Page 1 of 1

It followed me home... can I keep it??

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 3:10 am
by TahoeSteam
My father and I visited an old friend, John York, yesterday and this followed us home... The "Ben My Cheree," a 30' steel Panatela with original Don Mentizer watertube boiler;

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

John's collection of calipers:

Image

Here she is under "Hicks" power at the 2015 Great Delta Steamboat Meet:

Image

Re: It followed me home... can I keep it??

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 5:19 pm
by Akitene
This is a lovely hull, for sure.

What about the engine?

Re: It followed me home... can I keep it??

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 8:29 pm
by TahoeSteam
Thank you.

Working on deciding the engine at the moment.. We have several options in hand such as a Bumaris compound, a Scripps compound, a Herreshoff (maybe?) single, and a very large French "Claparede" compound... Ideally I'd like to put another York compound in her as that's what she was originally powered with when John York built her.

Re: It followed me home... can I keep it??

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 9:46 pm
by barts
I remember riding in the front of this boat back in in the late 80s while she was still in steam.... we were on Clear Lake in a thunderstorm, and the waves were very short and steep as one might expect in a shallow lake. The route back to the dock had us heading directly into the waves, and the boat just cut through them ice-breaker style. The waves broke heavily on the foredeck, hitting the boiler behind us and raising clouds of steam; we used the throwable cushions to try and keep some of the green ones out of the boat.

- Bart

Re: It followed me home... can I keep it??

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 11:16 pm
by Bob Cleek
Wesley, it's just not fair! You and your dad have entirely too many steam toys.

She looks to be a really good boat. John York is up in Napa County, isn't he? Is he still building steam engines?

Re: It followed me home... can I keep it??

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:44 am
by TahoeSteam
Bart,

I don't remember that meet but have heard many a story about it. I guess my family as on the "indian" when Joe Butterman owned it. We took shelter in the slough that the Pickersgills used to live on.

Bob,

Haha This will be the last boat I think... Or at least until I build a warehouse...

The hull is VERY well built, by the Millerick Bro's in Sebastopol. The same shop that built the Tule Princess. She has at least 1 sister that I know of that was built by them and copied from her.

John still lives in St. Helena, though he sold his machine shop a few years ago and is retired now. He has a very well equipped shop at home (19" Le Blond, etc...). I don't know if he's doing much outside work anymore.

Re: It followed me home... can I keep it??

Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 5:37 pm
by PeteThePen1
What a lovely boat! And green too, the colour of my envy.

Hope you get her steaming soon.

Best wishes

Pete