Category Archives: The Sailing Log

Life on the Water!
Below are posts relating to Louise and my experiences “on the water” in learning to sail and steam!!!

Hauling out end of 2023

Review of the Year

Actually Sailing!

Well we had quite a good year, but a rather wet summer and too much playing with old motorcycles meant that Befur saw a lot less sailing and steaming than planned… but she performed pretty well.

The pictures below provides a summary of some of the activities we undertook.

Projects

During the year we undertook a couple of projects, firstly to make a better whistle, and when that failed making a siren for Befur (and that’s the subject of another post). and some maintaining things, (remaking the auxiliaries manifold, hunting for vacuum leaks) still that search for vacuum and silence!

Winter Work

In overview we are planning to do the following things in the next weeks:

  1. Cleaning the inside of the boiler, removing oil t0 improve efficiency (reduce fuel consumption)
  2. Cleaning the inside of the condenser, for same reasons and improve vacuum.
  3. Remachining the LP crosshead and glands as it is now clear that this is the principal source of the hateful knocking the engine makes.
  4. Replacing the pump drive worm box, as this is at the point of failure, and adding “assistance springs” to reduce the torque requirements on this box, to extend its probable life! (probably another post here too).
  5. Replumbing the condenser to be “contraflow” as this should improve it’s efficiency too.
  6. Attempting to design and fit a clutch to the prop drive to allow it to freewheel when sailing.
  7. Attention to paint and varnish
  8. Possibly fitting a reinforcing  inner fore-deck and removing the anchor chocks and resealing to improve weatherproofing.

Wow, that looks like a lot of work when you write it all down!!!

A pictorial review of 2023

Hover over image to see caption, or click image to access full size versions.

A review of 2022 & Happy Christmas

Waiting to Tow Aurora back to Ferry Nab

An apology – we’re not dead!

Well, I guess that’s what progress looks like – I haven’t written a thing since we re-launched in May, so it’s actually been going rather well! But a tentative phone call from friends in Australia to discover if Befur’s lack of posting indicated we were no longer shuffling along this mortal coil suggested it was time to write something!…. But, all is well, Lou, I and Befur are in good fettle….

Continue reading

Back in the water (at last)

Well that was a struggle!

After 6-7 months of work with Befur outside the house, up in the fells we finally finished and launched her, on Thursday!!

Befur on the Lake

Roger C at the helm, Louise at the mooring lines, Malcolm head-down making the engine run, Olwyn (neighbour) watching on, and Befur floating again!!!

Continue reading

SBA 50th Rally

A memorable week: variable weather, lots of friends,
some mechanical mayhem

The first week of August is “Windermere Week” for the SBA, where a number of members gather, with their boats, and a number of marine and social events occur. This year it marked the 50th anniversary of the SBA, so more jollity was ordered and delivered. Continue reading

A first sail of 2021

Wednesday (5th May) provided the first trip of 2021 with some wind (and dramatic views of the new snow!!! on the fells).

We had rebuilt the lubricator (using a 10mm ID needle-roller sprag clutch and a hard-chrome bar collar to run on) and this seemed to work well.

Initially we took the (almost obligatory) trip round Belle Isle with a rafted up lunch with Etna and Aurora.

We then set off into the south basin and …

Continue reading

Winter’s Coming: Sailing notes…

Time for an update.

Well as Winter approaches in the Norther Hemisphere (Mid October), it seems time to add a few notes on actually sailing Befur. I see it’s 23rd July since we posted an update, so I am clearly getting lazy! In the interim it seems WordPress have “improved” their editor, duh! more unnecessary software to learn. grrrr!

Befur moored at Ferry Nab
Befur sitting on her berth at Ferry Nab

While we have continued with the stream of maintenance-cum-repair-cum-development that seems to be the bread and butter of steam-based boating, we have made progress and have usually got where we are planning to go without mechanical break down. 🙂

Continue reading

Is this the end? Probably not!

Timeframe missed a bit

Well, looking back the first post here was on 8th June 2011, and we aimed to finish and launch by 26th June 2015 – planning was never my hot spot! We did change the goal posts in mid-flight (adding a sail, loo, etc, and stretching her from  a planned 16ft to almost 27ft to get everything in, but hey we did get there!), and on the 20th July 2020 we took her for a steam and sail on Windermere with a cameraman (Roger Heise from the SBA) on hand to record her 2nd trip under sail (thank you Roger).

Notes on the Steam Bit

Before I inflict an album of sailing photos on you, a couple of notes on the steam side, especially for Leak Compound builders…. Continue reading

Cast Off Captain!

Well, this really is a milestone!

Today (8th July 2020), we finished rigging the sail, stowing all the stores, and getting her ready for the first steam and sail…

A picture is certainly worth a few hundred words… but Lou’s sail, Arne’s instructions and David Tyler’s advice have produced what looks like a working solution – just need some wind now.. (and some HK parrels to make those creases disappear!). Continue reading