Sunday, February 27, 2011

New Tugboat under construction. Part1

 I have laid the keel to a new tug boat, It is seven feet long with a beam of 24" and a depth from the deck to the keel of 19" This will be a series of construction notes and photos of the build. I have no plans and is being built from my head as I go. So what it is going to look like who knows not even me. Please feel free to share but I would like the credit thank you all.
This is a close up of the bow section,it has been cut from craft wood which is a particle board.
It all slots together and is really strong the glue is liquid nails.

This has just been taken as the rain falls.
 

Monday, February 7, 2011

Model tug

This is my tug boat that I built 40 years ago, It is older than my youngest son. I will let the photos talk, The real tug was sailed from South Shields to Australia as a top sail schooner, the propeller was removed for the trip. It also towed the last sailing ship into Sydney harbor. It was sunk twice during its life once under Sydney harbor bridge and was lifted 3 years later with the death of a diver ,she was the first tug to work in Pt Kembla and worked in Newcastle as well. The last time she was sunk was trying to help a ship in Port Kembla harbor and was cut up on the spot. I dived in the sight and found a copper fitting very eroded by time and cast the bell for the model from the remains.So here are the photos.

 This photo shows the forty year old electric motor which incredibly still works

 The skipper was one Jimmy Robinson who I meet and was the skipper when she went down the second time I was nine at the time and my dad took me to see the boat upside down in the water . Jimmy liked the model/Note the bell..
 The figure of the skipper was carved out of wood and was unbelievably like Jimmy the skipper.
 Life boat made from paper
 These are the tow hooks the closes one has the release handle broken off.
 The real tug was a riveted hull
 Many years of dust and the last photo shows the knortz nozzle which on the on the model and the real tug made both more maneuverable. The bollard pull rose from three tons to nine tons on the original.
 The next three photos show the switching and after forty years definitely need renewing.  The thing to note is the way the wiring is set up for forward and reverse.
 The larger blue and white wires are from the battery supply and the other two go to the motor. The blue and white are taken the the other switch with link wires to the same terminals (they the link wires do not touch)

this is a bit hard to see on the photos.