For the love of God, Why?

The problem with having a blog is you need to have something to say, and the discipline to post it regularly. We'll see if I have either of those. (I'm sure those who know me will have something to say on the matter.) So here it is, my personal bridge between the 21st and 19th centuries, a chronicle of my attempt at constructing a working 22ft wooden steam boat from scratch.

My love of steam power goes far back, but it only started to be fully realized last summer when I happened to purchase my first home-made steam boat from another local steam enthusiast. After running that boat until it broke, I resolved to try my own hand at it. We'll see how it goes.

For those interested, the designs are all my own. I'm not an engineer by training, but I figure, considering the engineers I have known, how hard could it be? The hull is a scaled down version of a classic side-wheel carvel planked river boat. The boiler is a modified steam tube Yarrow type and the engine is a single expansion, double acting 6 cylinder in a rotary configuration.