This deep-sea tugboat was
launched in 1955 principally in Scandinavian countries and officially removed from service in 2002: 45m length, 13m wide, twin diesel engines, eight sailors
on board. It was one of the best tugboats, very powerful and intended to be used
in very bad weather conditions, especially in the rescue of big ships such as container carriers.
Twenty copies were built, principally under registration of Smit Finland, Nederland, Rotterdam and Denmark. Two of them sank, one in 1975, in a rescue operation (overturned by a very big wave, towing a ship), another one in 1982 after crashing into a rock. No dead sailors.
Today, just 2 of these boats are still able to navigate, but without to do deep-sea missions, only coastal and port operations.
It has two powerful turbo-diesel engines / two propellers. Each of them could develop more than 2500 horses power, and drives a wide variable pitch propeller (3 m diameter) with four blades. Each propeller is inside a cylinder (see photo of the model hereafter), in order to optimize the thrust, and there are two big rudders with double angle of turning to improve the efficiency of the tugboat.
As this type of boat has big engines, a great part of the hull is under the water compared to the other ships. Then, due to a low center of gravity and large mass, the stability is excellent even in bad conditions, and the propellers stay under the water despite a big swell.
The emerged part is totally waterproof to stand up to sea spray.
In
the case of very bad weather conditions for rescue, such as very rough seas, several
of those tugboats (two to four) could take to the sea and tow the same
container carrier in order to improve the efficiency and the safety.
.JPG)
The model
The model is to a scale of 1/50 (95 cm length) entirely wooden (except the hull), with twin brass mechanical
and propellers, two powerful electrical motors, and all the lights. It was built
from 2007 to 2008, and has about 15 hour’s navigation.
We have chosen to build this tugboat (our second boat after the "Boulogne-Etaples") because we found it very beautiful and representative of the tuboat family.
See photos hereafter:
The inside compartment with batteries, two powerfull motors with
brass transmission (and joint couplings led by ball bearings), and
electronic to receive signal from remote controller, control the motors
and the lights. The structure is entirely wooden, except the hull in resin.
brass transmission (and joint couplings led by ball bearings), and
electronic to receive signal from remote controller, control the motors
and the lights. The structure is entirely wooden, except the hull in resin.
The four blades propellers inside its cylinders, and the rudders with
double angle of turning.
The model at the end of the contruction. All light are representaive
of the true boat.
of the true boat.
Navigation at Hyères (near Toulon), 2008
Navigation at Hyères, the evening with lights, 2009
Navigation at Lanvéoc (near Brest), at full power, 2013
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