Questions with a vehicle in T3d

Hello everyone, I modeled this towboat and I'am now looking into putting it into action so to speak. I've played with coding and know some about it, but I've just touched basis with it. Few questions I'd like to ask, First, when adding this in game, would it be easier to modify the t3d sample buggy's code to fit the boat, or, would it be better off just to start a fresh code? Second, would it be easier to treat this as a vehicle, or as an actor. But please be as simple as you can, as said, I'am very new to coding. My goal right now is just to get to where I can take control of the boat and drive it down my river and, make it so that when I hit land I can't just continue driving on land with it.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l213/Markithiess/towboat.jpg

and I apologize if I posted this in the incorrect board. Thanks in advance for anyhelp.