Surgery and the Titanic

I could have just added ballast to the little tug but this would have been in the vacinity of about a 1/4 of a ton. Then the launching and retreval would have been a major undertaking with this much weight. I also thought of small pieces of lead placed in the bottom and the job of doing this every time was not worth it and if the thing took on water it would have beaten the Titanic to the bottom with me in it. So surgery was the only way. It took less time than it would have taken to load all the lead ballast into the boat before launching. It was also cheaper. Some time was taken away from the build to explore the bush near here, so here is a couple of photos.

 

 The above photo is of the entrance to Jervis bay and the back waters of St.Georges Basin.

Drastic surgery

 This is taken from the bottom of the boat

 This is the removed section and will take away the need for about 100 kilos of balast

 Bottom glassed on, by removing the bottom I hope this will make it more stable and I know it will take away the need for ballast.

Plastic was laid over the wet resin and smoothed out to eliminate some of the sanding.

Tiny tugboats

My sons have ganged up on me and am now not allowed to build any more little tug boats. They think that I will drown myself so I bought a mini motor bike and this has been confiscated and is being sold. Party poopers. They think I am getting too old would you believe,Old. Now I have bought a canoe fourteen foot long and they want training wheels on it (outriggers) Wait til they see it go with a five hp motor on it. I am gathering steel and bits for a mini submarine that should scare the crap out of em. They only come down once a month or so and I will hide the sub bits and launch it between visits. If they find it and ask what it is I will tell them I found it and am going to scrap it. Kids dont ya love them. You wouldnt believe it photo uploading is not working again.

drastic surgery

I launched the tug boat and it floated but will need drastic surgery as it is not floating to the water line. Will update in the near future.

update

These contain 5 "D" cell batteries connected in series to get 12 volts.
Bending the timber to fit on the edge of the cockpit.

Glueing the edging on this is to cover end grain of the larger piece if timber..
Cabin roof done in two different timbers one being Origan floor boards the other is of unknown imported species that I got from Extreme flooring sales at south Nowra for free as these were offcuts. All the timbers are milled to size on a DeWalt flip flop saw.
The switch is wired for forward and reverse with stop in the middle.