The Steamboating Forum

Good Day everyone. I am a new member of both this forum and the SBA. The reason for my sudden interest in Steam boat forums etc, is that I am trying to buy a small steam boat. Unfortunately, the current owner does not have any papers. The boat is in France, and the owner is French. So I shall attempt to upload a few photos, and hope that someone can identify the boiler and engine so that I can do some technical rerearch on them.
I do hope there are a few pics there.
Anyone lnow anything about this boiler and/or the engine
Thank you.

Firstly welcome.

Secondly, have you looked for the name in the SBA register? It's surprsing how many boats are there, even if the owners details haven't been kept up to date. Obviously, check previous incarnations of the same craft as well.

After that, check out Radhew's site, he has a load more, particularly Continental ones.

Unfortunately he hasn't been posting on here much lately, but then he is a busy boy.

The engine looks quite S.T. 6a.

Welcome aboard, vixit1862.

Interesting story. There are very few steamboats in France (less than 20 that I know of); I can't pretend to know every French steamboat but the pics of this one don't ring a bell. I'm not very surprised about the lack of paper - BTW, you mean a boiler certificate?

The engine looks like a Stuart 6A but the cylinder covers and the steam chest cover don't match (or they have been modified).

I'd like to see better pics of your soon-to-be steamboat.

Regards.

Welcome to the forum!

The columns don't match a Stuart 6 either.. Stuarts have cast back standards and turned front columns. Any chance of getting the engine's internal dimentsions (bore+stroke)? That may help in determining it's pedigry. Sometimes people take castings from one make and throw them together with castings from another or something of their own creation altogether.

The boiler, is it a vertical firetube, a vertical watertube, or a combination of the two?

Here's a link to Rainer Radow's registry, searchable with engine type, boiler, etc;

http://www.steamboating.de/steamboat/st ... -radow.php

Some quick perusing of Rainer's amazing registry produced this launch that has the same engine:

http://www.steamboating.de/steamboat/st ... ect=engine

It appears the engine is an Anthony Beaver Compound 2" & 3-1/4" x 2" or in those funny mili-whatevers; 50.8 + 82.6 x 50.8mm

http://s1255.photobucket.com/user/vixit ... sort=1&o=3
http://s1255.photobucket.com/user/vixit ... sort=1&o=4
http://s1255.photobucket.com/user/vixit ... sort=1&o=1
Thank you for your replies. Most interesting. It looks like we have identified the engine. I hope that we have better shots of it this time.
As for the boiler, I believe it has been modified to comply with some French rule that restricts the capacity of the boiler. It was 30litres, and is now perhaps 20litres. It is a vertical boiler, as can be seen(?), and I believe that it may be of the constant water level type. Next time I'm looking at the boat, I'll try to establish what comes through the pipes, hot air or water.
Again, thank you all for your help. Lastly a poor picture of the boat. I'll do better next time!
http://s1255.photobucket.com/user/vixit ... sort=1&o=6

http://s1255.photobucket.com/user/vixit ... sort=1&o=6
I'll get the hang of this one day. Not particularly easy to use!!

Well, the mysterious engine is an Anthony Beaver Compound. Saddly, the links to your additionnal photos don't work.

Not very surprised about the story of this boiler. My understanding of the French regulation on using boilers is that it's limited to the compliance to the European Union rules, that is merely restricting the product pressure x volume below a certain value. Hence the diminished volume.

Hi

Just a thought. If you are an SBA member, don't forget that we do have a service for members which can help them get boilers of uncertain origin certified. Basically you need to make a good drawing of the pressure vessel and any information that is on the boiler or in the boat documents about its origin. The engineering gurus of SBAS will then do their sums and come up with an assessment. If it gets an OK you can get it tested and things go from there.

Send a note to Kevin (Manor Farm Engineering) to enquire about getting the boiler assessed by SBAs. He is involved with SBAS so will have the details right. I picked up this information from gossip!

Regards

Pete

(Just been looking at your pics on Photobucket. I see the boat has a nice copper water separater in the steam line, so is presumably a puffer.)