birdo

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.

Hydro Junkie

Not sure if you said anything about where you are going to order your running gear from or not but I would recommend contacting Mack Products. They usually have all the parts and fittings you will need and it's much better quality than what Dumas has/had. In fact, they have a parts kit just for the Shelley Foss:
working pg 2 - n (mackproductsrc.com)

birdo

Got the last Stringer CA glued in yesterday. Going to go back and epoxy all of the joints, now that the entire hull is Built up. After that it's sanding edges for panel fitment.

birdo

Got the first Panel glued down!

birdo

Soaked each panel in water to make it more flexible. Clamped them in place then let air dry to form. Started gluing from the keel first, making sure to get a solid edge started.

birdo

More progress. Should have the sides all done by tomorrow night.


Third Panel

Fourth Panel

Fifth Panel

John Dunsworth's Birthday was today. He was a huge proponent of getting a hobby and working at it everyday. RIP Mr. Lahey

birdo

Other Progress:

1. Ordered my Brushless Motors, ESCs, Running hardware(props, stuff tube, etc), and a 10 Channel Radio today!

2. Received my Raspberry Pi 3B+ last week. Got it up and running with Raspbian LiteOS(no GUI). Found Mp3 sounds for Turbo diesels and sirens. Plan to tap into Servo controls and play sounds accordingly(throttle, siren)

3. Ordered Water Cannon Nozzles - Bulls Eye Power Nozzles x2

4. Received a 330GPH Transfer pump with garden hose hookups. I now have three different pumps to try out(Bilge, Diaphram, and Transfer). I will report back with my tests this weekend. My plan is to test the nozzles with each pump type.

birdo

Got the sides all glued up. The next step is gluing on the Top! I'm planning to put two layers of fiberglass over the hull, after I have filled the seams with epoxy and west marine 404 filler.

birdo

More progress today. I can't glue the top on until I epoxy the inside chines to the panels and settle on a pump. At this point the hardest parts have been done. Fiberglass, paint, drive train, electronics, and final touches are FUN.

I found some mini brass cleats, and a bronze water strainer pickup for the water cannon pump(s).


Cut pieces to fill in the stern area flat.

I'm opening up the front, so I can pipe water to my water canon.

That's better!

Going to open up the front most chamber for water cannon shenanigans.

birdo

Spent a few days trying to figure out my water cannons. They will be LEAD FREE brass hardware except for the flexible hose, so the turret can turn left and right. I plan to put a 3/4" PVC pipe around the 1/2" Brass pipe to create a pivot. I will then Epoxy/Fiberglass another pivot to the PVC, so the turret can pivot up and down. I'm waiting on a Brass flange, which will mount to the front deck and pass through the water from top side to bilge. I have been reinforcing the entire bow area with fiberglass, wood, and epoxy. The front deck is getting 1/4" Birch plywood to reinforce the cannon area.