Bob, there's no one clear answer here. A number of us on the forum are tug and/or marine aficionados of some stripe or other. Some of us have the expertise to maintain and run them. The difficulty lies in a number of problematic issues.

Someone mentioned length. In the maritime world, especially on the East Coast, everything is factored in length over all. "Sure," says the marina operator, "What length is your boat?" 106' or 96' or whatever, you say. "Ooo, $$$," they say. Additionally, the "second cost" of owning a boat is quite high with an old tug, even with all your buddies working for free. Thirdly, there's very little living space as we are accustomed to define it on a tug. Pipe berths; maybe tiny individual quarters for the officers; a galley; a head or two. The rest is taken up by tank space and machinery.

Lastly, although few tugs - and probably none of these - is a "bell" boat, the USCG is going to want to see a master of XXX tonnage at the helm. Many of us have left our certs expire; re-certifying would be arduous, etc. You get the picture.

Boat prices overall also remain depressed since the recession. So let's say one is in negotiation with one's spouse about acquiring a boat. In competition with say, a 46' wooden-hulled Grand Banks, spouse is going to come down in favor of the Grand Banks ...