American Tug Range Guide, Centered on the Flagship 435

What people mean by an American Tug

Search for american tug and you will find a family of boats rather than a single model. American Tug was founded in 1999 by Kurt Dilworth, Tom Nelson and Mike Schoppert, three managers who left Nordic Tugs, with the Seattle designer Lynn Senour as their partner. Their company, Tomco Marine Group, set up in La Conner, Washington, and launched the first American Tug 34 in 2000. By the time the Kadey-Krogen Group bought it in May 2023, the yard had built about 250 boats and was offering five models from 36 to 48 feet.

Every American Tug follows the same recipe: a semi-displacement hull with hard chines, some rocker from bow to stern and a full keel, one diesel engine, systems that a handy owner can maintain, and no exterior wood. Dilworth told PassageMaker the boats commonly burn about 3.5 gph across the whole range at 7.5 to 8 knots, with 15 to 16 knots available when weather or schedules demand it. This guide uses the 435, the long-running flagship, as its reference boat and explains where the others fit.

The range model by model

Model names are confusing because American Tug renamed boats by overall length. Here is how the range fits together, using builder and magazine figures.

• 34 / 365: the original 2000 boat on Senour's Alaska fishboat hull, 36 ft 6 in overall, 13 ft 3 in beam, one stateroom, single 330 to 380 hp Cummins, 400 gal fuel
• 362: introduced 2020 on the same hull and deck with two staterooms, a 320 hp Volvo D4 and 230 gal fuel
• 395: 41 ft 6 in overall on the same 13 ft 3 in beam, 25,000 lb, Cummins 380, 400 gal fuel, two staterooms and one head; Dilworth calls it a Swiss Army knife, and a 500 hp option is reported to cruise near 20 knots
• 41 / 435: Senour's stretch of the 34 concept, launched 2004 and later called the 435 (a 41-footer by molded length), 43 ft 7 in overall, 15 ft 10 in beam, two staterooms and two heads
• 485: about 45 ft on deck, not a Senour design but built on the same semi-displacement principles
• 49 Limited Edition: two prototypes on a 15 ft 10 in beam, Volvo D9 575 hp and 800 gal fuel, $929,000 base in 2009

The 435, a couple's cruiser with room for guests

The builder lists the 435 at 43 feet 7 inches overall with a 15-foot 10-inch beam, a 4-foot 10-inch draft and 29,200 pounds dry, carrying 640 gallons of fuel, 200 gallons of water and 60 gallons each of gray and black water. Power is a single Cummins rated at 550 hp. BoatTest reports a range of about 1,070 nautical miles at 8.4 knots, and the original 2004 plan for the 41 was 1,000 miles at 10 knots, a 14-knot cruise and an 18-knot top end.

The interior uses a full-beam master with an en suite head and a guest cabin with a Pullman queen, an optional upper bunk and its own head, so the boat sleeps up to seven with the salon settee. The salon has a large U-shaped galley, an L-shaped settee and room for a loose chair, and the pilothouse has helm and companion seating with doors to both sides. Standard equipment was chosen for two people handling the boat: variable-speed bow and stern thrusters, a hydraulic crane on the upper deck, and a walk-through from the pilothouse to the boat deck instead of a vertical ladder.

Air draft matters to Loopers. The flybridge model is about 18 feet 3 inches with the arch down and up to 22 feet 8 inches with it up, while non-flybridge boats are about 19 feet 4 inches with a fixed mast; hinged masts were available. The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal requires 19 feet 6 inches.

How an American Tug runs

Power and Motoryacht's 2007 test of an early 41 with a 500 hp Volvo Penta D9-500 recorded 20.4 mph, about 17.7 knots, wide open, sharp and flat turns from a 33 by 16.5-inch barn-door rudder, and enough stern visibility to see the swim platform from the helm. Docking against an ebb with boats in the way was easy with bow and stern thrusters and a five-blade prop. The tester also liked saddle-style welded aluminum fuel tanks that feed from the bottom through duplex Racors, analog breakers that any chandlery can replace, and a Plexus-bonded stringer grid.

Owners use the speed range rather than living at the top of it. A Seattle owner who bought a 2008 American Tug 41 in 2020 cruised about 22,000 miles in three years, including Alaska, Mexico, Central America, an 800-mile open-water passage from Panama at 7.5 to 8 knots, the Caribbean and the Great Loop. His main lesson was single-engine preparation: he replaced cracked injectors, then every injector, and carried spares for everything he could fix himself.

A small yard through booms and busts

American Tug has always been small. Its record year was 2007, with 23 boats and 60 to 70 employees, before the recession cut it to six employees and one boat in the shop in 2008 and 2009. It survived, rode the pandemic boom, finished seven boats in 2023 and planned ten for 2024 with about 33 staff. Dilworth stressed that every hull got some customization and that he did the final quality check himself. By 2025 the company had switched from dealers to builder-direct sales through Kadey-Krogen's offices, and its site listed models from 36 to 43 feet.

Then the parent ran into trouble. In July 2026 Kadey-Krogen was reported to be filing for Chapter 7, Power and Motoryacht described the company as out of production, and the American Tug website now shows only an archived or suspended notice. We could not confirm what has happened at La Conner, so treat new builds, warranty claims and factory parts as unavailable until proven otherwise.

Buying a used American Tug

The good news for american tugs for sale is that the boats were designed for owner maintenance. Cummins and Volvo Penta diesels, Northern Lights generators, Side-Power thrusters and standard electronics all have national dealer support. Annual costs for a 435 run $30,000 to $55,000 for insurance, a 45 to 50-foot slip, haul-out, engine and generator service and fuel at trawler speeds.

Because every boat was customized, compare equipment lists line by line. Air conditioning versus diesel heat, a stabilizer or gyro retrofit, watermaker, generator size, flybridge versus non-flybridge and davit or crane spec can be worth more than a model year. Dark hulls, which many owners chose, need careful checks for oxidation and repaired gelcoat.