If you look up "Mudlark" owned by the late David Harding you will see that he used a fairly large single cylinder engine mounted starboard driving, via a 3" toothed belt, the central prop shaft. He never had to change the belt over many years, thousands of hours, use. Having spent lots of hours boat...

Because Tenacity's prop is only 14" diam, the vessel is fitted with a 2:1 speed increaser which utilises a 1 1/2"" wide toothed belt off the rear of the Leak compound. When the prop has hit rock or picks up a spring mattress (the canals are used a a rubbish tip by some people) I'm very glad to say t...

Unfortunately I have to report the following re-occurrence, the first being that mentioned above. The 2009 incident resulted in Roger Mallinson transferring to the Shamrock Trust. During the night of 5/6 December heavy rainfall resulted in Windermere rising to 2.82 meters over the gauge datum. Shamr...

And a Happy New Year to you all, Good Steaming everyone.

JohnG

I seem to recall the late Robin Wallace Sims producing a unit that worked quite well, the difficulty being the attachment of the piston position sensor which varied so much, engine to engine, it had to be workshop modified for each situation. His software was written for a somewhat elderly portable ...

The video shows techniques not much difference to the way inlet guide vans were fine pitched on aero engines in the late 1960s. When I approached a UK propeller maker to re-pitch a prop for me he said that with a bronze prop, an extra 2" of pitch per foot of diameter was about the limit. Any decent ...

http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/178 60 minutes of silent documentary on herring fishing. Not quite river cruising and they should have given the fire some top air. Door is quite high unless they can only show a wing furnace. Rather sad in that of all the ships involved, only Lydia Eva remains. John G

Play it safe, use two separate supplies to the feed systems because a leak or problem in one will effect both if fed from a single 'sea cock'. Neither pumps nor injectors work if the feed is blocked or is leaking air. Also put sea cocks on all holes in the hull, including wastes from sinks and the l...

to continue Pete's theme, the steam launch "Shamrock" on Windermere is almost silent, no engine noise and all that can be heard is the quiet hiss of steam up the funnel and the sound of the water passing the hull. The use of a silencer in the engine exhaust does help and the feedwater is by injector...

Firstly you cannot have condensate at a temperature below that of the cooling water. With a cold lake or sea and if the condenser is of the correct size and the vacuum pump working properly then a high vacuum can be obtained which means there is more work to be got from the low pressure cylinder. Re...