The Steamboating Forum

Rainer -

You are an inspiration (and a goad) to the rest of us. As always, your work is quite impressive.

- Bart

Rainer,

Nice work! er Einfach Klasse

-Ron

barts wrote:Rainer -

You are an inspiration (and a goad) to the rest of us. As always, your work is quite impressive.

- Bart

Thanks Bart -

so tonight I learned the word "goad"

My goads on trips to other country's are canals like this. I have seen it in Milano; Italy this January - must be navigable with my unfinished smal steam boat (when it is finshed) Please find this in Google Earth by searching for:
Alzaia Naviglio Grande, Milano, Mailand, Italien

Follow the canal - nice Restaurants - but also a lock - don't know if they will open it for me - but my wife speaks Italian fluently and if I would cover myself under a coal sack the Italian will open. Probably more because of my daughter which will be over 20 when the boat is finished (she is 11 now...)

Milano 02. Jan 2014 - cold and rainy My biggest dream is to navigate through Venice some days - so Milano would be on the route!

Hi Rainer & Friends

Yes, Venice by steam launch has to be the ultimate goal. How about a Pan European steam boat rally which starts (say) at somewhere like Brugges and drops off at all the interesting places on the way to Venice. It would be quite a long haul towing a boat, but our US/Canadian friends on this Forum seem to do such distances at the drop of a hat.

I do see two small problems. Firstly, deciding which of the interesting places along the way to visit. Secondly, building in all the places that our nearest and dearest would like to see too. Perhaps we should budget six weeks...?

Regards

Pete

Pete wrote:Secondly, building in all the places that our nearest and dearest would like to see too.

good point!
We should do it like the politicians - organize a Lady's program - this even could be at other places

Pete wrote:Perhaps we should budget six weeks...?

Wait till we are retired?
17 years?

Oh dear! I'll be 82 by then! Ah! but I haven't started building yet, so perhaps I might be ready.

A cruise through the canals of Venice - what a dream. However, I think it must remain a dream as I understand bbqs are not allowed in case they start a fire, so boats with fires possibly sending out sparks are almost certainly a nono! There are many canals where steamers are welcome throughout Europe.
But, alas, our fuel costs are considerably greater than our friend on the other side of the Atlantic enjoy, so a tour of Europe might only be for those with mega busk to spare.
But we can dream.
Gudmund

"as I understand bbqs are not allowed in case they start a fire, so boats with fires possibly sending out sparks are almost certainly a nono!"

On this issue, one could point out that the exhaust from a steamer boiler is at a much lower temperature than the exhaust from a gasoline or Dissel engine (300C vs. 600C), and with exhaust steam into the boiler stack even lower temperature. On the issue of potential for sparks, a propane burner could be substituted. On first running of my steamboat I was in a hurry to get underway so I just purchased a big propane "weed burner" and put the burner torch into the firebox. Crude but it worked well for more than a year, and absolutely no chance of sparks.

Fred,

The "weed burner" looks like a great idea even as a backup for a complicated oil injection system. How long will a 20# tank of propane last?

Jack

20 Pounds of propane has a heating value of 450,000 BTU (132 kWh), and I would guess about 4 hours of run time, more or less. My boat can go about 6 hours on a tank, but I have relatively low power output.

Using the old ASME definition of a steam "boiler horsepower" (33475 BTU/hr or 9.8 kW boiler output) that translates to about 10 horsepower-hours, or 1 horsepower for 10 hours, or 2 horsepower for 5 hours, etc. Steam launch engines will use in the vicinity of one boiler horsepower per actual engine horsepower, small non-condensing plants more steam, larger compound condensing plants less boiler output per engine output shaft horsepower.

After some time running the propane tank does get very cold (0F, -18C) when drawing off significant amounts of gas, and propane pressure is reduced. Sometimes I switch to a spare tank, tie a rope onto the cold propane cylinder, and throw it overboard. The lake water warms up the tank in a few minutes. Others have a warming water jacket (60F, 15C) onboard to keep the tank up to temperature. Propane tanks should never be warmed with hot water or steam, that could be dangerous.

The burner with hose and lighter costs about $20-$30 US, Propane tank $30-$40 US, and refills about $15 US, an expensive fuel, but compared to what we spend on the steamboating hobby the fuel price here is small.