Good Day Folks,
I recently purchased a Dumas Shelley Foss Tug Boat kit direct from Dumas's website. It took about two weeks to arrive in Wisconsin from their Arizona facility. My plan is to build this as a FIRE TUG, using modern electronics(brushless, lipo, Rasp Pi, etc). I'm going to go with the Kort Nozzles for authenticity. I live on the Mississippi River, with a beach and docks as my backyard. I have a float and slip at my backdoor.
I have wanted an FPV boat for some time now. I have FPV equipment from my Park Zone Radian Sailplane project, that I plan to install on this. My end is goal is being able to drive this from my living room, while the RC boat is out on the river. I have a three story deck, where I can mount antennas from and easily see the boat out on the River. I even have a permanent Outdoor PTZ Webcam I can track it with from my deck.
Since this is going to be a FIRE TUG, I have ordered a few different 12 volt Water Pressure pumps to experiment with. A full size Shelley Foss Fire Tug pumps 1000 GPM! This model is 1/30, so 1000/30 = 33.3GPM. For a 3 foot boat, that's almost impossible to hit. I have found 1.0 GPM 80psi pumps, that use 700 DC motors. They are small enough to possibly get FOUR of them in my hull. Fire Tugs usually have 4 Water Cannons. I plan to have TWO turrets, front and rear mounted, each having TWO cannons. The dream is to able to Soak boats that get too close, or innocent bystanders at the beach. These 1.0 GPM 80psi pumps can push water almost 20 feet. Four of them will be a real treat to watch work.
My progress since Tuesday Afternoon(moody blues commence).
Freshly opened box, wood!
Laying out the plans
Remembering how to trim and sand die-cut wood parts. A flat style razor blade made all the difference for getting clean notches.
Tuesday Night test fitting parts, time for bed.
Playing with Epoxy, got the Keels stuck together and the Sheers glued. Wednesday was spent trimming, test fitting, and doing more prep.
Went to town Thursday with the CA glue on the Keel and Sheers.
Got all of the Sheers and Keels glued!
Went to the town with the Stringers, but I should have stopped at this point....I made one small mistake. Time for bed, fix it tomorrow.