For those of you thinking about conversions of commercial tugs, there was an interesting article that will give you a sense of the task in the August 2001 issue of PassageMaker. There were some excellent pictures and some commentary on "Island Ranger" a 70 foot tug converted to pleasure use by a very experienced owner. The boat is a former Army harbor tug built in 1954. While the result is a boat to die for, and remembering that the owner/converter had skills well beyond us mere mortals (he had previously converted a 110 foot tug), perhaps the following quote should serve as a warning, "It was an enormous job." Island Ranger is a spectacular final result. Also, in the Fall 1999 issue of PassageMaker was an article on "Tussler" an Army Light Harbor Tug built in 1944 and 65 feet in length. At the time of the article, the owners were Keith and Shirley Christianson. The boat was in California and the Christianson's did a major amount of renovation work on it. For a while Keith was a participant on the TWL but I haven't seen a posting by him in some time. The two articles taken together give a really good sense of the effort and dedication involved is such projects and should be required reading for anyone seriously considering such an undertaking.