PELIKAN Winner of "Best Small Tug" at Boston Tug Muster
June 2003: Plans for the Small Tugs Series of designs are listed on our new web site: www.smalltugs.com; complete details of these and new designs are available there.
NEW! Comments from owners! Click here.
Mal has written four extensive tutorials which accompany the Plan packets. The tutorials: Planning to Build a Small Tug Hull, Scantlings, Lofting a Small Tug Hull, Construction of a Small Tug Hull, and the Addendum will answer most all of your questions and then some you didn't think to ask. Pricing and payment details are below.
Comments by the designer:
May be built in pre-lam (sheet) fiberglass, epoxy/plywood, steel, or aluminum. The fiberglass pre-lam can be cast on a flat moulding surface using regular FG cloth and resin. Concave and convex fillets for hull and superstructure joints are cast in simple moulds. All the fiberglass pre-lam necessary for construction can be made up in advance with one long weekend spent on making the moulds and dedicated evenings thereafter for 6 or 8 weeks. For pre-lam GRP sheet or epoxy/plywood construction I recommend Gougeon Bros. epoxies and other components of the West System and their PRO-SET line of laminating resins rather than polyester type resins. This also allows you to use inexpensive styrofoam billets for making up cores and filler shapes. More detail on the technique which we developed for this hull is included in the tutorial. For commercial work aluminum is recommended, with steel as the first choice for heavy commercial use.
This is a single chine hull (flat bottom) with a full keel. I designed this hull to be beachable with partial bilge keels acting as stabilizers when beached. (What I'm saying is she has three distinct keels, one long and two short.) This increases wetted surface but on a low speed tug hull this is a no-brainer compromise. The bilge keels also allow the tug to be stored or hauled for painting without the need for a cradle; just a few keel blocks are required. Serendipity struck when I discovered that the specific design of the bilge keels gave the tug much more maneuverability than expected (Duh!). In fact, she will back "figure eights" in less than 3 boat lengths easily. This handling makes her an ideal workboat for tight quarters like marinas, mooring placement with the deck crane, construction, and general small waterway work. Note that the bilge keels do add some extra complexity to the construction and are optional.
Power requirements are economical and range from 55 to 160 SHP; for gunkholing and pleasure use a small diesel of 30 Hp is entirely adequate. Generally, higher hp engine installations are appropriate only for hulls constructed of aluminum or steel. A compact diesel is recommended, with a maximum engine weight of around a 1000 lbs. with marine gear. There are two bulkheads and room for a porta-potty and sink, and for an overnighter you can unroll a sleeping bag/air mattress on each side of the engine. (OK at anchor but not while underway!)
In the version shown the forward compartment contains the fire pump for the monitor, which doubles as a heavy duty pump for de-watering vessels alongside, with appropriate 4" hoses. This pump is driven from the "nose" of the main engine, by a clutched shaft through seals in the bulkhead. The main engine also drives a 3 kw AC generator which augments the standard 12VDC system through an AC/DC breaker panel. The coffee maker (second only to the main engine(s) in importance on a tug) runs on 120 VAC as do the deck and flood lights. Everything but the coffee maker can be considered optional!
As for all my tug designs, I do not propose a specific interior plan or engine/gear combination, preferring to allow you to tailor it to your intended use. Each hull built from the Pelikan design becomes essentially a custom vessel. The tutorials and Addendum give a reasonable amount of guidance to help you with your selection.
If you are more interested in a live-aboard lifestyle, this tug teamed with a houseboat barge would be the ideal combination. The barge could be moored while you devote the tug to other duties, like going for supplies and fuel, moving North or South with the seasons. See my ATB design, PELAGIC , for an extreme example of this concept using a larger tug with twin screws.
Unsolicited comments from current Pelikan owner, Thomas Smith of Friendship, Maine:
"…We brought the tug up on its own bottom towing a 25’ sailboat and a small deck barge (loaded with several steel fixtures) to Friendship in the Fall of 1997. (Yes, it was more than 100 air miles and it was a "tandem tow".)
…I have a lot of experience with the boat in all sorts of sea and weather conditions from hot, calm summer days to snow squalls in late Fall. The tug and I have faced green water over the pilot house and not been able to see the horizon from the trough between two waves. In fact, I have never felt unsafe in the tug and have never had any water enter or flood the pilot house or engine room. In short, the tug can take much more sea than any human aboard! In calm weather it is a fantastic platform from which to watch birds or enjoy a quiet cove. I have also towed boats off the sandbar at the Annisquam River, moved small barges and floats, towed strings of club racing sailboats and moved power yachts with disabled engines. The tug may be small, but it has power and stability!"
Mr. Smith has a Volvo 105 Hp diesel in the tug (named F. Hopkinson Smith), which is of fiberglass construction, and is currently working on a cruising barge to use with the tug (more about the barge in future additions to this web site). He has offered to answer tug questions from prospective Pelikan owners (within reason, please be mindful he has other tasks). If you would like to communicate with him send an email to us and we will give you his email and postal address for your direct communication with him. We do not post that address information here so as to reduce his exposure to "junk mail" listing by web crawlers.
Pricing: Effective April 1, 2003.
Study Plan packet is $35.00 (US $) ppd in USA and Canada.
Lines and Offsets packet with tutorials is $175.00 (US $) ppd in USA and Canada.
Complete Set of both above packets, both of which are necessary to build the tug, is $185.00 (US $) ppd in USA and Canada. A $25.00 savings over individual prices!
Payment:
We accept only: checks drawn on a U.S. bank, U.S. or international postal money orders, Western Union money orders, or PayPal. Make checks and money orders payable to: Mal Low, PO Box 7147, Lanesville Station, Gloucester, MA 01930-5847 USA. If you wish to use PayPal email us a request for a PayPal invoice and one will be issued to you by PayPal for payment. In all cases we need your full name and mailing address for the Confidentiality Agreement. All payments to be in U.S. funds.
Confidentiality Agreement:
We will send you a standard Confidentiality Agreement for your signature and return prior to mailing the Lines and Offsets packet to you. This agreement limits the disclosure of the design details and allows the building of one vessel only from the set of plans.
Design and all rights reserved.
Copyright 2002, 2003 M. E. Low, Gloucester, MA USA