Steam Thistle Cluaran

[RNoe]

That's a lovely bag for your rudder. Wayward belle has a removable rudder as well, and I never can find a good spot for it. I may have to steal your idea.

No theft required. A good idea, and go for it.
I am relieved to get this idea realized.
Now to go steaming...
RussN

[TahoeSteam]

Thank you

Indeed it is that time. Persistance just went steaming the other day with 12 folks onboard. At least half of them having their first exposure to steamboating.

[PeteThePen1]

Hi Russ

Glad to hear the good news about your wife and that there will be some possibility of steaming this coming year. Yes, the bag is just right and keeping loose but essential items from bouncing about in a towed boat is important. I ended up making brackets for the paddles, the boat hook and the emergency tiller on Frances Ann.

Good steaming everybody!

Regards

Pete

[RNoe]

Pete:
Nice solution to carrying the boat hook.
Ideas...
RussN

[RNoe]

Latest news:
After a year-long search I located a 2018(?) casting of a classic steam launch propeller, surprisingly just 1.5 hour drive from my home!
Pat Spurlock of Elliot Bay Steam Launch Company had it, along with the original pattern for casting.

Attached are pictures of the prop presently on the boat 15" x 20", and the new unfinished cast prop 16" x 24".
My winter project will be to finish the blades to match the well-machined taper and mounting surfaces.
The photo shows the prop on its layout board for winter work.

I expect an increase in boat performance with this new old-design prop.
We'll see.
RussN

[dampfspieler]

Hi Russ,

good news. The prop looks amazing. Wish you success.

Dietrich

[Lopez Mike]

I'm REALLY looking forward to hearing your performance tests. Right now I have an 18 x 24 with great big elephant ear blades. Enough blade area for a 100 hp gas engine I'm sure. I've heard of cutting down a prop like mine to look like your new one but am far too cowardly to just jump into it.

Mike

[RNoe]

Mike:
We'll all have to be patient for water tests. I don't expect those to happen until next spring at the earliest.

Just to potentially irritate you, I saw several other similar classic design cast props at Pat Spurlock's Portland, OR, shop.
Included was one slightly larger than mine. You might want to contact Pat to see what he has available.
I can visit there to check it out for you, if you cannot make such a jaunt.

heh heh...
RussN

[PeteThePen1]

Hi Russ

That looks a lovely prop and I do hope that it goes well in Cluaran.

For those of you on the East Coast, Beckmann's Boatshop used to have a similar slim bladed prop of 18"X28" Narrow blades for $878.75. I bought one in 2008 for Frances Ann but the price was a huge amount less than the current asking price. I am slightly confused as the old Beckmann site (https://www.steamboating.net/page2.html) shows the shop as being in North Kingstown, RI 02852. There is another Beckmann Boatshop website that comes up that seems to imply a New York address, but the Contact Us page throws up a map of London UK and the address of the London Eye ferris wheel. My suspicion is that the 'new site' is under construction and the builder has let it loose into the web well short of beng finished.

I think that John & I have done rather better than that with our Mono-tubes site (https://www.mono-tube.org.uk). There is a moderate amount of content there now and we are open to offers for material to add your opinions or to disagree with what we have proposed if anybody has time on their hands this winter. I am starting to write up the Steam Canoe project to which so many of you kindly contributed during the Covid lock down. I have a great deal of material on that now and need to sit and refine it as well as getting down to doing the drawings so it will be a while before you see signs of me building stuff. Gardening and working on the house are still gobbling up most free time. As Dietrich commented at some point, old houses have character, but they do have a habit of falling apart.

Regards

Pete

[RNoe]

Preparing for some propeller performance tests, I defined the need to know prop rpm and hull speed.
I can monitor hull speed with an app on my iPhone. Simple and easy.

Shaft rpm required some more thought, and here's what I came up with:
As discussed on this board, I considered using a bicycle speedo/computer, but did not like the complexity of using speed, reprogrammed to read as rpm.
So I designed a simple alternative, described below.

Attached are two pics of my latest steamboat accessory: A digital shaft/prop rpm indicator. (Pic #2)
It is made from an Amazon-available digital tach meter, the included hall-effect stainless steel sensor, a 9V battery, a waterproof toggle power switch, and a waterproof box to put it all in. Total material costs < $30 US dollars. The magnet is epoxied in a hole in the flywheel forward surface (pic #1), just proud of the flywheel surface. Making that hole was a challenge with the flywheel in the boat, and successful.

I made a brass bracket for the sensor, polished, cleaned and lacquer-coated to protect from corrosion. The gap sensor-to-magnet is about 2 mm, and adjustable. Cables are all zip-tied and secured. And it works quite well, especially at low rpms. I expect this engine to cruise at around 350 to 400 rpm. (?)

So now I can get some useful speed and rpm data when testing the old and new propeller performance. I still need to finish the new prop.
'Looking forward to some safe steamboating weather...
Russ