Building Spiffy
Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 2:37 pm
A bit of background on this project:
A few years ago my partner, Barbara, was scanning the local listings on Craig's List and called out to me that there was a steam boat listed. We have several friends with steam launches here in the San Juan Islands. I have an incomplete locomotive. I've been doing machine work for other steamers for years and years and we are avid boaters, sailing and paddling.
We went to see the boat in its lair, a self storage unit. The moment the seller rolled it out I said, "This is folly." The name stuck. The boiler and engine were brand new but the hull and trailer were a catastrophe. It was essentially the right hydrodynamic shape for a 24 foot steam launch but the materials and workmanship were as bad as it can be and still hold out the water. And it did so for several years as Barbara made him a very low ball offer and he took it. Not to be coy we bought a new Strath Steam Warrego 3 x 4 engine and a Beckmann Boatworks VFT-30 boiler for less than $5000 u.s.d. About one third of the retail cost of the components at that time.
The boat was not operable for various reasons. The steering didn't turn the rudder. The engine driven feedwater pump cannot ever have worked. And on and on. But I worked hard for a bit. Bart gave me a nice pump. Soon I was in operation. The only drawback being the paper bag over my head whenever I met a boater who knew anything about boats. "I didn't build it."
Several years passed as I used the boat to haul many, many naive passengers and have great time. But my dissatisfaction continued to fester. And then the bomb dropped. Steve Weaver started his blog about Iona. I looked at the design, decided that I liked the shape if not the methods of construction and bought a set of plans. I an in awe of the work that Steve has been doing on Iona but I lack the the moral fiber to go down that path.
In following post I'll explain the construction process a bit and post a few wretched pictures. A photographer I am not.
As a first step though, if anyone is not familiar with Stitch and Glue construction, it would be best to have a quick look at this Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stitch_and_glue
Mike
A few years ago my partner, Barbara, was scanning the local listings on Craig's List and called out to me that there was a steam boat listed. We have several friends with steam launches here in the San Juan Islands. I have an incomplete locomotive. I've been doing machine work for other steamers for years and years and we are avid boaters, sailing and paddling.
We went to see the boat in its lair, a self storage unit. The moment the seller rolled it out I said, "This is folly." The name stuck. The boiler and engine were brand new but the hull and trailer were a catastrophe. It was essentially the right hydrodynamic shape for a 24 foot steam launch but the materials and workmanship were as bad as it can be and still hold out the water. And it did so for several years as Barbara made him a very low ball offer and he took it. Not to be coy we bought a new Strath Steam Warrego 3 x 4 engine and a Beckmann Boatworks VFT-30 boiler for less than $5000 u.s.d. About one third of the retail cost of the components at that time.
The boat was not operable for various reasons. The steering didn't turn the rudder. The engine driven feedwater pump cannot ever have worked. And on and on. But I worked hard for a bit. Bart gave me a nice pump. Soon I was in operation. The only drawback being the paper bag over my head whenever I met a boater who knew anything about boats. "I didn't build it."
Several years passed as I used the boat to haul many, many naive passengers and have great time. But my dissatisfaction continued to fester. And then the bomb dropped. Steve Weaver started his blog about Iona. I looked at the design, decided that I liked the shape if not the methods of construction and bought a set of plans. I an in awe of the work that Steve has been doing on Iona but I lack the the moral fiber to go down that path.
In following post I'll explain the construction process a bit and post a few wretched pictures. A photographer I am not.
As a first step though, if anyone is not familiar with Stitch and Glue construction, it would be best to have a quick look at this Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stitch_and_glue
Mike