If you documented her with the USCG (if she qualifies,) and if they haven't changed their designations, it wouldn't be "inboard" or "outboard," but rather "oil screw" or "steam screw." I doubt there are many documented "steam screw" vessels around these days. The USCG documents changed years ago. Th...

The "rule of thumb" on prop diameter is apparently most often observed in the breach. A pontoon arrangement, as a catamaran arrangement, may well make for a much easier driven hull with less wetted surface. The prop diameter, blade area, and pitch affect the efficiency of the transmission of power f...

The catch-22 of steamer props! The wheel diameter is supposed to be 10% of the waterline length. That's a rather large prop by high-speed IC standards. A forty foot steamer would need a prop about four feet in diameter if the books are followed. The diameter can sometimes be lessened by the design o...

Have you considered welding up a framing structure and putting a "diamond plate" aluminum deck on top of that? Fast, efficient, and probably lighter than plywood without the rot and delamination issues. And... it will never need paint.

I'm no electrician, either, and certainly not in any way familiar with anything other than US electrical codes, but I do have 3-phase 440 VAC in my shop building and managed to split off 220 and 110 VAC circuits from it without killing myself. That said, and this is just a thought, your mileage may ...

Almost certainly spam. No self-respecting ship modeler would ever buy a kit from any of those manufacturers.... well, at least no self-respecting modeler would ever buy a second kit from any of them. They are simply frustration and madness in a box with an impossible-to-achieve picture on the front....

A lot of good boats "went under the chain saw" during the Recession. People ran out of money, they languished in the yards, half-restored, and were eventually broken up. Yard operators are a heartless lot. They have to be if they want to stay in business. About ten years ago or so, a friend of mine ...

Leviathan's story makes me want to cry. She was berthed right near me in San Rafael and Sweeney and his two then-grammar-school-aged sons would be down working on her every weekend. He told me she was the last surviving hull from Teddy Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet," a Navy launch off of one of the...

She was owned by a fellow named, if memory serves, Jim Sweeney, when she was berthed in San Rafael CA back in the 'seventies. (I'm not sure of the first name, but I'm sure of the "Sweeney" last name. Nice guy.) I heard she was sold and kept up the Delta until some years ago when she ended up on the ...

Whoa, Boy! Just when I start to think that I know a little bit about steam engines (thanks to lurking on this forum!) along comes a post like this one and I realize how little I know! Not discouraged yet, but certainly humbled. A greatly informative thread. Thanks much!