Burutu - I bought the plans for this for about twenty years ago and decided at the time that I ought to have a tug a bit bigger than 30” long. I got the plans enlarged by a factor of two, making them 1:25, rolled them up and put them away.
Have studied and thought about building options on numerous occasions and managed to keep track of the plans during my five house moves.
Now I’ve gone and done it - bought a sheet of 12mm and 6mm marine cut the plans up, glued the plan, hull profile and sections onto the ply and pinned the elevation onto the garage wall.
Bl**dy Hell that’s big!
Will I be able to pick it up?
How will I transport it?
Will it fit in the harbour arrangements at the likes of Balne Moor?
How am I going to test it? – It wont fit in the bath!
Where am I going to find motors big enough to drive it?
I had also decided a long time ago that it would be plank on frame a) there was no commercially available grp hull at 1:25 and b) bread and butter construction would be prohibitive in cost terms although probably quickest. Consequently for years I have been saving all the bits of mahogany and oak furniture I have come across –
How am I going to cut all the planks I need? – a three millimetre saw blade wont be economic at producing two millimetre planks.
I was also thinking that I wanted the twin screws operating from one channel on my radio, only one joystick having “move and stay – friction” – bet its not called that.
I realise that I would be loosing the option for manoeuvring with different prop revs but thought that having moveable korts would be much more effective than this anyway. So that would be one big motor, into a gearbox, split into two and arrange for contra-rotation – easy.
Then I was talking to someone at the MMM Tugnology day who made the point about one motor, bit of weed, blown fuse and a long wait for it to blow back to the edge!
MMMmmmm Ok so that’s two motors two speed controllers but I still only want to use one channel – then I found a “Y” lead and a wiring diagram courtesy of Mayhem and Action Electronics web sites.
Started cutting some wood – seemed like a good thing to do – worry about the details later !
First Photographs taken by my daughter.