No Traditional Engine Room on a Tug

[mda]

Hi All,

 

Been dreaming for a few years now... and have been designing my perfect layout in my head all this time.

 

I really like Tugs - visited Crick Boat Show a few years ago and the boat that won was an awesome Tug - Emily I think. Anyway, Here's the question which might cause a disturbance and strong opinions:

 

Does a Tug have to have a traditional engine room and vintage (style) engine rather than a modern trad engine in the back?

 

I know nothing about engines and am thinking I would need the space for other things.

 

Thanks,

 

Miles

[adam1uk]

2 minutes ago, mda said:

Hi All,

 

Been dreaming for a few years now... and have been designing my perfect layout in my head all this time.

 

I really like Tugs - visited Crick Boat Show a few years ago and the boat that won was an awesome Tug - Emily I think. Anyway, Here's the question which might cause a disturbance and strong opinions:

 

Does a Tug have to have a traditional engine room and vintage (style) engine rather than a modern trad engine in the back?

 

I know nothing about engines and am thinking I would need the space for other things.

 

Thanks,

 

Miles

You can have whatever you want.  There I’ll be a tug at Crick this year that’s a semi trad with a modern engine.

[MtB]

6 minutes ago, mda said:

Does a Tug have to have a traditional engine room and vintage (style) engine rather than a modern trad engine in the back?

 

 

Does beer have to contain alcohol and coffee, caffeine? 

[john6767]

There are a couple of tugs that I have seen that are semi-trad, I think that proves you can do what you want.

[Tony Brooks]

Modern Trad engine is a bit of a contradiction unless you could the Beta tractor engine conversions trad and I ma not sure one would fit under the deck in the stern.

 

 

[billS]

Be brave - it's your boat.

 

How many real canal tugs had 30 feet of lounge/kitchen/toilet space, a Belfast sink and a shower?

 

It's just a shape.

Edited May 24, 2018 by billS

[Ray T]

8 minutes ago, billS said:

Be brave - it's your boat.

 

How many real canal tugs had 30 feet of lounge/kitchen/toilet space, a Belfast sink and a shower?

 

It's just a shape.

 

 

Not sure about the sink and shower. 

Edited May 24, 2018 by Ray T

[dmr]

Its your boat, you can do whatever you want. On the K&A a few people have put tents on platforms based on a few beer kegs and appear to have got away with it.

 

Do consider that you might want to sell this boat one day. Tug decks are a ludicrous waste of space so in general only appeal to a small number of fanatical boaters (I include myself here) and 99% of these would also want an engine room to waste even more space, and I know engine rooms are a waste of space because I read it on this forum.

 

...............Dave

[mda]

8 hours ago, dmr said:

Do consider that you might want to sell this boat one day. Tug decks are a ludicrous waste of space so in general only appeal to a small number of fanatical boaters (I include myself here) and 99% of these would also want an engine room to waste even more space, and I know engine rooms are a waste of space because I read it on this forum.

 

...............Dave

 

Thanks. I’m not sure about the space. Cause if you have a pullout bed with storage or washing machine etc under there you actually have storage without a long dark corridor of cupboards. Cruiser sterns are similarly a waste of space. 

 

So you have a tug? Have you wished you didn’t?

[Captain Pegg]

A true working tug was a day boat so the only reason it needed a cabin at all was to house the engine in. Have a look inside the Stewart & Lloyds tug BITTELL and you will mostly find the cabin full of a three cylinder Lister. Some tugs were converted from full length motors so they may have retained the traditional working boat cabin and engine room.

 

I suspect what we are really talking about is a narrowboat with a 'tug deck'. It doesn't matter a jot what goes inside one of those because it isn't a tug. If it was it would need an engine/gearbox/propellor set up capable of shifting a lot of water, accessible decks and gunwales and means of attaching towing lines.

 

JP

[alan_fincher]

11 hours ago, Ray T said:

 

 

Not sure about the sink and shower. 

But wehy is that a tug?

It is just a full length working narrow boat with a cabin extension, surely?

13 hours ago, adam1uk said:

You can have whatever you want.  There I’ll be a tug at Crick this year that’s a semi trad with a modern engine.

 

You can BE whatever you want Adam - will you also be impersonating tug type noises?

[dmr]

2 hours ago, mda said:

 

Thanks. I’m not sure about the space. Cause if you have a pullout bed with storage or washing machine etc under there you actually have storage without a long dark corridor of cupboards. Cruiser sterns are similarly a waste of space. 

 

So you have a tug? Have you wished you didn’t?

I don't have a tug deck even though I think they look great and are wonderful for crossing over when working locks. We are full time liceaboards and I regard tug decks as just too impractical. We do have an engine room and back cabin. Yes, with thought you can make good use of the space below the tug deck, but another problem is that the deck itself is wasted space, it is usually kept empty (and should be to look its best), its too high for sitting on as you are too public, though a couple of directors chairs at boat festivals are fine, not good for DIY as your tools roll into the water. We have a longer than average well deck with side lockers which is a good compromise.  You really can't have a cratch cover on a tug deck but thats a good thing.

 

If you go the tug deck route then I think you should go for the full tug look, port-holes, low in the water, and a functional working appearance. If you build a leisure boat with bus windows and shiny paint etc etc and then put a tug deck on the front it will look just wrong.

 

.............Dave

[MtB]

1 minute ago, dmr said:

We are full time liceaboards

 

Excellent typo!!

[X Alan W]

I think the boat you are intending is a style rather than a true variation of a (Tug) as you will possibly/probably never be involved in the towing of multiple unpowered boats  your requirements for a large "torquie" power unit are not really a requirement there are many modern units of small in regard to vintage units that produce equal if not more power & will almost fit under the foot board /steps should you require this configuration as said it's your boat your call

[dmr]

3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Excellent typo!!

Its since we left the K&A and moved up North, its dead rough up here. ?

[Athy]

9 minutes ago, dmr said:

 

 

If you go the tug deck route then I think you should go for the full tug look, port-holes, low in the water, and a functional working appearance. If you build a leisure boat with bus windows and shiny paint etc etc and then put a tug deck on the front it will look just wrong.

 

 

Absolutely. The best "tugs" look purposeful and chunky. Whilst, as Capt. Pegg points out, they aren't built to do a job of work, they look as if they could.

[alan_fincher]

12 minutes ago, Athy said:

Absolutely. The best "tugs" look purposeful and chunky. Whilst, as Capt. Pegg points out, they aren't built to do a job of work, they look as if they could.

Nah!  The best tugs were built to do a job of work - anything else doesn't quite cut it!

[Athy]

Just now, alan_fincher said:

Nah!  The best tugs were built to do a job of work - anything else doesn't quite cut it!

Alan, I put "tugs" in inverted commas to show that I was referring to modern builds, rather than those that worked for Chance & Hunt etc.

[mark99]

He means Tug DECK?

Edited May 25, 2018 by mark99

[Athy]

4 minutes ago, mark99 said:

He means Tug DECK?

Who he?

[RLWP]

I've seen tugs that are all engine room

 

Richard

[mark99]

3 minutes ago, Athy said:

Who he?

Sorry the OP.

[Athy]

Ah, gotcha. I took it that the O.P. was thinking of a tug-style boat, which of course would usually have a raised, quite long deck.

 

 

[billS]

1 minute ago, Athy said:

Ah, gotcha. I took it that the O.P. was thinking of a tug-style boat, which of course would usually have a raised, quite long deck.

 

 

As opposed to you own "tug's" shallow well deck (which I think is a more practical arrangement - your tools don't roll overboard)

[MtB]

13 hours ago, mda said:

 

Does a Tug have to have a traditional engine room and vintage (style) engine rather than a modern trad engine in the back?

 

 

There are plenty of 'tug style' narrowboats around with nice elegant tug decks and no engine room. I tend to notice them specifically as a nice looking tug style boat makes me wonder what classic engine it might have in the engine room, and I glance first to see if it has the accompanying side doors that indicate a proper engine room, and roof mounted exhaust. 

 

Disappointingly I'd say about 25% of the tug style boats I see have no side doors or roof mounted exhaust stack, indicating the engine is probably something dull concealed beneath the bed and with appalling access for maintenance.