So while moving to my new house I place my tow boat up on a shelf. So when I left and shut the door I heard something crash to the floor! I open the door and found my tow boat in the floor with substantial damage to the superstructure😔 Though it's damaged it shouldn't take long to repair that damage! Ugh the joys of moving! Once I'm settled in I hope to get started back on it and finish it up!

So my nephew, who has been helping me some, was anxious to see it go around the pond. So after tinkering with the rudders and tying both motors to the one good speed control, we added the 12v battery and one brick for ballast. Off we go down to the pond. It is still floating a bit high. It putted around the pond real nice. I can't wait for the new speed control, to see how much difference it will make in using the independent motors to assist in the turns.

well I managed to get the rudders hooked up and working. Ended up with a bad speed control which almost burnt the boat up. Never fails, it seems one step forward and one step backwards.

Well I've managed to finish the majority of the glass work still more sanding and preping for paint on the hull. I decided.to see where it was as far as the draft. Initially sitting it in the water it was floating way to light. after finding at best guess, about 1 1/2 pounds of rocks she was still floating high at which point I snapped these to photos. I'm thinking I'm going to have to add an additional 1 or 2 pounds of weight to get the water line right. But it's looking good sitting on thw water.

Well I've managed to get some rudders made. I've got both steering rudders and 2 of the 4 flanking rudders made. Tomorrow I hope to finish the other 2 flanking rudders. I just used some brass tubing and a flat sheet of brass.

Well I've made it back ashore and made a little progress on the tow boat. I started by adjusting my shafts in the boat and once I was satisfied with the alignment I reaffixed them permanently. Then it was onto the Kort nozzles themselves. So what to use? After searching around the garage and looking at every can I could find I settled on a Dr Pepper can. To stiffen it up I then took balsa and epoxied it to the can. Using thin CA I then harden the balsa by soaking it with the CA. Caution do in well ventilated area! Measure and cut then file and sand. Time to figure out how to affix to the stuffing tube. More so how to center it. Tracing inside of the kort on a board measuring widest point then drawing a line along one edge then measuring out the same distance on each end then using a square finished my square. Draw straight line from corner to corner and repeat with other corners and you have the center of your kort. Drill tiny hole where the x marks the spot. Taking some flat brass strips and a piece of the left over brass from the stuffing box I bent the flat around the tube only half way the repeated with another piece. After shaping I then sanded lightly cleaned and soldered to halves together. A tip about soldering for those who haven't done much. Tin both parts of what you are soldering, whether wires or brass or copper, Tinning is nothing more than presoldering or adding solder to both parts first. Then add a small dot of solder to the iron and when you touch it to the parts it's almost instant that it melts. Learned this in a factory so many years ago. After parts were soldered then I used different scrapped brass stacked down to a small piece that fit in the hole on my board. Mark the ends of the brace split the two pieces of brass back to the mark and then test fit. Both braces were almost perfect first try. Extremely minor adjustment made, probably due to older age and failing eyesight! Once fitted in kort then was test fitted on the towboat and that's where we are today.

As the build goes on, you can see I started to add more and more. The first photo shows off a set of stairs, some doors, and the flagpole. From the side view you can see multiple windows and doors. Note the crane for the yawl or skiff. As you move through the photos I began the railings built out of styrene and brass rods. In the final few photos you can see the exhaust stacks which are not complete yet.

Whistling "It's starting to look a little like a tow boat"

So, we are now at the current stage of the build. I won't be able to show anymore photos for at least another week because I am working offshore on a work boat in the oil fields. I am a paramedic by trade and certain task offshore require a paramedic to be present due to the amount of time it would take to get a medical response from shore. I will go back through the photos on my phone and if I find any others that I think you might find interesting, I will post them.

Please feel free to comment on anything you find interesting or not😁.

After blocking everything up I began cutting the doors and windows. I also began some of the detail parts, such as the radar and a gas storage tank noted in the photos.

These photos show the motor selection and then the placement of them into the boat. I scratch built the shaft and stuffing box with grease tube out of brass tubing which unfortunately I fail to take photos of before mounting in the hull.

At this point I want to note a very helpful website in which I obtained a lot of useful information including how to build the propeller shaft.

Tow Boat Joes https://towboatjoe.tripod.com

I followed Joes blogs for a while, unfortunately, he has passed away, but his site is still up.

https://towboatjoe.tripod.com

This post shows the hull sheeted and part of the superstructure built.