LATEST NEWS:
Steam Yacht ZISKA - builder's half model found.
SL Louise fitted with the Mills (Beaumaris) Compound Marine steam engine.
Steamboats are still very popular around the world. They have been with us since the early 19th century although the great steam yachts of the later part of the 19th century have disappeared due largely to the great expense involved with running them. Since their became almost extinct after WW2, small steam launches have become very popular in recent years.
One can either restore an old hull, or build a new one on traditional lines or using modern techniques such as the epoxy-plywood system.
Machinery may be a restored old engine or a new one.
Boilers are generally new, although refurbished old ones are still in use.
The Traditional Boat Shop:
New boilers, hulls and steamboats are available from Glyn Lancaster Jones of the Traditional Boat Shop, Port Dinorwic, Gwynedd, North Wales. Glyn builds two sizes of water tube boiler in the style of an early Lune Valley Company experimental boiler.
Glyn's have twin heavy gauge steel barrels with heavy gauge steel hair-pin water tubes between them. There is no welding or riveting in their construction and therefore has no heat involved in their manufacture.
About 35 have been built to date and are a most successful and reliabile design that is approved for use in the UK and Europe.
Glyn's supplies boilers for coal, wood, gas or liquid fuel, although wood firing has been found to be particularly successful.
The following video is of Mark Brett's "Artemis" that is now fitted with one of Glyn's new Lune Valley type boilers.
Glyn's latest commission is Mazeppa. This was the fourth steamboat built for the same customer who now lives on the Isle of Wight. The design is considerably different from his previous three boats as this one has been designed for open waters around the Solent and is fitted with twin masts and sails as a backup. She is very stable and seaworthy and steams beautifully.
Mazeppa's launching
Glyn and Adrian Christen Mazeppa.
First steaming on the Menai Strait off Port Dinorwic
Steam Yacht ZISKA
The Ziska half model was found in ther public library at Llangefni, Anglesey. Neither the library or archive staff know where the model came from or who the original owner of the steam yacht was. If anyone can help identify the owner I would be very pleased to hear from you.
These are my copies of some of Hugh Jones' original small drawings.
Here we have a very beautiful Saunders built steamboat on the Thames.
This is the Yarrow built steam powered aluminium hulled torpedo boat 'Sokol' of 1895. This may be the worl'd second aluminium torpedo boat as the French had a smaller one built by Yarrow in 1894. Aluminium at that time cost thirty-fives times more than steel, hence its rarity in boat building at that time.
This aluminium vessel neatly leads us onto the next page on SARO MTB 539