Checkout Excursion trip

[wsmcycle]

Restoration saga of the 32' launch "Fearless". Last Saturday, the temperature was expected to be 85 degrees. OOOOEEEE get the big steam boat. My son Cy is my usual companion but he is engaged and that has curtailed his availability. At this point in the journey, I have a tiller and it is too far away for me to set and run the boiler.... So I took a friend to be the helmsman. He didn't know what to expect. Those are the best conscripts. I went back to the same ramp as the week before which was on lake Kerr in Oklahoma. Kerr is one of a series of lakes that used to be the Arkansas river. The lakes were created when they made the river navigable back in the sixties.
There was a gusty wind that made some chop. As usual, the problem was its blowing the (as yet) un-powered boat around. This is a common problem for me. I don't light up until I am on the water. launching is so hectic, I think I would expire if the pressure valve blew off. But when you launch without power the wind is in control much like an undisciplined 4 year old rules the family. My launch method is to give the boat a good push off the trailer and then pull her back to the dock with an attached rope. It usually works quite well. I have even done it without getting wet. That is how the launch went Saturday. Smashing success. With the boat tied to the dock, I lit the charcoal in the boiler with my propane burner and patiently waited until I had 60# of steam before having the helmsman (Mark) push us off.

I had a list of things I wanted to check on this trip.

Will the condenser system really resupply the boiler? I have always had to replenish the boiler on my Semple with manual labor or the injector.(usually the hand pump)

Will the cleaned out and "lapped valve" Penberthy work this time, or will I have to swap it out for the new one I have ready?
What pressure will I be able to maintain with this big new to me boiler? I hope for 100#.>
What rate of coal consumption will it take to maintain that pressure? I am projecting the amount of coal I will need for my dream trip along the Arkansas river to the Mississippi.
Mark and I travel a few miles along the shoreline toward a large port in an inlet off the main navigation channel.
As we have moved along a bit, I see the float on the hot well is giving way for the reintroduction of the condensate. And, it must be blowing into the boiler. UNBELIEVABLE ! This is amazing! . What shall l focus my worry on now? I need a new worry!
80#of pressure, replenishing boiler, Wow. I am amazed. This condenser thing is an awesome system.
We cruise along the lake about a hundred yards off the shore. Mark (he is sixty as well as I am) exclaims, "this is cool" I shudder, thinking, this is too easy. Mark spots a bald eagle fishing! Whoa. "WHAT A DAY".
After a few more miles, I remember the agenda. "How's that Penberthy doing"? I slide up to the operator's seat and crank open the supply valve, then, the steam valve , fingers crossed, ..... Dang, Water out the overflow! Still not working! I'll exchange the darn thing with the new one. All of the valves are closed, so I loosen the three coupling and remove the dissenter. With deft hands, I insert the new Penberthy and begin closing the couplings. But NO! If the steam supply is fit, the discharge coupling will not start. If the discharge fits, the steam supply will not start! UNBELIEVABLE! SAME EXACT VALVE BUT SOME IMPERCEPTIBLE DIFFERENCE. It's a throw down! I give up and replace the offender.
I am mad but rejoicing that the condenser pump is working and I don't need the **** injector.
The sun is quite bright and my helmsman is fair skinned. He refused to take off his long sleeved shirt. Good thing! He is also wearing a ball cap. We decide to go toward the dam. Boat is running well and I recall Mike Lopez's saying "some days,it will all turn out right". This is great!
Then trouble, not sudden but the engine is slowing and the pressure is still forty. Another quarter mile and the engine won't run. I am dead in the water and I don't know why. Low pressure? No, still 40. I shut the supply valve and wait for steam to build. Sixty# now and I am anxious.... Won't start! The wind is blowing us toward shore. I am thinking fast. What the hey? What is up. Now the boat is bumping (not banging) the rocks on the bank and I am helpless to do something. I try to restart, but to no avail. The prop is against a rock. "How could it go this bad after such good success earlier"? I jump out of the boat into the cold water. The helmsman is freaking! "Don't leave me! " I steady myself, twist the boat around, push it out and climb in like a whale as it passes. Saints be praised! Try the engine, we have sixty #s. Won't start. How could this be? Think Wendell think! Ahhh! The LP is hydraulically locked! I open both of the purge valves simultaneously while in neutral. Then I slip into reverse. Bam, the engine takes off. Yippee. I am a genius I say to myself.
Chuga Chuga chug. We are moving but the pressure is only 40. I look in the fire box. Looks great but could be bigger. I hate adding coal when nearing the termination so I throw in some charcoal I had brought for backup.
I see the dock and the ramp. Now for the last miracle. Getting this behemoth onto the trailer. The wind is pretty strong as I head for the dock. Mark is doing great (ignorance is bliss). I cut the power and we glide toward the dock but the wind causes us to overshoot it.
Gawkers can be wonderful and we had a dock full of them. A man offered to catch the thrown rope and he pulled us in. Hallelujah! Fine, terminus.
Mark went up the hill to get the truck so he could back the trailer in. I told him the keys were in the bed behind the drivers side under some leaves. I was blowing out the steam and pitching out the remaining hot coal. I looked up and saw him searching in the cab behind the driver’s seat. I yelled to an in between bystander , "tell him the keys are in the BED". He heard and found them quite readily. He backed the truck and trailer down the ramp (quite well). While all of this was going on, an old man pulled up to the dock in his boat between me and the ramp. He said "is this All right?" Was I going to tell this old guy to push back? I said "sure"! Mark had the trailer in the water by now and I threw the rope over the old man's boat to the ramp where Mark was waiting. I scurried/slipped down the slick ramp to retrieve the rope so I could get Fearless pulled over to the trailer but alas the wind had blown her bow around the corner of the dock and I could not pull her back around. Mark got out of the truck and pushed the languishing boat clear of the dock and I began to slowly pull her over to the trailer. The wind was perpendicular to the trailer and though I was able to pull her over, she was not going to glide into her appointed resting place because she was perpendicular to it. I slipped out to the end of the trailer and tossed Mark the rope. He pulled while I twisted the hull parallel to the trailer. It is very difficult to twist a 32 foot boat with only five feet of leverage. WHEW! At last I was was able to pull her on to the submerged trailer and secure her. To submerge the trailer deep enough to float the boat into place (she will not be dragged one inch, 7000 lbs.), the trucks rear wheels have to be five or six feet into the water down the slick ramp. So the next hurdle is be able to get enough traction to pull the boat and trailer up the ramp to the parking lot. This requires some finesse. It’s like driving in snow, you slowly but steadily accelerate. I figured I had better drive because I knew I would be mad if he started spinning the tires. I went to the driver door and he was going to put it in park but the emergency brake wouldn’t hold. He gave it some gas to pull up a little. The boat started to move. I yelled “just stick with it! Keep going” which he did and stopped up in the parking lot where the gawkers swarmed “fearless” armed with cell phone cameras. People are enthralled by the big boat even though half of them don’t know what it is. I am proud and it shows but my pride is actually exceeded by my thrill for the men to get a look at a 101 year old Navy steam engine. Wonderful, Mechanical, Massive!

[Lopez Mike]

Great report! More of us should post things like this. To go by the accounts most of us write, nothing really goes wrong or right. Boring.

By the way, my name is Mike Colyar. I just live on an island named Lopez. Drunken Scots Irish ancestry rather than Hispanic.