The replies are really interesting - thank you.
I love the YouTube video where the load is heavy enough not to care a d--n what the tug does. Towing around where I live seems to involve a load so small & light it leaps to follow the tug.
840lb tows, 15 x 5 litre sand bottles etc - magic to my ears.
Scaling effects are interesting & I would appreciate comment from anyone who knows about full sized towing. I hear what you say about wind & treacle but what size/power/weight ratios are actually scale in behaviour terms. I appreciate the difference between a loaded & an unloaded model tanker in a cross wind & I am sure a full size tug skipper does as well. But where does scale effect/difficulty lie?
I have pushed a 30ft yacht around & I must admit that it did not feel like what I expect a super tanker might feel like but I am not sure why. Of course I might be completely wrong about the feel of a real tug pushing a real tanker. The most real towing/pushing that I have done was on the tug course at Gloucester docks - which was a great day out incidentally!
Chris
I hope to be a Balne Moor in August for the MMM listed "tug-in"