SL Whippet Maiden Voyage

[Maltelec]

The maiden voyage of SL Whippet.

[S. Weaver]

Excellent! Congratulations on the craftsmanship and the sea trials. This is Edward's, correct?

[marinesteam]

All I can say is, WOW!

That was a thrill to watch. It must have been even more exilerating for you and Edward.


Ken
Colorado USA

[gondolier88]

Congratulations Edward, and John too, she looks great- and surrounded by clouds of steam (rather than puddles of water around the ankles.....!) I'm glad you've got her ready for Windermere week Edward, assuming you are attending of course?

Greg

[dhic001]

Excellent to see, well done on getting another interesting launch running.

Can you guys get thick walled copper pipe, suitable for use on main steam lines, still? If so, you are very lucky, we can only get household water strength pipe, so have to run all our steam lines in steel.

Daniel

[fredrosse]

The entire launch, what a beautiful piece of work, and the engine looks so fine. Best of luck with your steaming.

[DetroiTug]

Yes, Beautiful launch for sure. The engine is a work of art.

-Ron

[Edward]

Hello to All of You ,

Many thanks for your kind remarks . It has taken , on and off , 20 years and the project still isn't quite finished (are they ever complete ?) but the light at the end of the tunnel can definitely be discerned and seen not to be an express train coming towards me .

The excess of steam visible at about 10 minutes 20 seconds from the start of the video occurred when John (the boiler inspector as well as the engine builder) was adjusting the safety valve . At about 165 psi the valve vented and because I hadn't tightened the compression fittings on the exhaust steam pipework enough part of it exited the boat at a considerable rate of knots . The final setting is about 185 psi .

There is still a lot to do , more coats of varnish , routeing the exhaust from the cylinder drains to the ashpan , installing a damper , bilge ejector , Windermere kettle, injector drain , floor boards etc, etc . The list is almost endless but they are all "do-able".

It goes without saying that almost all the credit must go to the people who have not just helped, they have done almost all the work . David Sykes did the boiler and started machining some of the engine castings . John Maltby did all of the rest of the work on the engine including a fair bit of re-design . Roger Mallinson and Simon Maltby did all of the difficult bits of the pipework .
The Maltby family and Roger have been absolutely solid in their support , both physical but also advice and moral support.

I hope that in a few months I will be able to report on further progress and comment on such things as the effectiveness of the condenser and hotwell etc .


Regards Edward.

[Maltelec]

Here is another video of Whippet:

[steamboatjack]

Just a couple of notes, The video does rather amplify the engine noise, it is fairly quiet in reality apart from the aux. pump drive. Keen viewers may have spotted that the pump drive gear is a bit wobbly! This is being sorted now.
Regards
Jack