Swamped, in the nautical sense, just isn’t one of those situations any right-minded sailors would enjoy. But, if you’re skippering a Hot Tug, you might find yourself preferring the swamped mode.
The Hot Tug was created by the Supergoed design studio in Rotterdam owned by Frank de Bruijn. Essentially, it’s a floating hot tub with a stainless steel submersible woodstove. Fill it with 400 gallons of water. Fire up the stove. And in a few hours, you’ve got 100° F water to luxuriate in while you putt-putt along at three knots with a regular outboard or run silently with the optional, built-in electric motor.
The Hot Tug also makes a rather natty, little motorboat when dry, which cruises at a little more than five knots.
It met with great success when it was introduced at the Hiswa boat show in Amsterdam in September. With an LOA of approximately twelve feet and a seven and half foot beam, the stripped down version, boat and stove only, will run you about $15,000. The website (http://www.hottug.nl/) doesn’t seem to divulge shipping information, nor how it handles in a gale, but the boat builder does aspire to create a worldwide network of rental fleets.
One question: Where the heck do you store the life jackets?