SL Otter finally moved to Lopez Island

[barts]

During the pandemic, we moved to Lopez Island, Washington - about 1000 miles north of our previous home base in Menlo Park, California. During the pandemic and since then, SL Otter has been hiding out under shelter next to our house in CA. This past Christmas we managed to drive our truck down to pick up Otter. First step in getting Otter ready to move was to evict the squirrels which had taken up residence under the floor boards. What a mess! A large trash can full of acorns, wood pieces, torn up ropes for nest materials, and of course droppings later, we managed to scrub the bilges with Murphy's oil soap and restore a more reasonable smell.

I had decided to renew the running gear on the the trailer, since it had been sitting for years and I was completely uninterested in tire/bearing trouble on the drive north. With new wheels & tires, bearings and hubs, and another good scrubbing on the outside of the boat, we headed north. The trip was without incident, thankfully, and the mild winter weather over the mountain passes made things simpler. An evening ferry ride later, we managed to reach our house, and this weekend I used our little Kubota to squeeze Otter under shelter before it rained again.

There is a bunch more work to do, of course, to get her ready for steaming... I'll post about those projects as they happen.

[RNoe]

Welcome home Otter!
And such a nice place to live, surrounded by other steam boaters too!
Your work cleaning up Otter was significant. Yuk!
Look so much better now.
RussN

[Lopez Mike]

We now have five steam boats on an island with a little over 3000 year round residents. 3156 people as of the 2020 census. Steam boats were not on the census questionaire! Unfair!

Mike

[barts]

We now have five steam boats on an island with a little over 3000 year round residents. 3156 people as of the 2020 census. Steam boats were not on the census questionaire! Unfair!

Mike

Right now, of course, all of them are at least partially disassembled or needing work, but that's the way of it w/ steam boats.

Welcome home Otter!
And such a nice place to live, surrounded by other steam boaters too!
Your work cleaning up Otter was significant. Yuk!
Look so much better now.

Thanks Russ! It was quite the project to fit into the holidays, but it all worked out.

= Bart

[TahoeSteam]

I'm glad Otter is finally up there with you. Although somewhat sad it probably means we won't be seeing Otter at the B&W meet anymore.

I hope Otter will be back together and steaming the sound (with photos of Sea Otters! ) soon.

[barts]

I'm glad Otter is finally up there with you. Although somewhat sad it probably means we won't be seeing Otter at the B&W meet anymore.

I hope Otter will be back together and steaming the sound (with photos of Sea Otters! ) soon.

I won't make it back to B&W until at least after I retire, which may be soon. We get river otters here... Moss Landing is the place to go steaming looking for Otters.. this was taken some years back:

DSC_0140.jpg (121.21 KiB) Viewed 32234 times

[barts]

Well, we (Barbie and I) got Otter working for the Klamath meet this coming weekend. Some of the things I ended up doing to get her ready:

* Replumbed all the pump water supply lines as the squirrels had done a real number on the suction lines. I used PEX this time with Sharkbite fittings (releasable o-ringed) for the ends, and crimped bends to work around obstacles.
* Remounted the Hypro water pump finally so the pressure discharge side is facing up.
* Replaced a series of copper compression tube fittings and 3/8 copper tubing with 3/8 Push-Lok hydraulic hose. Much easier to fit, and
swivel ends readily disconnected for draining in the winter. Also, the hose is green
* Cleaned up the hotwell.
* Replaced the complex plumbing under the floorboards that allowed different modes of operation to simply one where we pull water
from the rear tank using a separate brass hand pump. If I'm floating in lake water, I can use the bilge pump to refill the tank.
* Replaced the o-rings on the hand pump.
* Registered the boat in WA and redid the lettering (thanks Barbie!).

She's still in need of more work, but I've taken several weekends off my shop project to get Otter running so that will wait until I can use some machine tools and don't have to work outside. Here's a photo of Stephanie (owner of Uno, a local steamboat from 1894) and I peering at Otter's new plumbing: