New project: Steamdriven speedboat

[Hankwilliams]

I can`t upload a short video of the boat steaming in the test tank. It should be possible to show the video in my facebook account. See: Thomas Hillenbrand, Maler und Journalist at facebook.

Thomas

[Hankwilliams]

Weather still is very bad - rain, snow, temperature in night below 0° C. It was not possible to make a trip with "ARGO".

But I wanted to use my time, so I `ve build a new boiler for my old Regner 12/36 stationary engine. The old boiler I planned to use for the "ARGO", but it was leaking, only the shell was usable. Now I made a smaller boiler for the engine with materials in stock. Here some pictures of the yet improved steamplant.

Thomas

[Hankwilliams]

Dear friends and neighbors,

at thursday and yesterday my wife and I made two test trips with "ARGO". Last weeks very strong snow- and rainfall has arised small plain lakes at the meadows of the Swabian Alb, not far from our home - ideal for testing a steamboat. In spite of temperatures of 6° C boiler reaches 3 bar pressure in short time. Presentation of the boat first was wonderful. Unfortunately a support of the servo for engine steering after 20 minutes broke - fortunately I had my boots on and there was no problem, to solve the boat.

At the second trip yesterday all was ok. The boat reaches a speed of about 1,8 m/sec = 6,5 km/h or 4 miles/h. The steam plume was impressive. No boiler feed pump is necessary, boiler water suffices for 40 minutes.

The little motor yacht I build as a boy in the late 1960-tis. I restored this boat in the days around chrismas time - it`s a nice toy now.

Thomas

[JonCameron]

This is a really beautiful boat, the lines colours of the wood against the red and green paint. It's beautiful!!
Has it had many more sailings since it's first launch?
Regards
Jon