Tugboat Plans

[stevey_frac]

Hey Guys,

I was about to hit 'Buy' on the reliable salty plans, But I stopped and figured I should ask you guys.

I like the tugboat concept of Reliable's Salty, though I kinda wish she were about 5' longer. Are there any other Tugboat plans I should be considering?

Are reliable's plans detailed enough to build from them, or will there be a lot of 'figuring it out as we go'?

Thanks,
Steve

[Wearyman]

Well, I don't know about tugboats, but if you check my thread "found some plans online" you will find links to various boat plans, mostly oriented around fishing boats. While they might not help you directly, they should help with your overall planning.

Personally I found the Reliable plans somewhat wanting for a novice builder. Two sheets of drawings with an offsets table isn't nearly enough for someone who has never built a boat before. Nonetheless, the price is low enough that they are still worth the price, provided you supplement them with something like the plans I linked.

What I like the best about the plans I linked is that they include step-by-step instructions for building. And they are Free, which is always good.

[farmerden]

Steve Here's another boat built on the same Beckman hull as "Edith May"
http://www.steamboating.net/page26.html

[stevey_frac]

Wearyman, The Salty plans are 6 sheets,not 2 as for the traveler. I'm not sure if it makes that much of a difference.

Farmerden, Where could I buy plans for that hull? Seems Beckman only wants to sell you the whole boat.

Also: can anyone comment on adding some length to the hull? Can I just space out the offsets a bit more and get to 25' from 20'?

[farmerden]

Steve I'm not sure about plans [they sell fiberglas hulls] but peruse this site ,there is a wealth of info there Den
http://www.steamboating.net/

[artemis]

...Also: can anyone comment on adding some length to the hull? Can I just space out the offsets a bit more and get to 25' from 20'?

Everything I've read (for the past 40 years) says you can expand up to 15% by lengthening. After that it's time to hire a naval architect. Remember, if something happends to your boat due to poor design/engineering, you can't just pull over to the curb or walk to shore.

[stevey_frac]

...Also: can anyone comment on adding some length to the hull? Can I just space out the offsets a bit more and get to 25' from 20'?

Everything I've read (for the past 40 years) says you can expand up to 15% by lengthening. After that it's time to hire a naval architect. Remember, if something happends to your boat due to poor design/engineering, you can't just pull over to the curb or walk to shore.

15% would be 3', and that's close enough to be acceptable. 23' it is.

And that's a really good point about not being able to pull over.

[stevey_frac]

Well...

I just bought the Salty plans from Reliable. Hopefully i'll see them in my email inbox tomorrow.

Can anyone recommend some good reading material on stitch and tape boat construction?

[artemis]

Well...

Can anyone recommend some good reading material on stitch and tape boat construction?

Gougeon Brothers West System website http://www.westsystem.com/ss/ has much info - use the "navagiation bar" to the right. Others may dispute that their product is best (I've used it and know it's good, and readily available), but they put out a lot of info. It's a good start.

You might also try Devlin Boats http://www.devlinboat.com/. "Stitch and tape" is a key to many of their designs. They've got a good book on it as well as some really nice designs.

[stevey_frac]

So i took the plans, and I printed them out on the plotter at work when the boss wasn't looking.

Well... ok, I started printing them on the plotter when he wasn't looking... then he wanted to know who was printing plans for a steam tugboat, and where on earth did I get such plans. Then we proceeded to go over them for a few minutes. We may have a new steamer in that one.

So, at this point, basically, I want to start pricing out the material for the hull. It's kinda hard to get a good estimate of how much marine plywood I'll need etc. But I'm gonna do some rough calculations, and see what I can do. The basic hull shape won't be too bad, but doing the cabin properly won't be cheap. Not sure I want to start if I can't get it all finished properly. Don't want something to sit in the weather and warp because it never got fiberglass'd because I ran out of funds.