HOWB 016 – Tug Buse, Wooden boat builder, Long distance sailor, Historian - Interview - 01.05.12

Michael “Tug” Buse grew up on the water. In fact, looking west from his parents’ Warm Beach (WA) home dining room, all you see is Port Susan bay and Camano Island in the distance. Beginning at the tender age of 10 months, Tug was getting sea legs on his parents’ wooden tugboat, the “Maggie B” while cruising around Puget Sound.

Buse always wanted to build a little sister for Maggie B. He wanted a boat that was his very own but closely related to his parents’ tug. Tug purchased plans for a ’14 sailing pram from the same renowned Seattle naval architect that designed the Maggie B – William Garden. The pram was designed to be easy to sail, stable, and rock solid on the water. He took Garden’s plans and built “Adventure” during five summers, finishing her in 2008 after a total of about 2,500 hours. She is a striking boat with a stout 6ʹ beam, cedar strip planking, a small cuddy cabin, and sitka spruce spars.

When Tug moved to Sioux City, Iowa to be a college professor at Morningside College in 2007, he felt landlocked. After doing a little research he discovered that the Missouri river system in his back yard was connected with other rivers to the south and eventually emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. Next, he discovered the intercoastal waterway, a mostly protected 3,000 mile long waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that could take him east along the gulf, then as far north as Maine to his alma mater, Bowdoin College. It was then he began planning his extraordinary journey.

The rest “is history”, as they say.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share you comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.