The Steamboating Forum

I was looking at the former Newport News Shipbuilding tug HUNTINGTON, 103 ft. LOA, 29 ft. beam, approximately 12 ft. draft. This tug has a lot of information available on line and in print (in the textbook Introduction to Steel Shipbuilding ). The original was built with an 800 Hp steam plant (later...

The Kitchen rudder is very interesting. Its amazing that this is the first time of heard of it. The only drawback would appear to be a more complicated steering wheel and consequently potential confusion as to where the thrust is being directed.

Bart, Thanks for the feedback. The boat will have a longer and more spacious house that a typical tug, and a 28 - 30 inch diameter prop. The hull design to be a 1/3 scale 100 ft. commercial harbor tug design. It will be used from late Spring through early Fall (ice conditions and heavy weather limit...

It has been nearly two years since I posted on this web site, but have been really busy so it seems like a lot less time. In previous posts I mentioned that I had purchased the Gartside #125 plans for a 23 ft. steam launch. Some responders commented that the design is very beamy (7.5 ft beam) and mi...

Ditto to the above -- beautiful boat (and very seaworthy looking)!

I've been traveling, and just got around to reading your post. The "Queen" has a shapely hull. I suppose the 1100 lbs of ballast is needed to adjust for the superstructure. It seems that that amount of ballast without the pilothouse might result in stiff rolling. I know what you mean about...

Gartside's design is nice, as is Phil Bolger's. I am enjoying the hull as much as the machinery, so you have kindred spirits here. I would second the York compound. It is a traditional long-legged beauty. Welcome aboard. These are two nice designs, I have the plans for the Bolger 23' as one of the ...

I concur -- all of the Great Lakes are very dangerous, and all have caused the foundering of many large vessels. Since I live a mile from Lake Superior, I focus on her more than the others, but I have sailed all of them many times (fewer times on L. Ontario).

Den, I see that "Steam Queen" (nice looking boat) is just 1.5 ft. longer than the Gartside #125 design. What are her other dimensions? I looked up the design (Duckworks "Diana") and it looks pretty similar to the one I've picked, but with a bit of bow rake instead of being exactl...

Yesterday I received photos of a completed Gartside #125 launch. This one was powered with a watertube boiler and a single cylinder engine of perhaps 5 hp by the look of it. The boat is used only in a relatively small inland lake, so more power is apparently not needed.