The mighty tug Wattle

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Ashley doent mind talking about his secret boats but pictures are always limited as I like to have the wow factor when revealed I’m all their glory!

Ashley

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Back from my beautiful granddaughters wedding in Canberra and straight back in harness.  The lower deck house templates have been transfered into ply wood and are loosely fitted to the deck . I still have  to make up the engine room hatch covers before sanding down and filling any discrepancy with wood filler and undercoating. It was good to get back into the workshop after a week of so being away.

Regards to all Easty

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

What do you do in a tropical down pour and you cant mow the lawn like you promised the better half . You get on with modelling

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Quick update with progress so far . Painting the hull , a job I hate doing but it seems to be a reasonable looking job .

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

We are in the middle of our wet season (just before Christmas and all of January)so lots of time to spend in the work shop. Next project is the tugs life boat , I’m putting a lot of thought into this as I was far from happy with the trawlers life boat I built. I’m thinking of doing a mould and clinker planking around it and releasing it from the mould and fitting ribs and seats. THATS !!! if my sausage fingers can cope with something so small. It’s going to be 😁 fun. keep a watch out for  results I’ll post picture of my endeavours good or as I suspect bad .

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

The technique seems to work so far, I will post the finished result when the  boat is out of the mold/plug sanded and painted

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

First coat of paint , then a light sand and one more coat . Not perfect by a long way but not too bad for a initial effort

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

For a first crack at it that’s pretty impressive Mick.  I’m sure you’ve identified things that you would like to try to improve but you have a very sound foundation to build on.

[Tim RoweParticipant @timrowe83142]

It’s a cutie!

Tim

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

First off seasonal greeting to you all .l hope you all had a great day , we had our grandson visiting us for the holiday week, ( he’s a lieutenant in the Australian navy and as he is on deployment most of the time and his home base is west Australia which is a five hour flight from us we don’t see him much.).so it was good to catch up with him. The model making has been put on hold for few days but a couple of photos to show progress

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Getting close toʻ completion and let me say it’s been a most enjoyable build. I’ve honed my existing skills and learnt a lot of new ones along the way . It’s no where perfect but I’m happy with it and as long as you get better with each build new build that’s good enough  for me

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Looks superb Mick.  I’m intrigued by the use of boat davits in a transverse arrangement.  They can only be used for stowage as they cannot be used for launching and recovering from there so it begs the question how the boat was launched and recovered.

Any tug enthusiasts out there got any ideas?

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Looking at the earlier photos on the Wattle website, it seems that there was only one davit on the starboard side originally. It is only a small boat so I would speculate that just the one davit was used to hoist it and swing it out by swiveling the davit across the centre line of the vessel and attaching a strop or similar to the bow and stern of the boat. The second davit was fitted later to enable it to be launched over the port side.

You can see in some of the photos that the davits can swivel outboard and even forward against the funnel.

Colin

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Colin I think you are completely correct in that assumption,  that’s how I interpreted the plans.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Sherlock Holmes me! The photos showed that the davit(s) were fitted that way and the boat stowed above the towing hook so it must have worked. The boat would been lowered over the side empty and the crew would have climbed into it. Same process in reverse. First time I have seen that though.

Colin

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Been watching this build all the way through and it’s turned into a very nice model. I was particularly interested in the your build of the lifeboat. It’s something I’ll have build later on. Should look good on the water.

Jim.

 

.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Makes sense Colin.  I hadn’t realised from the pictures that the davit actually reached as far as over the side.  They do not look as though they do.

I actually have a Joffree and that has a small davit mounted at the ship’s starboard side, fixed to the gunwhale, for raising and lowering a small dinghy.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Photos can be misleading in perspective depending on the lens Richard. The Wattle website photos helped to clarify things.

Colin

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

As any good English man knows there is nothing a tug boat crew likes than a good strong brew

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Beautiful job Mick, she looks really good.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Finally finished , the electronics fitted and tested ( in bath tub ) . I was amazes at the amount of ballast needed to bring her down to the water line . I went to our local hardware super store and purchased 6kg of lead flashing thinking it would do this build and maybe the next , but no it was only just enough for  this build . It’s a heavy little bugger.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

The workshop is looking a bit forlorn with nothing on the go but the top shelf is looking super good. The next build is going to be a Clyde puffer . I’m researching the welded hull puffers built for the navy during the war as fleet support vessels.  I’ve ordered a plan showing ship lines and lots of deck detail but the business is on a annual break till the end of January s o I will be twiddling my thumbs till then

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

She looks superb Mick.  Looking forward to seeing the shots on the water.

I must admit I thought my work area has always been a bit OTT with everything hung up and in its place but I’ve never kept tools in a glass case before.  I’ll mention that to my wife next time she is accusing me of being OCD!

I’m very much with you, work area has to be clean, tidy, well lit and everything to hand.  After a visit to a model boat kit supplier many years ago, Mountfleet, I was very impressed with the idea of building a big model in a location that gives you access to all around the model.  He had an island in the middle of the workshop, which allowed him to walk around the model the full 360 degrees.  I adapted the idea and bought myself a kitchen  trolley as a building bench.  I also have work areas around it but the model grows on the trolley.  I also have a floor socket next to the trolley so I can use power tools on the model without having cables draped across the place.

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