News

Filming for programs for next year’s Antiques Show has taken place at two venues connected with the SBA.

Filming took place on board PS Medway Queen on Monday 10th August with a visit from STV, to film for a future episode of The Antiques Road Trip, with presenter James Braxton. James Braxton and the film crew arrived at 14.45pm and after a quick COVID and Ship briefing they set about their task. The Volunteers were filmed carrying out a variety of activities and we expect this to be about a five minute clip within a future episode.

And on the 29^th and 30^th September the whole of the program was filmed at the Windermere Jetty, Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories starting with presenter Fiona Bruce appearing out of the mist on Windermere on SL Osprey. Six of the steamboats based on Windermere were in attendance moored on the jetties to provide a backdrop for the filming and were also filmed steaming around in the area and accompanying SL Osprey on one of her scheduled trips. Unfortunately boats were only able to be present on the Tuesday when Windermere decided to be at her most glorious but on the Wednesday she did her worst, and it was literally a wash out.

Regional  Flag ship Medway Queen was appointed “South East Regional Flagship for 2020” by National Historic Ships UK earlier this year so, on the same day as the AGM, and following a regular Board meeting, the pennant was ceremonially hoisted on PS Medway Queen by our President, The Rt. Hon. the Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC , in the presence of the Mayor of Medway, Cllr. Habib Tejan . This was a much lower key event than we would have liked due to current restrictions, but we were able to include the local media. The guests arrived exactly on time, the weather cooperated (for a change) and a small party proceeded on board. The tide was rising and the NHS- UK ensign flew proudly at the stern of the ship. The TV crew, from ITV Meridian, were ready and Lord West hoisted the Flagship pennant on the jack staff at the bow and pulled the lanyard to unfurl it. Camera s clicked and whirred and we all breath e d a sigh of relief! Lord West said a few words and then he and Mayor Tejan were conduct ed round the ship by Pam Bathurst, MQPS Members hip Secreta ry. They inspected the refurbished Aft Saloon and the Engine room before proceeding back to the Visitor Centre for tea and biscuits. All masked and distance d as necessary of course.

Pictures are in the gallery. Media, Members Photos, Misc.

" Readers of The Funnel may well have noted that the invitation to attend the SBA 50^th Anniversary Event to be held on Windermere in 2021 inadvertently shows a slight confusion of dates.

After much discussion and considering various concerns, the Chairman and Sub-committee have agreed that the Rally will start on Monday 2nd August 2021 and build toward the celebratory weekend.

To clarify - the 50th Rally will commence from Monday 2nd August with a full programme of events followed seamlessly by, from Friday 6th August, the 50th Anniversary Celebrations including the Gala dinner.

This offers a logical flow of events organised by the team headed by Helen Steeple, stream-lining all the administration and planning.

The Windermere community and our particular friends at The Jetty are greatly looking forward to joining with us for what promises to be a unique event and we WILL BE SHORTLY in a position to send out formal details to all interested parties.”

PS Medway Queen has been appointed 'South East Regional Flagship' for 2020 by the National Historic Ships UK and SS Explorer as the Regional Flagship for her area.

Congratulations to them both.

Ian Rutter writes:  

SL Alaska is in trouble with this year’s season a wipe out because of Covid-19.

Peter Green the owner and skipper has set up a Go Fund Me page for donations to keep the vessel in steam. She was built in 1883 at Bourne End and is part of the National Historic Fleet. The first propeller driven boat on the River Thames, originally operated by Salters Steamers and where she still plies her trade as the oldest working passenger steamer. To have the boiler permanently go cold would be tragic.

Details on their website   www.thames-steamers.co.uk   where there is a link and details for donations.

Ian adds: I  have many happy memories of trips when I was the engineer onboard with Derek Brown the skipper. We would often give SBA members a trip for a nominal amount when repositioning after a charter.  Perhaps the SBA Membership can help SL Alaska in return.

Note from editor: the donation link on SL Alaska's webpage may not render correctly on all browsers.  You can go to the donate page directly from here.

The SBA has teamed up with BESST (The Boiler and Engineering Skills Training Trust) to produce some training modules.

These Marine Steam Modules have been prepared by a group of experienced marine engineers and experts from the Steam Boat Association, BESTT and Maritime Heritage Trust including Bob Garnett, John Megoran, Mark Rudall, Kevin Slater and Rob van Es who co-ordinated and edited the work. The work is part of the BESTT National Lottery Heritage Fund "Skills for the Future" project to extend syllabus based steam heritage engineering training, whose first marine trainee has recently started at the Windermere Jetty Museum. The modules are aimed at trainees and other new entrants to these topics and don't aim to offer a comprehensive account - references to textbooks and other sources are provided.  The modules will, however, be of real interest to any steamboater; read them at  www.bestt.org.uk/training_plan. 

These syllabus modules are published in draft and comment is welcome. Please forward any comments to: enquiries@bestt.org.uk

Good morning gentlemen, in line with Government policy I am suspending

or two. Good luck to all, see you later. Captn. Banjo.

We trust that all other musical members of the SBA will do likewise ...

From now until 24th October work will be in progress on the online archive of editions of "Funnel".   Access to the archive will be curtailed while this work progresses.  Once the work is finished all editions of Funnel will be available to Members online.

If you are a Member and unaware of this online service, do log-in to discover a rich trove of steam boating history, folklore and knowledge.

The SBA Store is back online with an extended range of merchandise for SBA Members.  Members can get to the store with this link to the Store.  

Malcolm Duckett writes:

I have been requested by a Dutch member to cast him a crank, and while I am at it I guess it makes sense to see if anyone else is interested.

Cost is £150 plus shipping. The crank is to fit a Leak Compound, and will allow larger main-shafts of 1.25inch-diameter, and longer-than-drawn main-shafts to accommodate pump drives, and an outrigger bearing for the belt prop-shaft drive we use.

I might be persuaded to provide a finished item if anyone was interested.

The full story of making these is here:

https://sy-befur.co.uk/2019/01/31/steamboat-crankshafts-lessons-manufacture-pt1

https://sy-befur.co.uk/2019/02/19/steamboat-crankshafts-lessons-manufacture-pt2

Please contact Malcolm directly (his details are on the Members Directory page).