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Dickie Harbour Tug by Tony King |
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Talk about great minds think alike! re. "converting the " Dickie" tug to proper radio" I was thinking of building a tug for my sailing bark ( see - Tony King ) and having seen these tugs on E-bay I realised that it would be the perfect answer, all be it not a scale tug but near enough and just the right sort of size, but most of all the time spent on building which means that I can concentrate on sailing ! So I bid and got one for £48 which is not to bad( told the wife it was for the grandson for Christmas ). It duly arrived and grabbing the grandson kicking and screaming went to the local duck pond to try it out. That's when I started to get second thoughts about its suitability. Although it had a decent turn of speed I wasn't sure that it was enough to pull my sailing boat, it being around 35lbs dead weight, and especially under full sail!. Also as was said the radio was not proportional. The radio was no problem as I had a spare 5 channel Futaba tx and rx plus assorted servos. but it needed a decent motor and battery . I'm a carpenter and own three cordless drills, sds for masonry, 12 volt for screwdriving and a 12volt for pilot holes countersinking etc. I had been toying for sometime with the thought of upgrading my screwdriver to an 18 or 24 volt ---well----- " I had to get it for work dear !" After cramming all this plus a new 50mm prop ( which I had to turn a new prop shaft for ) and a speed control in to the tug I took my grandson kicking and screaming to the local duck pond. I opened up the throttle and the torque was so great that the prop almost spun the boat round and it went skipping across the pond like a pebble!!! Fortunately the radio has a max. adjustment., so after a few twiddles with the screwdriver I got it down to a usable speed and I can always turn it up when needed. So for around £65 ( plus a new drill ) I have a very powerful little tug. As a bonus I kept the working fire monitor and fitted cabin lights and a searchlight. (see pic ) Now I've got to get my head around some sort of towing mechanism, then somewhere to use both of them, does anyone know of a decent model lake in the Sutton, Croydon erea ?
Tony King. |
