The Steamboating Forum

Hello All

Ya know what they say... "Life is what happens while you are making other plans." I have found this to be all too true. While making plans to build my own shop and someday a nice little steam launch of my very own life has played some interesting tricks on me. Well I have survived and the shop is just about finished! Another summer and I will have a nice solid concrete floor of around 31 x 27. The shop is actually 32 x 40 total but hey I gotta have a place for the lathe, mill, plasma table, foundry and all the other tools and of coarse the heater!

What do I want to build? A 28' steam launch from around the late 1800's to the early 1900's with pleasing lines. Actually I know what I like I am just not sure what it is called at the moment. For those of you who know the names it will be a cross between the S.L. Orion and the S.L. Whippet, for those whom do not, you can find both on youtube.

What do I know about steam engines and the vessels they propel? Well steam is hot and the launch floats! I will be wandering north here in a couple weeks to catch up with an old friend of mine who is a naval architect. He has been designing boats in the Shilshole Bay area for over 30 years now. He has since moved up north so I gotta go find him again. He will help me sort out the lines of my very own steam launch and explain to me what I am supposed to call those lines. You know what I mean, stem too stern, fore and aft, port and starboard? Why not just front, back, left and right?

That said let me add that I am a machinist, certified welder, fabricator, mechanic and builder of tools and machines so building the steam engine and boiler will be a snap. Building the Launch will be a test of my patience and abilities and finishing both will be one of the happy moments of my life.

Scott

Don't forget to join the Northwest Steam Society http://www.northweststeamsociety.org - We're in the neightborhood, have some really neat meets and social functions, and can help you find parts and such.

Good to see you here Scott! Nothing quite like developing a steamboat design and building it all, good luck with your project.

In terms of time investment, I would think the time frames required for various pieces of the pie can vary widely. For me, developing the plan took the longest, about 30 years, then building the engine another several years. Building the boiler, about a year, and building the boat, about 8 weeks. Of course, each steamer is never quite finished, as all of us who build their projects know.

It can all be enjoyable work none the less, and you can find plenty of information here as you go. Welcome to the forum.

Fred

Thank ya for the welcome.

Some of my earliest memories are of a small aluminum fishing boat, sporting a 3 hp Johnson with a rope start, on lake Benbrook in Texas where I grew up. And then there was the first time... which was in some random boat on a dock on that same lake when I was 17 or so, I believe the boat in question was her uncles cruiser. Anyway the, owning my own boat bug, did not get me until I had lived here in the Seattle area for a few years and spent a few days sailing with a couple in their 70's who lived on a 50' Cutter.

That was in the early 90's and I was hooked so I went looking for an Architect and found one not far from where I work in Ballard named Robert Perry. The first thing he told me was, “start small”. Well I already knew it all and wanted to start big. So after sailing with him a few times he set me up with plans for a 47' Cutter.

Well like the saying goes... "Life is what happens while you are making other plans" at that point life got interesting "in the Chinese sense of the word" and the sail boat remains a nice picture hung on my wall. I should have listened to him.

Anyway I have gotten older and a bit wiser, I think, and this time round I am not relying on a shop that is not my own, so almost 20 years later I have my own house and I am nearing completion of a shop in the backyard. The closer I get to finishing the shop the more I realize the bug is still there. The county was not going to give me a permit for a 32 x 60 shop like I wanted so I ended up with a 32 x 40. It is still twice as big as my house!

I was wandering around on the net one night a few weeks ago looking for steam engine kits and ran across a video on youtube. That’s all it took, the realization that I could have a uniquely beautiful boat and tinker with it too! The video of that steam launch hooked me. So I will start there with a mix of something that I have always had a fascination for, which is steam engines and a boat.

So as I near completion of the shop I am working out numbers I have never dealt with before. Steam engine HP, Boiler output, and prop pitch along with what hull design is best. I am not looking for a speedboat, but I would like her to move right along if need be.

Also exploring different hull building methods. At the moment I am leaning towards strip planking.

Scott

If you look in the FAQ section of this website, you will find some technical stuff, relatively simple, that will get you into the ballpark for sizing up a steam plant for a boat. Hulls-Power Requirement, Engine-Power Output, Engine-Steam Consumption, and Boilers, Steam Output & Efficiency. While far less accurate than a properly educated boat design specialist/Steam Plant Design specialist, the information given is going to hold true for the majority of steam launch configurations, within 10% more or less.