News

As previously mentioned at the AGM, and elsewhere, I am setting a challenge to all Steamboaters to ‘Steam Everywhere’ that is navigable in the UK prior to our 50th AGM which will be held in March 2021 – which is only 18 months(ish) away! Hence, I have decided to start now!

This is, I hope, not going to be too onerous. We will not have the ‘Steaming Police’ out checking up on you!

When you complete a voyage click here to fill in a form or copy and paste this URL: https://forms.gle/hMNaxqqKs5nKxznB7 

Or just send me an email/snailmail with the bare bones of your journey:

Your Name

Boat Name

Starting Point

End Point (or turn around point if you are retracing to start)

Approximate miles steamed (one way if retracing)

Add any other information that you deem might be interesting such as who/which boats were accompanying you on your voyage.

There will be prizes at the 50th AGM for various categories (to be confirmed) but certainly “Most miles steamed” and probably “Most individual voyages by one boat”

Bon Voyage … Kevin Slater CEng, Chairman

Dear friends, owners of Steamboats.

For the year 2019 as in 2009, the "Belle Plaisance" of the "RDV of the Erdre" will have for main theme "Steamboats".

Ten French boats have planned to participate in this beautiful annual meeting which will take place from August 29 to September 1, 2019.

If you wish to participate (which we all hope), the individual pre-registrations and the modalities of participation are available on the RDV de l'Erdre website:

http://www.rendezvouserdre.com

or by email:

belleplaisance@rendezvouserdre.com

Note that the organization makes a 50% discount on registration fees of 20 euros instead of 40 euros.

The firewood is provided for RDV of the Erdre.

A descent of the canal from Nantes to Brest from the city of Redon is possible from Monday, August 26th.

Contact joel.druel@freesbee.fr

Best regards,

Joel Druel

We have just heard of the Festival de Loire

CLASSIC RIVER BOAT OWNERS, FANCY A FREE TRIP TO FRANCE?

‘Boats of the Thames’ will be the guests of honour at the forthcoming Festival of the Loire in Orleans in mid-September, 18-22nd. And if you think you’d enjoy five days of French food, boat processions, music and fireworks, you can attend for free if you’re quick. Brittany Ferries are offering ten free return trips on their Portsmouth to Caen/Ouisterham crossing on 16th September, returning a week later, and the Festival will offer free accommodation and food — essentially a free holiday! Places will no doubt go quickly so check out their website, www.festivaldeloire.com and fill out their registration form, Festival of the Loire 2019 | EVT, and they will put you in touch with the organisers. They are particularly interested in traditional river boats, preferably old ones but not exclusively — and they will efficiently crane you in and out of the water. The Loire is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and this is the best possible way to see it. The festival is every two years and last time they attracted an amazing 750,000 visitors. Thames boats are very special, and this is our chance to show them off!

We have just uploaded some more issues to the Funnel back-issues archive!

These were scanned & converted by Joel Druel from France - thank you Joel!

These issues cover 2000 to 2006. They are mostly encoded as double page spreads, so for some issues the page order is a bit odd. We will try to fix this over time, but they are constructed so that you can search for text in these (using CNTRL-F in Acrobat reader).

Enjoy....

This is for all the home workshoppers amongst us. The offers below are pretty amazing and the drill sets will be something everyone of us needs.

This is all pukka gear not Chinese ‘chocolate’ junk – I use WNT for nearly all my tooling.

Quote from WNT website:

Use of the WNT online store is exclusively for business customers.
All prices are net prices, and are subject to VAT.

If anyone wants to buy any of these offers and can’t order direct, I am happy to process them via my account with WNT.

Here is a link to their webpage for the offers:

 http://2014.e-targetit.com/uploads/emails/1269/2019-03-29---Ceratizit-_2019-4-1.asp

As it doesn’t say on the offer page:

10 158 050 is 1.0 to 5.9mm x 0.1mm

10 158 100 is 6.0 to 10.0mm x 0.1mm

The ER32 collect set is 3 – 20mm x 1mm

The ultramini boring set is very very small – i.e. 3mm pilot hole!

Following some changes we made to the site, Google has indexed at least some of the back issues of Funnel on the site. So this means you can use Google to search these back issues.

To do this, you just tell google the site you want to search as follows:

So to search for say "turbine" you type

turbine site:www.steamboatassociation.co.uk/resources/funnelbackissues

into the search box on a google page.

(yes, that is a lot to type, but you could copy the text from this news item!)

You will get results from the Funnel Back Issues part of site. You can then open and search inside the issue in the normal way (cntrl-f will open a search box for you.)

enjoy :-)

The Windermere Jetty is planning to be opened on the 23rd March (after many years of closure), and SBA boats (and members) are invited - arrive by boat if you can, Dot is arranging berths etc.

So, anyone wishing to attend the opening with their boat please contact Dot Bullough by Thursday 28th on  r.bullough375@btinternet.com or by phone at home: 0161 723 3366.

Hopefully more detail in the next week or so.

Keep an eye on the Events List for information on a planned event at the Falkirk Wheel which will be available soon.

This information arrived from Ronnie Russak via John Hendry (thanks John)

We are planning a very large flotilla 24,25,26 May  of all types of boats to celebrate the reopening of the Forth and Clyde Canal after all the disasters that happened last year. We would love to have as many steamboats participate as they are such an attraction.  This flotilla by the response so far looks like it’s going to be a real goody. The difference this time is that we want to make it like a carnival with people dressing up and as much music playing from the boats.  I’ve attached a press release about the event and we would like to know if you and any of your members are interested in joining us.

John says he may  even be able to help with accommodation.

Dear all, just noticed that the videos in the Media menu were not playing - they are now!

If you notice things on the website not working, please let us know via webmaster@steamboatassociation.org.uk

Thanks...

Here are all the documents relating to the forthcoming AGM

Hard copies will be available on the day 

2019 AGM Invitation and Agenda KJS.pdf

SBA Clauses 11, 13 and 14 letter to SBA Member Attendee version.docx

Approximate AGM 2019 day timetable.pdf

SBA Auction Instructions.pdf

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Kevin Slater CEng