Thank you for reminding me of something that should go on the list of things to do when buying a complete boat, and that would be "Insist on a hydro test in my presence, and preferably in the presence of an experienced steamboater as well."

Rainer, Thank you for the extra information. By chance, I was just looking at information about the State of Brandenburg, and in the tourism part they have a whole section about the waterways and all the things you can do in them. Perhaps you can someday have a larger annual meet there for people in...

Wow... there are a LOT of lakes in that region, and it looks like most of them are connected together. Are the links between the lakes canals that a boat can pass through?

There are at least two threads on Tinytech in this forum. The general drift of the comments made is that the engines are pretty "rough" and are primarily intended for stationary use such as small electric power plants or to power other kinds of machinery.

Seems like you might be able to use large sheets of newspaper as well as lunch bags. Spread out a sheet (or two if you need more strength), put the coal in the dead center, then pull up the sides and twist them closed. The paper MIGHT even help a little to ignite the coal. MANY moons ago my father h...

... For hot water, going to make about three wraps of the hot water line copper around the inner stack... You might want to include a pressure relief valve on the hot water line, exhausting over the side (remember the banging and hammering in the pipes from the hot water heater connected to the kit...

Emma is a beautiful boat. I have looked at your web pages about her, and if you ever said why you chose the name Emma, I missed it. Do you just like the name, or is there a real Emma you named her after?

Rappahannock/Tiny Power has valves and floats listed on their website:

http://www.tinypower.com/store.php?crn= ... =cat_click

It's a beauty! I really like the black color scheme... very striking!

There is another method of building a fire, and it's called "top firing." I have no idea how well if it would work in a boiler, though. In this method, you put the medium-sized pieces of wood in first, then put the kindling on top of them, and finally the newspaper on top of everything else. I once ...