The Steamboating Forum

Five 30'+ lifeboats up for grabs from the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.

They are free. Save them, or they will be cut up/crushed.

One of these would be perfect, but I have no way of getting out there to pick one up until this fall at the earliest. They're very cool boats, and would be a lot of fun to convert, plus they're metal and I'd get to give my new MIG welder a workout.

Unfortunately I believe they've gone to scrap now. It's worth asking about them though... You may be better off paying to have them loaded and shipped to you. They're quite wide and would likely need a special license/permit to haul.

I've had a small bit of experience with trying to make something out of a steel lifeboat hull. It didn't turn out well. The boat was free so I just chalked it all up as a learning episode.

I didn't understand that these boats are not intended to go anywhere at all. Just hang out, wait for rescue and survive just about anything including being launched.

We tried to sail the beast, hang an outboard on it and I forget what else. Towing it was just an frustrating exercise in burning up fuel to amuse bystanders.

For a recreational steam launch, weight is your enemy. These pigs are really heavy. And, as an afterthought, the one I had was galvanized so before welding anything I had to use muriatic acid to strip the area to be welded. Welding galvanized steel produces A: a dreadful weld and B: a sick welder.

I came to the conclusion that these hulls are best installed in playgrounds with pirate themed superstructures.

Mike

There have been several lifeboat to steamboat conversions that have worked out well in the past.

Don Mentzer's 16' "Idltime" lifeboat powered by one of his watertube boilers and his 3.5"x4" single cylinder engines, and Bob Johnson's 23' "Good speed" powered by a Semple 40sqft VFT boiler and a Semple 3+5x4" v-compound.

I'm not sure if Idltime was originally a powered lifeboat, but ran quite well, albeit not very fast.

Goodspeed was originally not a powered lifeboat. It had ben converted by Clay Pickersgill who installed the shaft log, fitted it with a massive rudder, and a different steam plant. With the Semple plant it ran very well and could easily do 6-7mph just burning fist-sized chunks of oak and walnut. Even with the tall VFT boiler it was quite stable, plenty of freeboard even for Lake Tahoe, and had plenty of room for seating and to walk around the plant. There was a nice aluminum-framed and cloth lined canopy that nearly followed the sheer line that also churched her up a bit. In fact, I believe she's for sale with he steam plant not installed at the moment.

I know there are several other lifeboat conversions out there with varying degrees of asthetics and success...

I wish I had seen the post a few weeks back, I tried contacting them, but got nothing in response. I was interested because I had seen video of a converted lifeboat in Indiana/Michigan on YouTube ages ago and thought it was quite a boat. Then I saw it again recently on Beckmann's Boat Shop for sale, but he doesn't broker used boats anymore, and didn't have the guy's contact information (I posted pics of it here), so I haven't got anything to go on as far as finding it.

Quote: "I had seen video of a converted lifeboat in Indiana/Michigan on YouTube ages ago"

Could have been the late Tom Stockton's boat the ''Arbor queen'', but a guy in Ohio has it now. There are four or five converted life boats in Michigan, I went to one meet in Michigan there were three or four, all set up identically, small VFT and three by fourish single, I don't think they ever leave that lake, one had the boiler painted like a beer can. They are plenty fast with enough power. Every displacement hull has a max speed limit dictated by the length.

DetroiTug wrote: ↑Tue Apr 05, 2022 9:25 pm Quote: "I had seen video of a converted lifeboat in Indiana/Michigan on YouTube ages ago"

Could have been the late Tom Stockton's boat the ''Arbor queen'', but a guy in Ohio has it now. There are four or five converted life boats in Michigan, I went to one meet in Michigan there were three or four, all set up identically, small VFT and three by fourish single, I don't think they ever leave that lake, one had the boiler painted like a beer can. They are plenty fast with enough power. Every displacement hull has a max speed limit dictated by the length.

Possible I suppose, the one I saw (I'll have to link the YouTube videos if they're still up) was from the Great Lakes steamer SS Alabama, and was still called Lifeboat #4. It had a vertical stationary engine of some kind hooked to what looked like an automatic transmission, or old Dodge gearbox to get a reverse (you can see my screenshots from Beckmann's in my post). It looked interesting because it was big and beamy, and could hold a boatload of people. I'll find a suitable hull or whole boat soon enough.