Where the idea came from / Background

The First image sketch that I drew in 1992.

When I was a kid, I used to like the TV animation program in which a tiny little tug boat was acting as a hero. This memory from my childhood, I think was a start of the whole thing.

After 30 years, being a marine illustrator, I had a chance to meet the 18-foot pleasure tug boat in New England, the East coast of the USA. It was during a trip for my magazine article called Tadami's Favorite Boat for Kazi Magazine, Japan.

This small tug boat inspired me so much, and made me start think about designing and building my own.
I made a story of the 18-foot tug, and in this article, I announced my intention to build my own small tug boat in the near future.
Since then, I had drawn hundreds of sketches and ideas on papers. I enjoyed this drawing process as I personally loved any vehicles that have own characters such as work-boats or big trucks. However, these sketches had been just sketches and never taken off from my drawing board for more than 10 years because of my lack of knowledge in engineering.

In 2006, I met one naval architect who liked my idea of a tiny tug boat, then, the project got going.
Normally, people think about a diesel inboard engine for a pleasure tug boat, but my choice was an outboard motor. The reasons are simple. I believe that power boats should be able to run fast, plus I like outboards' highly sophisticated features and performance, and images of fast running tug boat from the old time animation were still somewhere in my mind."