signal and no moving parts to determine wind speed. That has been great, with one exception: the factory mounted it on the mast where it is partially blocked [sigh]. When the wind comes from that exact angle (or perhaps +/- 15 degrees) its reading is quite wrong. We recently saw a reading of 2 kts on the gauge when the actual wind (on the other side of the mast) was at least 15 kts! Because such an orientation is rare and we mostly want to use it when turning (such as docking) and it is not blocked for long, that is not a big problem. But I'd look for another place to mount it, perhaps on an aft rail, if doing that again.
Ground tackle. We got a Rocna MK2 55 pound anchor and, as recommended by the factory but specific to the Northwest, 400 feet of all-chain rode. Those choices have been great. The chain locker has plenty of space for the 400 feet and could hold more (it could accept 500'+ I think, although I'm not sure about the effect of the weight). We got a "split locker" compartment that lets us keep a second anchor and backup rode sitting off to the side. One surprise for me was that AT did NOT install a helm control for the windless (apparently as a safety thing). I didn't even think to ask about that during the build.
Washer/dryer. The AT 395 has an area in the salon where a cabinet holding a combo washer/dryer can be installed. However that same space is also the perfect place to put an Ekornes Stressless recliner (which used to come with the boat) or some similar reading chair. We wanted to have a reading chair, so we did not install the salon washer/dryer. However, the factory worked with us to put a washing machine (only; no dryer) into the VIP stateroom, replacing some of the storage there. We're happy with that compromise.
That's all for now! In the next post sometime soon, I'll mention some other minor changes we've made since delivery. Happy December boating!
Today I describe a few factory options during the build process including some things the factory recommended and disrecommended. (Another time soon I'll discuss a few things we have updated since delivery. The boat has been amazing with no major problems; those updates are just minor things we added.)
Engine. To recap briefly, AT currently installs single Cummins inboard diesels in all models, except that they use Volvo in the "362" model for space reasons. They do not make dual engine boats (although I think there might be one or two out there from the past). They do not install "get home" engines and I have not heard of any catastrophic engine failures. We went with the Cummins 550hp option (instead of standard 380hp) for reasons described in Part 3. For this post, I'll discuss other options we selected.
Stabilizers. We did not get stabilizers, on the recommendation of the factory for cruising in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and British Columbia northward. Our primary concern is stability while sleeping / anchored, and fins don't help much with that. A gyro system might fit in the lazarette, but would require constant generator usage (and thus wouldn't help at night, when gensets are strongly discouraged or even banned in the PNW). The waters here are most often either OK for an AT (whose hull handles waves well) or are so bad that they are a no-go regardless. Unlike say, the ICW, we don't worry as much about close passing wakes. We concluded that the marginally added comfort on the go in the PNW would not be worth the cost, systems complexity, and maintenance effort. (Eventually I might try a flop stopper, which I imagine could work well with the AT's semi-displacement hull.)
A/C. ATs come standard with diesel heat in the PNW (no A/C) and reverse cycle Heat/AC elsewhere. For especially hot days, we decided to add A/C but only for the staterooms. The pilot house and salon stay relatively comfortable in the PNW on almost all days with windows open and fans. However, the A/C helps the staterooms stay comfortable at night. We can cool the down before going to bed (using generator in the evening but not overnight), or if we are in a marina with shore power, run the A/C overnight. The A/C for staterooms in the 395 is a modest 6000 BTU unit if I recall correctly. BTW, with that size A/C, we kept the boat on a single 30amp shore power system, which is convenient.
Heat. As mentioned above, the standard heating system in the PNW is a diesel forced air Webasto system. It works great but we would prefer the advantages of a hydronic system such as zone control and quieter operator. However, the factory will not currently install hydronic on a 395 model due to several concerns include future maintainability. Some owners add it later; for now, we just have the factory installed diesel (plus reverse cycle from the A/C unit if we ever wanted to use that).
Chartplotter. When our boat was built in 2024 (and still today as far as I know), the factory would only install Garmin systems. We might have chosen Furuno instead, but the Garmin systems have worked well to date. We went with the option for dual 16 inch chartplotters, which have been great. I would definitely do those again. I will add that we asked about the 17 inch plotters but AT said that a pair of those would not fit the helm. The 16 inch ones have been plenty.
Radios. We installed a pair of ICOM M605 radios, one on the helm side and one on nav side. We went with the M605 because it has a keypad for direct entry of channels instead of turning a knob. (It has other nice features including automatically recording the most recent transmissions, which are available for playback.) We upgraded the antennas to Morad antennas.
Backup camera. We installed a Garmin WiFi camera on the mast but after using it, I strongly recommend NOT to install a WiFi camera. The problem is that marinas and busy waterways are swamped with WiFi signals and interfere with the camera. In fact, it would blank out unpredictably and probably half of the time in marinas. We recently replaced it with a Garmin wired camera that has been 100% reliable so far. (BTW, we looked into the Garmin 360 surround view camera system. That might have added $30K to install, mostly for the complexity of all the thru-hulls, so we passed!)
Wind gauge. We installed an Airmar 110WX wind gauge, which uses an ultrasonic signal and no moving parts to determine wind speed. That has been great, with one exception: the factory mounted it on the mast where it is partially blocked [sigh]. When the wind comes from that exact angle (or perhaps +/- 15 degrees) its reading is quite wrong. We recently saw a reading of 2 kts on the gauge when the actual wind (on the other side of the mast) was at least 15 kts! Because such an orientation is rare and we mostly want to use it when turning (such as docking) and it is not blocked for long, that is not a big problem. But I'd look for another place to mount it, perhaps on an aft rail, if doing that again.
Ground tackle. We got a Rocna MK2 55 pound anchor and, as recommended by the factory but specific to the Northwest, 400 feet of all-chain rode. Those choices have been great. The chain locker has plenty of space for the 400 feet and could hold more (it could accept 500'+ I think, although I'm not sure about the effect of the weight). We got a "split locker" compartment that lets us keep a second anchor and backup rode sitting off to the side. One surprise for me was that AT did NOT install a helm control for the windless (apparently as a safety thing). I didn't even think to ask about that during the build.
Washer/dryer. The AT 395 has an area in the salon where a cabinet holding a combo washer/dryer can be installed. However that same space is also the perfect place to put an Ekornes Stressless recliner (which used to come with the boat) or some similar reading chair. We wanted to have a reading chair, so we did not install the salon washer/dryer. However, the factory worked with us to put a washing machine (only; no dryer) into the VIP stateroom, replacing some of the storage there. We're happy with that compromise.
That's all for now! In the next post sometime soon, I'll mention some other minor changes we've made since delivery. Happy December boating!
