When Tom Nelson stepped down as a principal of Nordic Tugs several years ago, he found that retirement was something he was not accustomed to. So in 2000, he got back to doing what he knows best. Tomco Marine Group – and its design line, American Tug, was born.
Nelson wanted to produce a pleasureboat based on the tough, rugged hulls used in the Alaska salmon fishery – one of the most brutal in the world. He looked for a hull used in those waters and settled on a 34-footer designed by the late Pacific Northwest marine designer Lynn Senour.
The mold was owned by LaConner Maritime Service, and LaConner’s owner, Ed Oczkewicz, had fitted a removable insert into the mold to pull out a 32-footer that conformed to Bristol Bay fishery regulations. Oczkewicz not only fished the boat himself but sold several to the industry.
A Rugged Tug for Fishing or Cruising
“These hulls are tough and well designed – Senour did a great job,” Oczkewicz said. I fished mine for six years and never missed a day because of weather. It would be howling 60 knots over the bar and we were still able to work. Oczkewicz says that, with a deck load, he could cram 24,000 pounds of salmon on board.
While American Tug does not tout its boats as fishing platforms, their deep cockpits, wide-opening transom doors and solid swim steps mean they would perform well in that role anyway, if its owner so desired. The heavy-duty rail provides a secure passage to the foredeck if the skipper or one of the crew hooks into a fish and has to play it from there.
Senour’s hull became the foundation for the American Tug 34, and it continues to be a best seller. The 41-footer came into being as a result of demand by 34-foot owners who wanted something bigger. Bigger when it comes to boats, is more than just longer, despite the fact we have become conditioned to consider longer and bigger as synonymous. Bigger is really a function of usable space, and that is determined by useful volume. Volume, of course, is a function of length, beam, (or cabin width) hull depth and headroom. In fact, the American Tug 41 is about 33 percent volumetrically bigger than a Nordic Tug 42 even though the Nordic is a foot longer overall.
On Deck
Although these boats are not custom built, American Tug gives buyers a number of no-cost options, and hull color is one of them. An American Tug rendezvous is much more colorful than most.
The cockpit is large, deep and secure. The cabin roof covers most of it, a blessing in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Alaska, where snow and rain are the norm. In warmer, sunnier climates, experienced boaters know the shade will be most welcome. The cockpit’s depth also makes this boat perfect for family boaters who have young children or elderly guests. A swim step, at just the right height and depth, makes getting on and off the boat, or loading supplies through the transom door, safe and easy. There are no boarding ladders or steps to deal with, no coamings to scramble over and no incline ramps to trudge up or down. Getting on or off an American Tug is no more difficult than walking along the dock.
There’s plenty of storage in the cockpit, and the lazarette has enough space to mount a generator or other ship’s systems. One owner put his trash compactor there rather than in the galley.
Lightweight, Strong and Safe
The hull is constructed of solid fiberglass with vinylester resins. An engineered fiberglass grid system reinforces the hull at the bulkhead and engine bed locations. The vessel’s upper works, including the deck, are one solid, cored, molded glass piece. The coring material is NidaCore and end-grain balsa, depending on the core location. It is also vacuum cured. These construction techniques reduce leaks and produce a relatively lightweight, strong, stiff boat that resists twisting and wracking. A hull, deck and upper works that resist twisting and wracking leads to a reduction in leaks around hatches, exterior doors and windows. Coring also helps reduce interior hull condensation.
Here’s an unusual, but smart feature about this boat: The funnel, obvious on the first view of the vessel, is a fake, in that it is not the uptake for the engine and other engine room machinery exhaust stacks. In fact it is far more useful than that. The stack is really part of the roof of the vessel and allows full headroom while walking up the four steps from the salon into the wheelhouse. This is a very creative solution to the problem of moving forward into a raised pilothouse from a salon. It also creates a wide-open transition from salon to wheelhouse. The effective use of lighting in the stack ceiling creates a bright, airy feeling. It’s a brilliant touch.
American Tug has recognized that good stairway lighting is a safety feature. It also recognized that traditional lighting, usually fixed into the stair risers, uses a lot of power and is either on all the time or off all the time. Ideally, stairway and companionway lighting should be on only when someone is in there, and the power drain should be as low as possible. American Tug has solved that problem with the use of LED-powered rope lighting tucked along the side edges of the stairwells, triggered by a motion sensor at the top and bottom of the stairs. Another brilliant touch.
The interior layout of the 41 is fairly typical of vessels of this type – salon, dining settee and galley aft, steps up to the wheelhouse, and down an elegantly curved companion way to two large forward staterooms. The guest stateroom is in the fo’c’sle, complete with head and shower. Down a few more steps, the master stateroom is amidships and also has it own head and shower.
Under Way
Moving away from the dock with our test vessel was no problem at all. It was equipped with both bow and stern thrusters. The thrusters were controlled by a remote control operated by the skipper. He had control of the vessel from on the dock or within the vessel. Thruster controls were also a part of the helm station and the cockpit control panel.
The vessel moved into the marina fairway and even at low idle directional control was good, without the spinning of the wheel from lock to lock that is usually a sign that the rudder is too small to control a vessel at lower speeds. The boat glides along showing barely a ripple at the stern – another good feature in crowded marinas.
As we moved out of the marina into the open water we found that 100 rpm gave a GPS reading of just a hair more than 6.5 knots, while getting 2.85 nautical miles per gallon of fuel burned. Range at that speed is about 1,650 miles, with a 10 percent reserve in the 640-gallon tank. At 1800 rpm speed increased to 9.95 knots and fuel consumption was 1.05 nautical miles per gallon. At 2600 rpm the boat planes comfortably at about 17 knots and gives a range of about 415 nautical miles, with a 10 percent reserve – more than adequate for coastal cruising.
The vessel handled well through the entire speed range and exhibited good stability even in a beam sea.
Overall, the American Tug 41 has kept all the good features of its sistership, the 34, and put it in a bigger package. The fit and finish is as good as any other boat in its class and, while recognizing that boats are always a compromise, this new American Tug offering has far fewer compromises than most.
This article first appeared in the September 2008 issue of SEA Magazine. All or parts of the information contained in this article might be outdated. |
