Quote: "Unfortunately the number of folks around who are ambulatory and of sound mind that would spend the time to go to bat with law makers over "sensible legislation" is quickly waning. "
Yes, in our small numbers we would be ineffectual to say the least. I doubt the states would spends hundreds of thousands of dollars writing and enforcing laws regarding us, it would be much more "sensible" to them to just outlaw altogether the operation of small high pressure, publicly displayed steam boats.
If they did it would look something like this:
- Only approved code boiler designs accepted, forget the monotube, Ofeldt's etc
- Only approved piping schemes drawn up by an engineering firm, submitted to the state regulatory board for approval - for a fee
- No changes made to the system without prior approval
- Any changes must be inspected by the state before operation - for a fee
- All owner/operators of said equipment must complete a state run course in safe boiler operation and maintain current license - for an annual fee of course.
- No work shall be performed on said system other than licensed state approved steam engineers.
- All operators must show and carry proof of adequate liability insurance
In short, coupled with the waning interest, it would be the end of our hobby, they may as well outlaw it. My experience with anything the state or Fed's mandate, the cost doesn't improve. A small code boiler would be 20 grand.
Sound far fetched? Talk to anyone who does or has ever owned and operated a light hobby aircraft. The FAA has about "legislated" that hobby out of existence. Just recently, they have been backing off on some of the restrictions to prevent killing it altogether.
The best thing to do is what we've been doing, police ourselves. If we see someone doing something questionable, point it out whether they appreciate it or not, explain to them why it is dangerous, throw them out of the meet etc. (+ etc)
-Ron