The Steamboating Forum

Hello from Sheffield.

My name is Geraint Coles. I am new to this forum and just starting out on the steamboat road. I hope I do not drive you all batty with daft questions!

A steam enthusiast since childhood I have a backgound in sailing dingys and canal narrowboats. I earn my crust by managing the restoration and development of the Chesterfield Canal (see www.chesterfield-canal-partnership.co.uk for more on my ditch crawling work).

I am at the early stages in setting out to build my own steamboat -still trying to settle on a hull / engine / boiler combination and adjust my mind-set from canal boats to steam launches.

I look forward to picking the forums collective brains.

Best wishes,

Geraint.

Welcome Geraint. I am new here myself, no doubt others will be along to say welcome as well.
The site contains a wealth of Information and I have just started to read it all. hope you enjoy the journey.

Welcome to the forum!

There's is no such thing as a daft question, just daft people who don't ask.

There are a lot of very knowledgeable people on here that should eb able to help you with just about any question.

Welcome Geraint ,

I know it's a corny and hackneyed overused saying but as 87gn@tahoe says the only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask : so fire away .
You are well placed geographically for steamboating and I would thoroughly recommend you to join the Steamboat Association of Great Britain . You should then visit as many rallies as posible to have a look at what other people have done to their boats and how they have done it .There is absolutely no requirement to have a boat .
Hope to meet you at some rallies
Edward .

Welcome!

Hope you enjoy the site - there is lots of stuff of enormous use/interest here already.

If you are interested in starting with a glassfibre hull, and there is a lot to be said for that (at lest I think so!), there are a couple worth seeing "in the flesh" so to speak. I say this because when looking for a hull myself, my decision making was wholly desk based. I have this week visited an SBA member who lives near our Welsh famly and he has a Nell hull from Bossoms Boatbuilders. I rejected this boat as being more expensive (at the time) and less pretty than my final choice. However, seen close to, it is a really nice hull, quite full, but a real classic. At 19ft. 6" it is a really nice size.

Another boat that might fit the bill is the Tela hull (I've forgotten the suppliers name). This is 16ft and again a classic seaworthly little boat. (See Firedance on the SBA Register [http://www.steamboat.org.uk/register/html/fire0803.htm]) This one I have not seen in the flesh, but she photographs well which is a good sign.

There are, of course, lots of other possibilities out there...!

Regards

Pete

Hi Geraint and welcome to the forum. Ask away, the forum is too quiet at the moment.
Regards, John in Scotland.

Hi Geraint

Are you in the SBA? I can recommend joining if you aren't.

Its a week late now but I would have said to visit Windermere for the steamboat rally. You can get many ideas from seeing how people run their boats. You'll soon discover the knack of looking like you know what you are doing, some of us have got it down to a fine art