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Photo #1: Scene at the launching ramp on Thursday afternoon. Folks seem to arrive earlier and stay later, for good reason: it's a beautiful area. By the time we arrived on Wednesday evening there were already 4 boats in the water!
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Photo #2: The neat little vessel belongs to the Harcourt boys. Captain Steve and engineer Wesley took us all out for our first steamboat ride, before we had time to launch Pegasus. At the Captain's station there is a hotel desk bell. Steve bings the appropriate commands and Wesley makes the engine obey.
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Photo #3: Don Mentzer brought his vessel, IdlTime all the way from Oregon for the event.
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Photo #4: That's Bart Smaalders at the helm of his vessel; name unknown. There will be more about Bart's engine on the Mechanical Details page.
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Photo #5: An interesting (and spacious!) steel lifeboat conversion. Owner and other details not yet known...
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Photo #6: This is the elegant Panatela, built and owned by Pete Moale Sr. The Moale boys, Pete and Pete Jr. were tearing up the river with this one! Pete Sr. told me that he built this vessel by scaling an 8-inch square drawing from Steamboats & Modern Steam Launches. He changed the original design by making Panatela wider and taller. Around a dozen of these vessels were constructed at the time, about 25 years ago.
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Photo #7: Hey, Andy, what's your last name?? This was Andy's second year at the event and he had many ingenious details in his boat; I'll put a few in Mechanical Details.
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Photo #8: Saturday morning, the flotilla is on its way to the picnic grounds. Here is the one and only glimpse of blue sky that day, seen from the bow of Dick Vennerbeck's vessel, S/L Narraganset. Ten minutes later it was raining!
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Photo #9: Allen Gregg in his little dory (a small but seaworthy craft) cuddles up next to his Ofeldt boiler as intermittant rain squawls pelt the water. I believe Allen had the smalles vessel in the fleet this year, but she's a reliable one. I've ridden aboard her from time to time and it's always been a joy to listen to the engine ticking over. The burner is also reliable and nowhere near as noisy as others I have encountered.
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Photo #10: S/L Pegasus at speed with a bone in her teeth! With master plumber Todd Guldenbrein at the helm and Chris Roberts stoking, my vessel showed definite signs of improved mechanical efficiency this year. A leaky check in the exhaust line caused a bit of hot bilge water, but the boat ran as fast as ever. Todd simplified the knudgy plumbing I had painstakingly installed so the system is easier to control, particularly the water level, which is always a problem with a Yarrow boiler.
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Photo #11: John Noble (left) chats with skipper Larry Cardoza aboard S/L Fake-a-Loo, possibly the fastest steamer on the delta. Powered by a highly modified Ford truck engine, this 3-cylinder poppet valve design built by Jim Tangeman can push her along at better than 10mph. Larry had some trouble with a leaky superheater and here he is lowering his safety valve's threshold from 225psi to 150psi, so that he can proceed at lower speed, with an interesting but temporary repair. A description of his fix is in Mechanical Details.
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Photo #12: One of many new vessels on hand this year and possibly the nicest of the lot. Little known at present but I hope to have more details soon.
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