Topic: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug (Read 8662 times)

steve mahoney · « **on:** February 01, 2019, 08:37:13 pm »

So... I've had a 2 week break since finishing my last project and it's time to get the next one off the drawing board and onto the bench.

No prizes for guessing where this next tug comes from.

Yes, it’s another NZ harbour tug, and this time it’s the little Tika from Auckland. 1/50, display.

Auckland is the biggest city in New Zealand. It has more than double the number of people than the next two cities put together – although it never seems to be able to find 15 decent players to put in its provincial rugby team. It also seems to have more than its fair share of "xxxxx", and politicians.

It even has double the normal amount of harbours per city. It is built on a narrow ithsmus and has a harbour on each side. Greedy "xxxxx"!

The Waitemata Harbour on the east coast/Pacific/Hauraki Gulf side is the biggest and busiest port in the country, and is served by 5 or 6 tug companies. The Port of Auckland’s (POA) tugs are state of the art ASD docking tugs. I’m reluctant to admit it but their harbour is even more beautiful than my home town's, and I’ve caught many good sized schnapper on it.

The Manakau Harbour on the west coast/Tasman Sea side is the 8th largest natural harbour in the world (the 7th, Kaipara Harbour, 947km2, is just up the coast). The Manakau harbour mouth is only 1800m wide, but after a 9k channel it opens up into a roughly square basin 20k across, with a water surface area of 394km2, and a 4m tide.

Many sites on the internet wrongly tout Poole (UK, a miserable 36km2), Cork (Ireland, a Poole size puddle) and Sydney (just a creek at 55km2) as the largest harbours but actually San Fransisco, Tokyo and Rio are duking it out for top spot. Depends on the difference between a harbour and a bay: Protected on 3 or 4 sides? Poole, Cork and Sydney don’t even make the top 10 in surface area.

Despite its huge size the Manakau gets very little traffic due to its shallow depth and treachorous bar – the site of NZ’s worst maritime disaster – the loss of the Orpheus in 1863, when 189 seamen died. To reach Auckland via the safer east coast was an extra few day’s sailing from Australia so Manakau was quite busy until the Orpheus disaster. The only POA facilities on the Manakau now, are a few small wharves for servicing coastal trawlers, and the cement transporters that travel up the west coast from the cement works in Westport. The only tug on this huge harbour was the little TIKA, which was there to handle the cement ships.

Built by Whangarei Engineering and Construction Ltd (WECO) in 1971 for the Auckland Harbour Board, Tika measures just 16.76m x 5.3m x 2.4m, has an 8 ton bollard pull, twin screws and is powered by two 365hp Caterpillar D343 TA 6 cylinder turbo-charged diesels. A pretty conventional set up considering many of WECO’s tugs from around this time were Voith drives, like the Kupe and Maui (also built in 1971). WECO built quite a few tugs during the 70s and 80s. Two of my projects have been WECO tugs: the Kupe and Te Matua. . My next 2 projects after the Tika will also be WECO tugs: the Maui, and the Te Matua (1986), again. WECO had tugs in most NZ ports and they are what I associate with a ‘classic’ NZ tug look – especially the Kupe class. The Kupe is a personal favourite – my son got to drive it when he was 5.

WECO are still making some pretty good tugs but it’s hard to compete with the Allen/Sanmar and Damen yards.

Tika served in the main Auckland port (Waitemata) until moving across to light duties on the Manakau in 2001. She had a relatively stress free working life other than one really bad afternoon in 1982. She was assisting the 1433 ton freighter Shereen from her berth to the mid-harbour position, and was about to release the line when the Shereen started to pick up speed. The Tika’s emergency tow release failed to function and the tug was pulled over and capsized. The deckhand made it but Tika’s skipper, since she had been launched in 1971, was trapped in the wheelhouse, and drowned.

A couple of years ago the cement company got a bigger boat that couldn’t use the Manakau facilities and Tika was put out to pasture. Last year while it was waiting for sale I was able to get onboard and take lots of photos. POA were very helpful and also gave me hull lines and GAs. Much more friendly and helpful than some of the much smaller provincial port companies.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2019, 06:01:29 am »

So here we go...

Tika is tiny and has nice lines – it’s a straightforward design and shouldn’t present too many problems in construction: Hard chine, no winch, basic deck equipment and simple window frames. Plus – painting should be a breeze – it’s all one colour from the neck down. Yahoo!

A lot of you will know my MO by now – ribs and keel 3.6mm ply, laser cut; superstructure, deck, bulwark knees and funnel frame 1.5mm ply. All of the components fitted into an A3 sheet of ply. Only took an couple of evenings to draw up the plans/parts, and a day or so to get them cut.

These all slot together pretty easily and quickly, with a bit of internal bracing, and the deck keeping everything square.

Fitting and glueing these bits together only took about 2 hours. The laser cut parts take all of the guesswork and time out of this part of the build.

Plain sailing so far...

mermod · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2019, 11:45:07 am »

Looking good, laser cutting certainly makes for nice fast progress :) can I ask what program you use for your CAD work?

Phill

Charlie · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2019, 02:08:53 pm »

Hi Steve, how do you transfer the hull lines from the paper plan into your CAD program?

steve mahoney · « **Reply #4 on:** February 05, 2019, 07:07:12 pm »

Well Charlie and Phill, I can answer both questions at once.

I scan the paper plans and import them into Adobe InDesign and then draw over them. I figure out the best way to adjust the plans to make a model and to allow for slots/tabs and ply thickness. The final file is exported as a PDF for the laser printer

I use Indesign as I used to use it at work and know it quite well – and most importantly – I have a copy. I haven't tried a CAD program but it should work fine as long as you can import the scanned image to trace over.

Any vector drawing program would be fine: Indesign, Illustrator, CorelDraw even the old FreeHand. For this type of work you don't need to know the program inside out as the work is very fairly basic. Mostly I'm just creating shapes and paths. If you want to give it a go, try any of the free downloadable drawing programs available online – don't buy one, they can be very expensive. It needs to be a vector drawing program not Photoshop or Paint which are raster drawing programs.

All the vector programs have Youtube tutorials and online forums to answer any questions. Start of with something simple.

I've had a 3D drawing program for about 3 years and have opened it once, it seems too complicated. K.I.S.S.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #5 on:** February 10, 2019, 05:44:51 am »

Well I spent the last few days skinning up the hull and after that smooth start with the hull frames I had assumed that the hard chine hull would be pretty straightforward.

You know about assumptions – make an ass out of u & me. Well it did with me this time.

I made a real pig's ear of skinning up the hull. So much so that I can't bring myself to show you the progress photos. They are more of a 'how not to'.

I really should use stringers to keep the chine edges sharp and smooth. Not rushing things would also be a good idea. Next time!

I wasn't happy with the state of the Parakaki hull at about the same stage of its build, this time last year, and I was able to rework and salvage that, so not all is lost – yet – maybe. Touch wood.

Luckily I had given the lower hull interior a really good coating of resin before I attached the upper hull sheets as I sanded right down to the resin in a couple of places just to try and correct the lines a bit.

Here's the progress so far. It'll need plenty of fill and sand sessions. This is after the first session with the 120 grit. As you can see plenty of work to do yet.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #6 on:** February 14, 2019, 05:50:35 am »

I've been doing a little remedial work on the hull between sessions working on the gunwales. I'm not sure if it is gradually improving or if I'm just getting used to it.

I decided to attach the gunwales so that I could get a better idea of how the hull looks now, and how it should look.

The gunwales went on by my usual method: laser cut bulwark knees and ply bulwarks.

The knees are positioned in pre-cut slots in the deck and squared up with a piece of Lego (Lego: because they are pretty much perfectly all square).

I wrap a piece of thin card around the hull/knees to make a pattern for the bulwarks. This is used to cut the bulwark ply, then they are attached. I make sure that bias of the ply works for the curves. The curved sections at the stern are 2 layers of 0.8mm ply. Plenty of clamps to hold everything in place as you don't get a second chance with this.

I try and ensure that the base of the bulwarks fits a best as possible to the line/shear of the deck so that the glue holds well. The top of the ply sits a bit higher than the knees at the moment but I can sand it down to correct height later.

The hull is surprisingly strong and can take some rough handling. Just as well because it's going to get a good seeing to with the 120 grit over the next few days.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #7 on:** February 22, 2019, 04:49:31 am »

I've been slowly chipping away at the hull and its starting to take shape.

I've smoothed out the bulwarks and added the capping rail. On this tug the capping rail is steel tubing so some 1.5mm styrene rod was just right at 1/50. Some of the bulwark knees needed to be sanded down flush with the rail but it's all working now.

The propellor shaft bases are in.

Also cut out the freeing ports/scuppers. The ones second from each end are where the bulwark gates go.

What is the correct term for the gate/hatch/door in the bulwark?

Anyway, these holes have the radius curve at the bottom rather than the top, as on the scuppers.

You can see how I've sanded down through the various layers of ply in my attempt to sort out the hull. Hopefully that's all of the heavy duty sanding and filling on the hull – touch wood.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #8 on:** February 25, 2019, 06:06:59 am »

I tend to judge a model by the quality of its hull so I'm always a bit overly fussy with my hulls in case anyone else is as pedantic as me. I'm about as satisfied with this one as I'll ever get, now, so I can move on to some other tasks.

Next up: the propellor guard.

This tug has an unusual (for New Zealand anyway) propellor guard. It looks like it was to protect the props from hitting the sea bed – the Manakau Harbour is quite shallow in parts and has a 4m tide. Luckily I have several photos of the Tika out of the water and they show the set up pretty well.

I decided to make the guard from brass strip sandwiched between strip styrene. It's a simple method and I'm trying not to buy any new material and use up stuff from the offcuts box.

Here's the brass base so far. I'm always nervous about cutting holes into a perfectly good hull.

derekwarner · « **Reply #9 on:** February 25, 2019, 06:50:56 am »

Hi Steve.......a little off topic, but what are the 6 x pack of 40 footers & twin pack of 20 footers?

Storage for on-forwarding?...or for use at the workshops?

BTW.....the length of the prop shafts, outboard & unsupported of the hull looks a long dimension, however the vessel displays this!
There is also a difference between the length of shaft outer shroud piping between port & stdb shafts, but would this add to axial support?

Derek

steve mahoney · « **Reply #10 on:** February 26, 2019, 10:15:52 pm »

Derek – No idea what those things are in the background, that is a very old photo, found online.

No, the shafts are the same length. The starboard shaft in the photo has the support strut collar sitting loose on it. It's the same colour as the shaft so probably looks like it is part of it.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #11 on:** March 03, 2019, 07:59:29 am »

Well that went well.

The styrene/brass sandwich method worked out fine. The brass spine is very strong and the styrene allows me to glue various sections onto it. The outer ends are glued into slots in the hull and the centre strip is pinned into the foot of the keel. It's not going anywhere.The shafts have a collar and V struts attached to the hull, and another lower brace that also forms the heel/foot of the rudder. One of the collars is what Derek spotted in the previous post. All make sense now?

The rudder heel parts are not very robust without the rudders attached.

It all looks straight and true. So far so good...The next step is attaching a couple of vanes/guards onto the cage. You can see them in the photos of Tika out of the water. Not sure what they are for – could be to prevent prop wash – they don't seem to offer any protection for the props.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #12 on:** March 08, 2019, 09:01:36 am »

I still need to add the vanes/splash guards, but first the fenders.

They are basswood cut to fit snug with the curve of the hull at the deck line. They are attached in sections to align with the sheer of the deck and will be sanded down to the correct width – and given a radiused edge.

That's the last major work on the hull. Next I have to add the fender housing details and then the vanes. Minor detail stuff but I don't want to give them any rough handling.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #13 on:** March 14, 2019, 06:46:15 am »

The sanding down of the fender strip is all done and that's the last of the big jobs on the hull. From now on the all little detail pieces go on.

The first of these were the vanes/splash guards which fit between the hull and the propellor protection cage. Then the rudders. They all seem pretty sturdy so far but the hull will need a bit of gentle treatment from now on. I can be quite clumsy and when I've tried to take short cuts in the past and I've dropped a couple of hulls at this stage of a build, and I sure don't want to go through that again. The neighbours learned a few new words that day.

The fender housing is also finished and the loops for the tyre fenders are all attached. This boat only has a few anodising plates and these will go on after the hull is painted.

The hull has had a final undercoat and has been prepped for painting.

The hawser holes on this boat are the 'Panama port' style. I've had them printed at Shapeways in ultra fine detail material however I've had poor results with this material and enamel paint before so these bits will be installed after the hull is painted.

And to any eagle-eyed viewers who noticed – the upper fender roll on the bow is supposed to be larger than the lower one. They both have a 'D' shaped profile rather than an 'O'.

Now for some paint...

steve mahoney · « **Reply #14 on:** March 18, 2019, 07:01:07 am »

I gave it a few coats over the weekend and the hull is almost complete. Almost, the Panama Ports, bow fenders and the anodising plates will go on later. And the fender rolls need to be painted.

Still plenty to do but I'm away travelling in 6 weeks so I better keep working if I want to finish it before I leave.

I'm probably about at the halfway mark – got the funnel, superstructure (which isn't too complicated) and all of the deck equipment, railings, mast and all the little bits and pieces left to do. No winch (good), simple paint scheme (good), temptation to take shortcuts (bad).

Tafelspitz · « **Reply #15 on:** March 18, 2019, 09:46:32 am »

Neat!

steve mahoney · « **Reply #16 on:** March 23, 2019, 10:12:36 pm »

Thanks Tafelspitz – I've been following your build with interest. Very nice.

For the next stage I can either work on the deck fittings and finally finish the hull, or start on the superstructure so I've put the hull aside for awhile and made a start on the superstructure.

Two minor booboos before I'd even got started: I had managed to mistake the bridge/wheelhouse deck for a scrap piece of ply and used it as a paint palette, and although I noticed on the plans that the port and starboard doors were not in the same positions I completely forgot about it when I had the ply laser cut and ended up with 2 starboard sides. Both problems easily fixed but a little more attention would have prevented them.

Anyway, the basic superstructure carcass slotted together pretty quickly. I've added a little bracing inside the corners so that I can sand them to a rounded corner.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #17 on:** March 31, 2019, 07:08:25 pm »

Not too much to report today – I've spent the last few evenings adding a few 'rivets' to the superstructure. Seemed like a good idea at the time but these things always take longer than planned. I think it's almost ready for some paint.
And no, I haven't forgotten to put rivets around the forward portholes – that's where the doors go.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #18 on:** April 07, 2019, 05:50:08 am »

Before I get to the next stage of the build I need to sort out the funnel. It has a couple of air intakes that need to be attached before the funnel is glued in place (between the top and second to top rungs on the ladder). I won't be able to get to them when the funnel is in place. This all has to be done and set in place before I can paint the superstructure.

The funnel construction followed my usual method: laser cut ply frame packed out with balsa and covered with a skin of 0.3mm styrene. Sounds easy when described like that.

It didn't cause too many problems. I've used this method a few times now and I'm familiar with it. I'm sure that there are better ways to do it but I'm comfortable with the results.

The exhaust pipes will go on later.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #19 on:** April 14, 2019, 05:08:52 am »

So... the superstructure and the funnel are ready to be painted but before I get to that I thought I'd finish off a few items that can be attached to them before painting: the railings, a few air intakes, ladders, companionways, hatches, etc. – you know the drill.

The list just keeps growing and even though each thing only takes about half an hour to make, there never seems to be an end in sight. I'm slowly getting there. Only the mast, windlass and fire hydrant to go.

Oh, and the anchor, life raft, air-con, fire buckets, life buoys, axe, tow hook and tyre fenders.

The railings went together OK. I miscalculated the depth of the companionway steps and needed to add a little extra the side rails so that they sat further out from the bulkhead. Not a major issue – luckily.

The railings for the bridge roof have a strange shaped stanchion. All of the stanchions and the companionway are PE brass.

The thing on the top rail of one of the sections is the bracket for the tow hook emergency manual release cable.

Next step – the mast.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #20 on:** April 20, 2019, 03:13:39 am »

I usually make up a jig to hold the railings for soldering but this time I chanced it and soldered them in place. That's the type of short-cut that often ends in disaster. I got away with it this time but I don't think I'll risk it again.

The companionway is one piece that folds up to form the steps and side rails.

My box of bits is slowly filling up although it seems like a never ending task. I think I'm getting on top of it – mast, capstan, tow bow, P&S nav lights, searchlight, bitts, samson posts, hatches, doors, vents and intakes, lifeboats, life raft, axe, exhaust stacks, tyre radome, anchor, and fire hose box are all done and dusted.

Starting to feel like I'm in the home straight now. Only the nav lights, wipers, hydrant, windlass, deck flood lights and aerials to go. And the glazing. I still have to glue everything in place.

The hull is now 99% completed and has had the fenders attached and painted, and the deck vents and tow bow attached.

derekwarner · « **Reply #21 on:** April 20, 2019, 04:02:30 am »

Superb progress Steve.....absolutely professional

.............. Derek

TugCowboy · « **Reply #22 on:** April 22, 2019, 05:07:08 pm »

The quality of work so far here is stunning.

Can you share a bit more on the process and materials in those fenders please? I've spent years making them out of wiper blades and inner tubes but those look like another level.

Alex

steve mahoney · « **Reply #23 on:** April 22, 2019, 08:17:22 pm »

Thanks Derek, although if you could see me in action you wouldn't call it 'professional'.

Thanks Alex. No real secret to the fenders. If you check the build about 10 posts ago you'll see how I did them. They are made out of Basswood, not rubber. It's quite a soft wood and when sanded with 180 grit it leaves the finish just smooth/rough enough to look like rubber. A thick coat of matt paint (black with just a touch of white: 5%) brushed on, finishes the job.

The reason I do it this way is that rubber extrusions in small profiles (all my boats are 1/50) are very hard to get in NZ so I had to figure out an alternative. I have used rubber a few times such as on my SDM MkI from a few years back but I'm comfortable with the wood method and it works out fine. Easier to work with than rubber too.

They probably wouldn't be resilient enough for completion towing, etc. or heavy-handed docking against concrete but for light duties and display only (like this Tika) they are fine. My next project has a large cylindrical fender and that is just about right for a strip of rubber. Any other shape of size – i stick with wood.

steve mahoney · « **Reply #24 on:** April 28, 2019, 05:14:00 am »

I've just about finished all of the little detail parts and I have finally got to the point where I can paint the superstructure and start attaching the pieces from my box of bits.

With every build there seems to be a process that depends on things being completed in a certain order. For this build it meant getting the superstructure finished with the rails, companionway and funnel all attached before it could have a base coat of paint and then be glazed.
[/size]This is it so far – most of the blue bits from the box are attached and it can have one more light spray to cover and scuffs and scratches.There's a lot of blue going on.As you can see: the exhaust stacks, fire equipment, lights, searchlight, anchor & windlass, bridge doors, aircon, radar, tow hook, and life rafts/buoys still need to be attached.I'm away for quite a while in 2 weeks and had hoped to get everything finished before I go. Don't think I'll make it – haven't ordered the rub downs for the names and hull markings, or the decals for the deck signs. I should be able to get the tow hook, and navigation and deck floodlights done (my least favourite part of the project). As long as I manage to paint everything that needs to be blue before I leave. I mixed up enough special Ports of Auckland blue paint for the project but I don't think that it will last for 6 months while I'm away and matching it again will be difficult.

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Author Topic: The TIKA – 1970s harbour tug (Read 8662 times)