Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410170022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
The blue and white craft is a tugboat built and used by Precision Docks, a 4-year-old outfit that does construction work from the water, including building docks, boat houses and seawalls.
Ward Angle and Bo Bandy, who operate Precision Docks, bought the tugboat motor from a Florida dealer early in 1993. They started welding together parts of their craft around the end of the year.
``We designed it around the motor,'' said Bandy, who studied aerospace and civil engineering at Virginia Tech. ``I had to pull out all my calculus books from Tech to figure how to make it float right.''
The deck of the tug is 8 feet wide and 25 feet long, just small enough to still be truckable. It can be taken to other bodies of water for work elsewhere. Its tower rises some 14 feet above the deck, so the driver can see over high loads such as piles of debris being removed from the lake after a flood.
Angle and Bandy had been moving their 30-ton barge - which they also built - with regular boats, and ruined four of them.
``In three months, we'll wear out a decent boat,'' Angle said. ``It's like setting your boat up against a brick wall and just leaving it in gear.''
They knew they needed a tug, but could not afford the $50,000 price tag. So they decided to build one themselves, for $30,000 to $35,000 not counting labor.
``We took a little more time,'' Angle said. ``We had to learn and teach ourselves hydraulics and welding and design.''
He and Bandy said one of their best resources was Howard Barrett, skipper of the Pioneer Maid cruise boat on Claytor Lake. Barrett had books and materials from his own nautical background that he lent the builders.
The motor came from a U.S. Navy landing craft, one of many mothballed after World War II. The Florida dealer bought about 20 of them and resold their engines.
When veterans of the war who did some of those landings learn about the engine, Angle said, ``you sort of see a gleam in their eye. ... You hear a lot of war stories when you tell 'em what engine it's got in this thing.''
The engine alone weighs 3,800 pounds, and the boat about 9 tons. It was built at the Precision Docks yards just off Interstate 81 at the Claytor Lake exit, and taken by truck to the lake. Its pilot tower was built on hinges so it could be lowered when it went under a bridge.
``We put more engine in it than we'll ever need on this lake. That thing was designed to push 200-ton, 300-ton barges,'' Angle said. ``But it's the wildest thing on the lake.''
Their success in building has encouraged them to consider a sideline in building tugboats on contract, if they find a backer willing to invest up-front money in such an enterprise. ``We learned so much on this one, we've had a little bit of interest in fabricating a second and maybe a third,'' Angle said.
Precision Docks also does pile driving and boat hoisting, and will probably be bidding on jobs elsewhere besides Claytor Lake now that it has a tug it can haul to different sites.
There are a lot of construction businesses on land, Angle said, ``but when you hit that water, everybody stops.''
They also plan to build a dredger, which can be used to create a channel through built-up silt that keeps people in high-dollar homes on Claytor Lake from being able to bring their boats into the water. Later, they may build a skimmer like the one Appalachian Power Co. uses to help clear debris from the lake.
All that seems rather ambitious, Angle admits, but ``four years ago, we didn't think we'd build a 50,000-ton tugboat either.''
by CNB