Agreed in all aspects of the virtues of the LED's. Cool operating, long life, and a host of available colors. The smallest "chips" can fit into tiny places and easily light up running lights, deck lights, and if run on lower voltage than what they're rated at will produce a lower brightness.

Very reminiscent of "African Queen".

Thank you all.

Trev, the gals have been moving around. One talked the "Galley News" skipper into letting her aboard for a short trip, another is checking out the river scene from "Nonesuch", One is in the pilot house of "Fort Valley"(can't find her photo,) the cook in "Fort Valley" hasn't gone anywhere (who has the courage to tell her anything?) and alas, the "dock gal" is still holding down the drums on the RSC dock. 😉

Chug, I have the sound, just contemplating a diverter valve for the "steam" to coincide with the whistle👍

Doug, There is a small water-side community that is launched and retrieved. "River Supply Co." is animated with sound, lights, doors that operate, and a fish cleaning station with running water.👍😊

Thank you.

The pond used to be an inground swimming pool that us old folks seldom used. I suggested to my wife that we should convert it to a water garden. (Actually, I needed a small boat test facility bigger than the bath tub and without all the chemicals and maintenance.) Now that it's converted and matured, we spend much more time out there than we ever did when it was a pool.

One point that I need to make is the vapor unit must have a constant power source. It can't operate on the ESC's impulses alone. The module receives the input from the ESC and modifies that signal to control the intensity and pulsing of the vapor which is variable according to the pot(s) settings. There is also the "stand alone" function which is essentially a constant volume/fan setting determined by pot adjustment and (integral) switch position. (There are Youtube videos on this unit.)

The video shows a low speed setting.

Hi Ron, yes, the module in the photo is the control unit which allows adjusting the density and frequency of the vapor through two pots.

This "chapter" is a follow-up on a modification I've done to the tug. At first it was just an experiment and I didn't know if I'd keep the mod or not, but find I lean towards the new system more than the one I described in the build narrative.
The previous smoker was a standard heated coil using a type of light oil as the smoke producer. It worked fine, produced an ample amount of smoke, and was relatively compact. One time the boat was a long way off when I realized it had run dry. I had no recourse but to run the boat back with fingers crossed that the element didn't burn out or worse. This concerned me and after a couple of conversations about it led me to install a switch on an open channel to isolate the unit if necessary.
I have since installed a water vapor "smoker" from Denes Design.
This vapor is essentially "cold steam" that DD has developed a control module for and provides several different modes of operation that includes vapor density, pulse length or continual. It can follow the ESC's RPM and operates on plain water. There's no heat, no oil, no mess, and the worst that may happen is a few drops of water may end up in the bilge if condensate from the stack runs back.
Topped up with water the unit weighs three-four ounces more than the oil based smoker I had installed, but for this tug that weight doesn't impact the stability even though the unit is mounted under the deckhouse roof. In a conventional mounting in the hull it wouldn't be an issue at all.
I don't recall the price of the oil per ounce, but do know a gallon of distilled water in this area is $3.00 USD - enough for most of an entire season.

I don't know if the video will come up, but I've also posted a couple of stills with the unit operating.

Concerning these smoker units- I have a couple of them and I like the concept of not developing unnecessary heat in my models, not to mention the water vapor is much more in keeping with a steam vessel as it reacts to atmospheric conditions and the only residue is water - topside and engine room.

Another perhaps even more important item about these units is the customer assistance provided by Denes Design. As I mentioned I have two of these units and both of them worked flawlessly when they arrived. Alas, after trying to operate them like I did the oil-type smoker I compromised both control modules.

At the risk of being too long winded, I'll explain my fault as it may save someone else the same fate:
I had the oil type smoker set up on an independent ESC so I could turn on/off the unit and increase or decrease the amount of smoke at will through a potentiometer in my transmitter. Obviously, the output of the ESC varied which the heating element didn't mind. The Denes Design units want a constant voltage to the control module and relies on a signal from the receiver to increase/decrease the volume of vapor consonant with the shaft RPM. The way I tried to hook up the unit (I used the ESC output as the power source to the DD control module,) allowed the voltage to fluctuate from 0 to 12V and if I wasn't careful the polarity could be changed (as the ESC thought the boat was backing up) which was also detrimental as voltage polarity is critical to the Denes Design.

I contacted DD via email, described what I had done and received a very civil and thorough trouble-shooting email within hours describing how to determine the severity of the failure and how to remedy the issue.
I suspect other providers would have been more than happy to just sell me another unit citing my failure to follow the instructions.

In short, the units work great and the help from DD is exceptional.👍

I lost a 17 year old son to a car accident in '87 and last Sept a 59 year old son to a brain tumor. I don't mention this for sympathy, but only to affirm that I understand.
There's not a day goes by that I don't think of both of them. There is certainly a period of grief that we endure, then it is up to us to decide how we move forward. How would the departed want us to continue?
I don't mean to come across trite, or to take these circumstances lightly because they are arguably the hardest things in life to deal with, but my thoughts are ~ as long as their memory and the good times are alive in my heart, my sons have only passed from view. They could be in another room or another town.
My faith tells me we will be reunited again.

Hi folks, sorry I'm late.
I had a piece of wooden closet rod that I cut to length, and drilled 1/4" holes in each end to accommodate some braided nylon clothesline. I put several more inches of line on the rods then I needed just to make them a little adjustable. In practice we're not going to have our hands much higher than chest level when we pick up the boats anyway, so too much line will just get in the way.
I took the metal hooks off of a couple of rubber bungee/tie-down straps and replaced them with the clothes line which is seized at the eyes. The standing part of the line is passed through the drilled hole in the rods and a simple overhand knot maintains the correct length of line.

Having had a couple of close calls myself I've resorted to straps. It seems the older one gets the higher the center of gravity becomes. I'm not particularly afraid of getting wet and incurring the mirth of the other captains in the area, but the potential damage to the boat concerns me.😊

All of my RC boats have been painted by brush with acrylic samples from Lowes or Home Depot. I like the water cleanup, no smell, and they're tough enough. If a boat gets scratched, I'd touch it up, but the paint is tough enough that so far I haven't had the need.
Another plus is any color can be made from the color cards in the rack. $6 (US) will paint a large tug (Fort Valley) three times with paint left over.
All of the colors can be mixed with each other with no worries.

Managed to get the cockpit decking completed as well as the benches on either side. The benches will have a couple of turned spindles each to support them on the inboard side. I'll make a couple of cushions for the benches a little later.
I need to turn to the mechanical side before much more topside work, but I have to shelve the project for a week or better and get some yard work done since the majority of the snow is gone.

Alice, I just learned of Newry's passing. I'm so sorry to hear this. I wish I had met her in person as reading her posts I'm sure she would have been one of my favorite people instantly.
Please know that we all share in your loss.

Thank you for the comments!

Just a very quick update before I begin the trying and fitting, trying and fitting, repeat, repeat, repeat.
These are the things that take such a long time and very little progress shows.

The first two photos show the general arrangement of the deck and coaming that will take some time to finesse.
I'm reluctant to hazard what the fellow in the third image is thinking. Most likely not appropriate for a family site such as this.

There hasn't been a lot of progress that shows, but some of the mundane items have been tended to. The forward and main bulkheads are epoxied in permanently after attaching the hatches closer hardware.
Patterns for the deck and cabin roof have been made and the false deck/roof laid out and roughed to shape. Still a lot of finesse is needed for a good fit.
I've also made up five sets of frames and marked the hull where they're to be installed. These frames are not required for this hull, but will be installed to facilitate attaching the floor stringers, fuel tank brackets, and seat stringer.

Photos:
1.thru 4. making up patterns and fitting the false deck and cabin roof, plus the rudder and wheel arrangement.

5. & 6. Laying out and marking the frame stations.

7. thru 9. The forward bulkhead and cabin hatches fastening method. these are just a small hook at the bottom of the hatch to retain the bottoms in place and a small magnet glued to the top corners which engage tin flashing shaped around and glued to the strip jams.

10. As with other builds I have found "fenders" in some most unlikely places. I have also "trained" my adult daughter (who frequents antique stores and flea markets ,) to keep an eye out for crochet tassels as found on some home made ladies purses and hand bags. She sent me this find recently which will produce nine excellent fenders for this build. With what she paid for the purse, the fenders come out to less than a dollar (US) a piece. I couldn't make them for that.

Here's one of those side trips that I alluded to in an earlier post.

In the drawings there were two 10"X36" fuel tanks one each port and starboard under the benches. No particular fittings were called out, so I suppose it was "builder's discretion" as to how they were plumbed. If my calcs are remotely in the ball park, a 10"X36" tank doesn't hold very much fuel. (Surely you didn't think I was going to hazard my volume guess amongst you wizards?) however, I can with some authority proclaim that two of these tanks will double the volume of just one!😊
Short of a sounding stick, I don't know how one would determine the remaining fuel in either tank unless they were fitted with electric gauges. Running a wire from a sealed and painted closet dowel to simulate an electric gauge would be the sensible thing to do.
OR, find a short length of 1 1/4" copper pipe, cut it to represent 36" in scale (4 1/2") cut some discs of copper flashing, solder these to the pipe, and polish the whole thing. Now, to determine the fuel level...sight glasses. In 1:1 context the sight glasses probably wouldn't satisfy the authorities, but I'm reasonably certain in 1:8 scale no one is going to inadvertently kick out the glass.
Although these are not complete, here's where we are. I think they'll work.

The photo's:

1. using a 1/16" acrylic rod for the "glass", and drilling out a cabin-top grab rail stanchion to 1/16" provided the upper and lower valves. (The valve wheels are yet to be installed.)

2. Work in progress.

3. If the authorities find out we're using off-road fuel they may take a dim view of the operation.

4. I contemplated installing a couple of safety rods down both sides of the glass as would be done in the full sized installation to protect the glass, (and may still,) but here's where this little excursion is as of this update.

Chapter II

I am not a very fast builder, and as a result tend to have a build well along before I post anything so I don't give the impression that a project has been abandoned
The launch is farther along than it appears, so I'll bring it up to speed quickly with just a couple of entry's then if you'll bear with me I'll keep the progress current with subsequent posts although they may be a few days apart.

Several months ago a neighbor brought over some cherry cut-offs that he came across asking could I use any of it. Like this launch hull I had put it in the "stash" to be used at a later date. It would seem with this hull, the cherry, and some other bits and pieces the later date has arrived.😊

The images below are pretty much self explanatory with just a few exceptions.

Photo 1
I like the black hull's contrast with the cherry better than the white.

2. If you don't use all your clamps you didn't use enough...if you did use them all you don't have enough.

3, 4, & 5. It would have been easier to fabricate a brass support for the bottom of the rudder so the gudgeons and pintles didn't take all the strain, but my masochistic nature decided an oak skeg extension would be much more trouble. Cutting the required amount out of the molded skeg and fitting the oak while allowing the wheel radius was an exercise. Filling the inside area with epoxy then drilling and tapping the filler allowed two flathead machine screws to hold the skeg in place without any potential for water seeping into the hull.

6 &7. There will be a narrow side deck running along the open cockpit so some small screw eyes were threaded into blocks which were glued to the clamp strake. These eyelets will carry the wires from the forward battery back to the "engine room".

Two or three years ago an older modeler passed on and left his tools, parts and pieces behind. As is often the case, the son had little interest in the hobby so advertised the items for sale. I don't remember where I even saw the ad, but responded more out of curiosity than anything else. The son and I corresponded via email a few times with him sending images of box-lots of what was available, Towards the end of our correspondence he mentioned there was a boat hull that he knew nothing about, but apparently had not generated any interest and I could have it for a few dollars and shipping. I didn't need another hull and particularly didn't need a 'glass lapstrake boat, but thought it might be worth something down-stream as trading material, or someone may want it. The alternative was it would end up in a New Jersey landfill. ☹️
I received it about a week later, checked it out, and shelved it in the "stash" group.
A while ago I was idly thumbing through a book with page after page of study plans and blew by a launch-type hull that was carvel planked. A couple of days later the plan resurfaced in my mind's eye and I looked it up again and thought the 'glass hull in a 1:8 scale would be close enough to loosely emulate these lines. The inspiration drawings were drawn by a fellow named Nelson Zimmer out of the greater Detroit MI area. My apologies to Mr. Zimmer as I've taken some subtle liberties with his drawing, all the while keeping the basic profile of his design. His title for the boat was "Utility Launch" at 23'3" and the hull I have is 35". Close enough for my purposes.
In this opening "chapter' I have drilled the shaft log hole, determined the log angle, and built a platform for the motor and drive pulley. Given enough room I like the timing belt method of propulsion as they're not real particular about alignment, (that's not to say some care isn't necessary to set up the drive,) they just seem to be quieter, plus one can experiment with different pulleys to come to a good efficient RPM for the propeller.

Photos:

1. A cursory general beginning.
2. determining that everything is "on the level." (This of course starts with the bench the build is on)
3. The propulsion will be a six volt system. One larger battery didn't fit well anywhere in the hull given the open midships area, so I tried two smaller batts in the ends which will be hooked up in parallel. There was some ballast required anyway, so doing a tub test proved this a viable solution.
4, 5, & 6. The forward and main bulkheads. After the time invested in these, I decided both need some modifications. Once the forward deck is in place retrieving the forward battery can be done through the hatch, but it would have been tight with the middle open cockpit benches, flooring, and "stuff". Keeping in mind this was only a 23' launch the 1:1 main bulkhead was originally designed with the bi-fold doors as shown which was a help to access the engine. I'm thinking of reconfiguring this arrangement as well.

I'd name this "Knot Likely", but it's knot a speed likely boat... 😊

Katie gives "maiden" voyage a whole new perspective.😊

Well done!

Unless it's a particularly unusual motor, given the relatively low cost of these, I might be inclined to replace it with a fresh unit. The cost, time, and materials used to clean out and service the compromised unit may not be worth the effort.
It would be annoying to have a "cleaned" motor fail underway several outings later.

Sad to hear this. When I was new to the site Martin made me feel part of the community immediately.

He indeed will be missed....

Looks good Ron!

It might be worth saving the pieces that your "good parts" came from and use them as templates to trace out for another dory.

Hi Stan,

Welcome aboard!
I just happened onto your build of Sam Richmond. This is a subject close to my heart. In the late '60's I was stationed in CGC Lantana out of Owensboro. One of our regular stops was Paducah. After Lantana it was Kanawha out of Memphis on the Mississippi. Good duty.

It always amazed me how many acres of barges these boats could push.
The only problem I've come across with these subjects is if one built a set of scale barges to replicate a full tow, they'd cover an awful lot of model pond😊.

I'll be following your build with interest!

I haven't learned much in my dotage, but have developed a system to divide "wants" from "needs".
When I see something I really, really "want", I tell myself I can have it in three days. After two days I revisit the item and if it's gone I didn't need it. If it's still available and now I only "really" want it, some of the pressure is off, and if I wait one more day and still "want" it, the item becomes a "need". Then I rationalize that since I can't take the $$ with me when I go, I may as well do my civic duty and spread it around while I'm here.

Good looking tug!👍

Very nice profile photo! I too am looking forward to your trials....

Thanks Doug. I'll check those settings.

If my CCD's become OCD, I'll be SOL. 👍😁

(Sorry for the hijack Len.)

Thank you.

Dang! Doug beat me to the draw again!😊

Evans is indeed the source. Very cool stuff available through them. A worthwhile address to have.

The 3mm LED's would fit in the printed globes, but may prove to be too bright unless you lowered your voltage. I used the "nano chips" rated at 12V, but run them on 6V. The chips are on one side of the leads and if you install them facing the bulkhead that the light fixture is mounted against it seems to diffuse the light a little more. I'm not a photographer so don't know all the proper settings, but my point-and-shoot seems to make the lights in the photos brighter than they really are.

That's the one. Thank you Doug.