About 25 years ago I started building a Stuart Turner double 10 steam engine and soon after, I decided to build a boat to put it in. The photos show how far I've got.

It's a model of a WWII corvette, HMCS Sackville. The original ship has been restored and is on display in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I've built it to a scale of 5/16" to the foot in order to have a displacement of roughly 40 pounds, which I figured I would need to accommodate the steam plant. it has an overall length is 65" and a 10" beam. The 5/16" scale also means that I have to make all the fittings for the boat from scratch. I'm working on the 4" gun right now.

I had the hull in the water for the first time last September and discovered that the pitch of the propeller needed increasing and that the boiler couldn't make enough steam to keep the engine running at 600 rpm. The boat just sat there going nowhere.

I've increased the propeller pitch and enlarged the burner orifice on the centre-flue boiler to increase the heat input, so I hope to do better this summer.

I haven't made a lot of progress in the past year but the funnel is ready for painting and I'm pleased with how the 4-inch gun has turned out.

Sea trials did not go well last summer. I had no success with the boiler - the burner still gave me trouble. I tried different sized jets but it still took over 30 minutes to get up steam and by then the fuel tank was empty. I'll build a larger tank before next summer.

Here are a few photos of the model and the steam plant. The various fittings are coming along slowly.

The dust you can see on the boiler is from a dry chemical fire extinguisher. I decided to fire up the boiler in the back yard and discovered that the gas valve on the burner was difficult to get at. The packing on the valve stem started leaking at some point and propane collected in the forepart of the hull. It went whoosh and ignited a paper towel I'd left under the boiler feed in case it leaked a bit. (It didn't.) Anyway, I dashed for the extinguisher and the boat disappeared in a cloud of yellow powder! That stuff is really makes a mess.

I'm going to cut an access hatch in the deck in front of the wheelhouse to get at the gas valve and I'll have to make sure the the valve stem is tightly packed. I'm also going to add some sort of ventilation fan to prevent the gas from reaching a flammable concentration. I don't want to give the boat a viking funeral when I finally get it in the water.