On 8 Feb 2006 09:43:06 -0800, wrote:


Harry Krause wrote:
wrote:
Harry Krause wrote:
wrote:
I just heard from a local company that they took orders for 12 of their
new 26-foot trailerable tugs at the recent Seattle Boat Show........and
that was without a finished boat on display!
(They had a hull and liner to show)

It was just about 25 years ago that a little company called Nordic Tug
introduced a 26-foot tug at the Seattle show. Nordic did a little
better, taking orders for some huge number of boats (that I will say
was in the 30's without going to the bother of checking my notes for
the exact figure).

Interesting to see how well this concept has endured, and how receptive
the public is to a small boat with some "appeal".

The new boat is built by a partnership formed between Ranger Tug
Company and C-Dory Marine. The Ranger Tug has been around for a while,
(built by the Livingston fammily) but has been essentially an open boat
with no superstructure aft of an enclosed pilothouse. The new boat
expands that original concept by extending the cabin well aft to create
a boat with enough cabin that people can get out of the rain or direct
sun.


At the risk of being tagged for SPAM, additional information on this
new boat is available at
www.c-ranger.com (no link, to pacify the anti spammers). Once on the
site, all the specs and a conceptual drawing can be viewed by clicking
on R 25 at the top of the page.

Cute boat, stupid name. It should be called Lil' Toot


Oh no! The "C" word. The guys over at Nordic cringe almost everytime
somebody uses that word. As Jim Cress of Nordic Tug once commented,
"When we built 26-foot boats, OK, they might have been 'cute'. We go
cruising in our 50-footer and it's just unbelievable how many people
will come runing up to us at the dock to let us know just how 'cute'
they think it is".

I guess the women don't mind having a "cute" boat, and we all know that
when a couple goes out shopping HE wears the pants in the family, but
SHE carries the checkbook in her purse.



And "she" is more likely to approve a "cute little boat" with nice
creature comforts. It really is a nice, "cute" boat. You think those
speeds are do-able with that bitty engine?

I'm optimistic the speeds will be acheivable. This is a lightweight
boat without a lot of draft.
I know a lot of the people behind this project, and they're not going
to run out a lot of numbers in which they don't have some confidence. I
assume, but don't know, that they have had the hull and liner out for
some speed trials, suitably weighted down to simulate a completed boat
of course. They also can make some fairly informed calculations based
on the historic performance of the 21-footer.

From a "big picture" perspective, I'm excited about this boat and what
a boat like this can mean to future prospects for boating. We don't
have the fish we had even 15-20 years ago, and we will probably have
fewer fish yet 15-20 years from now. The number of boats being sold
primarily for fishing will surely decline. How many people will spend
$100k for a 26-foot boat that can only be used (for fishing) maybe a
couple of weekends a year?

At least here in the Pac NW, there's a lot of enjoyable boating to do
that doesn't involve fishing. (I didn't wet a line all last year....).
Relatively affordable boats where a couple or even a small family can
take off for a weekend or longer allow people to enjoy our scores of
marine state parks, visit funky little waterfront towns, and just kick
back and enjoy some of the finest scenery in the world......(on the two
days per year when it isn't foggy, overcast, cold, dark, damp, dismal,
etc)... are important to the continued vitality of the pastime.

Speaking of which, I didn't notice many rod holders!
--
'Til next time,

John H

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