Building the Hull

After A few years I'm finally able to add to my web site of how I built the hull for my steamboat the Mary K. Adella. First of all I started with a lot of research on small steamboats. I looked high and low on different web sites for a hull to my liking. I didn't want a boat so large that I would have trouble towing it around so I deceided on a hull of about 20-24 feet. I also wanted to try and keep the costs down to under ten thousand dollars if possible. Well I certainly got frustrated in the beginning after pricing a fiberglass hull, engine and boiler. The cost was well over $20,000 and that didn't include the flooring and decking to complete the hull. The stuffing box, rudder and prop added another $1,000 dollars. Then there was the trailer. boiler sundries, pumps and much more. WOW! another $6,000 for a boiler and $2,500 or so for an engine. It was then I thought the only way I would have a steamboat was to make as much as possible. That included almost everything. I'm retired and have a limited income so I have to be a little careful of where I spend it. I also like things that are different. Upon going to a local steamboat meet in Vermont I met a person that built his own steamer using an aluminum boat, homemade engine and boiler. The gentleman happened to be Ray HasBrouck with his famous sidewheel "Tinkertoy" .(Ray has just passed on in Dec. 09)  He talked me into making about 90 percent of everything. About the only thing I bought was a used set of castings from a fellow who gave up on making an engine. Here's how I accomplished a goal that I thought was just a dream.

I"ve finally found the boat hull that suited me just fine. After looking around for boat plans I settled on the "Rebel" hull from Reliable Steam Engine Company. The hull is as follows

Length                         20 feet four inches 

length @ waterline       17 feet one inch

Hull Beam                      5 feet

Total over paddles          7 feet

I'm hard at work making a material list to get started on in the morning. Its late Spring time and my hope is to get the hull finished minus the decking by Fall

After finding out how to use the table of offsets I started with the frames in my workshop. I used a poly type glue which is quite a mess to use. Just one drop will get all over and  if on your skin take days to come off. Its worst than CA to get off your hands. The plus side is its waterproof and strong.

I used dowels on all the joints as well as plywood gussets. The boilers going to be heavy so I don't want a frame failure even if I can swim quite well!

I used a lot of weights I made from old wheel weights to hold everything in place while the glue dried. The weights were remelted and poured into some muffin tins. I have several different sizes I can use.