Cruising Tug

Peter Leenhouts of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, Port Hadlock which is located on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, northwest of Seattle wrote with some details of a cruising tug which was launched in August of 2012.

Tug boat derived pleasure boats are popular in the US but very rare in Europe, perhaps that comment will elicit a flood of emails from European owners, if so please send photos and details we'd live to feature more examples.

Back to the boat in question, it was designed by an American, H.C. Hanson in 1957 for the US Forest Service as a Scaler's Boat. Scalers determine the amount of board feet of lumber in each log cut by a timber crew.

Three boats were built commercially in the mid-1950's to this design for the US Forest Service for use in the Pacific Northwest. Construction on this latest example began in 2010 and finished in 2012, with the school's classes of 2010, 2011 and 2012 all contributing to the build.

The tug is 26 feet long with a beam of about 7 feet, a draft of four feet and displacing around 4 tons.

Built as a cruising boat, the planking is aromatic port orford cedar from southern Oregon, over white oak frames. The cabin house sides are of mahogany. Power is supplied by a 39 hp Yanmar diesel engine.

 Not surprisingly the tug was quickly sold to an owner, who based in Michigan will use her to enjoy the fresh water of Traverse Bay.

Thanks to the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building