A Tug That Works It
The Tugzilla 26 is one part commercial boat, one part trailerable cruiser
Author:
Jan 8, 2021
Sam Devlin built the TugZilla 26 for cruising, but also put it into service for towing and salvage work.
Neil Rabinowitz
Many boat owners have a healthy obsession with commercial craft and fantasize about the possibility of owning one at some point. Sam Devlin, on the other hand, designed and built his own personal working tug.
Devlin is principal at Devlin Designing Boatbuilders in Olympia, Washington, a leader in the stitch-and-glue method of boat fabrication. He had dreamed of owning a boat like this one for decades. His fascination with commercial craft flourished when he was an undergraduate working on tugs in Alaska during the summers. That exposure, he says, triggered “a wellspring of design inspiration.”