"At the regatta, someone mentioned aiming the digital camera on the camera boat with a video camera monitor. I was at RadioShack.com (buford hwy & 285) and saw that they had their $250 setup on sale for $125. It included a black & white camera with IR LEDs to see in the dark, a 5" monitor with AV outlets to hook up to another tv or vcr, bracket, & ac power supplies. I asked the salesman to walk to the rear of the store (150') with the camera while I watched the monitor and the picture remained clear. If you were thinking of having a pilot's eye view from a boat, it did work. Color would be better but too expensive as it is just a toy. We did use it to discover which of the neighbor's cats was eating our cat's food in the garage the other night.

I mounted the camera on the camera-boat.  It was interesting on the boat. Little hard to see the black & white monitor due to glare. Photo attached."

Kevin sent me pictures of his much modified tugboat jr.  He writes:

THE VAC-U-TUG EXTREME

This is what I sent Phil at Vac-U-Tug so I am forwarding some of it to you along with a pic. He will be getting a bunch of photos shortly to put on his web site.

I added some extra detail to my tug. I have a side business doing vinyl graphics and typesetting. So I ended up re-creating a whole new graphics sheet off of the one you sent in the kit. I did this because I felt the doors were to thick and I wanted to add some extra stuff. I didn't use a lot of the stuff I even cut. If you had a pic of the boat stand you would see I even created the logo out of vinyl so I could have a decal placed on the stand. This way I could cut decals black, silver and any other color I needed. Now as for the boat, I added extra stuff (real windows, brass portholes, a brass railing, life preservers, deck cleats, my own vinyl graphics, door frames, silver window frames with even plastic windows). I even cut out a hatch in the back and cemented square tubing under it where I tapped it and ran screws in it to hold it in place. This way I have a lot better access to the drive train. As you can see I used the antenna to hold the hatch in place instead of velcro. I named the boat "Little Noah" (you can't see it in the photo) after my wife's friends little baby son who fought for life when he was born. He ended up not being able to hang on to his life. So.....because he tugged and tugged to keep alive, I ended up naming the boat after him. I have to say that this was one of the best kits I ever built. Phil really put his heart into the workmanship of this little tug. I was so impressed with the instruction manual. Every detail was covered (even knowing I changed a few things) in every way. When I placed it in the water I couldn't believe how well it performed and looked. My buddies made comments like "I have to get me one of these" and just loved the way it came out. When I can afford to buy my six year old son one, I am going to suprise him with one of his own. He would just love it!

Kevin de Rose
Palmdale, CA
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