I purchased the plans for the 40 ft. wood tug "Daniel Wells" about a year ago, and have been gathering materials for the project since. I live in the Northwest where we have an abundance of Western Cedar & Doug Fir as well as Western Larch.
I guess I am one of the very few who purchased those plans as I have yet to find anyone else building this particular vessel.
Anyway, I am new to this site so if anyone knows of another builder working on this boat I would be happy to hear from them. She's a full loft project and is basically of the old school traditional build type. The boat was originally built by Railway Marine down in MS and it appears that 7 boats were in fact built commercially by that group. Some had a slight curve in the stern while at least one was built with a fully rounded version in true tug boat fasion. I will be building mine with the round stern.
I am not a professional boat builder, just a hobbiest who likes a good challenge. I had never lofted a set of plans until I lofted this one. After much reading and re-reading (Read Head Scratching) I was able to begin. I must tell you that the actual process of lofting is much easier than trying to explain it to someone.
I, too, was very surprised when I went to boatdesigns.com and found that Ken had bailed out. Good for him. I'll bet he's having the time of his life and I say "more power to him".