Maiden voyage. Superstructure donated by another club member and hastily taped on for effect. Pusher blocks still to be added.

The superstructure has been nailed on properly and a certain amount of waterproof primer applied. I'm now using 65mm brass props which proved to be far more efficient (especially in reverse) than the 60mm plastic props used at the outset. My own rudder mixer has also been fitted which hugely improves manoeuvrability. For the video, one of my sound units has been temporarily installed, though it is not one the twin throttle option types so the engine sound responds to the port ESC only.

Demonstration of effectiveness of rudder mixer control of twin screws.

A short cruise around Setley Pond to try out my new ATC2K Action Cam.

The Pusher Tug brings Ray Hellicar's MTB75 back to shore after a loose wire brought it to an unscheduled stop.

The Pusher Tug gets up close to Ray Hellicar's Pacific Buccaneer.

A short trip aboard showing the activity at Setley Pond on a fine autumn morning.

An on-board camera view of the pusher tug trying, not very successfully, to follow Tony Crollie's 1898 vintage torpedo boat. As there is no live feedback from the camera, it was all about trying to point the tug in the general direction of the target - hence the terrible framing.

A fundamental problem suffered by all Springer Tugs is that if you exceed the quite modest optimum cruising speed the nose dips alarmingly and they try to emulate submarines. As an experiment I taped on some new bows using corrugated plastic card to see what improvement I could make. It's starting to look like a tank landing craft now, but pusher knees could still be mounted at the front edge.