News

A PROUD ANNOUNCEMENT

The Steam Tug Kerne Preservation Society Ltd has been awarded ‘The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service’ in the Queen's Honours List, published on 2nd June 2018.

This is an MBE equivalent and the highest award given to a voluntary group. It is the first time a historic vessel preservation group has been honoured in this way.

The award was created in 2002 by the Queen to celebrate the anniversary of her Coronation and recognises excellence in voluntary activity carried our by groups in the community. The assessment process for the award was conducted on behalf of the Queen by Captain Hugh Daglish LVO JP DL Royal Navy ex Commander of HMY Britannia and His Honour Judge John Roberts DL.

The award citation honours the rescue and preservation of Kerne, one of Britain’s oldest operational steamships. The Queens award is recognition of the work of our group over the last 47 years. Our member’s dedication has been an example of what can be achieved for the benefit of the nation’s maritime heritage and is enjoyed by many thousands of people who have seen Kerne steaming to events and come aboard to learn about a living ship of the Titanic era.

Chris Heyes and Paul Kirkbride are attended Buckingham Palace on  Tuesday 5th June for a Royal Garden Party and The Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside is to make a presentation on board Kerne at a later date.

S T Kerne

On behalf of The Steam Tug Kerne Preservation Society Ltd.

Bob Stead

Angela Smith of Tern TV asked if we can help her with a program they are making for the BBC...

"Hi there,

Tern TV is currently making a second series of Grand Tours of Scotland’s Lochs for the BBC. 

We are looking for archive stills of steam boats on Loch Awe.  I wondered if you could please promote our query within the club because there may be Scottish members who have their own private archive collections who could help?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Angela

Angela Smith

Production Executive

Tern TV, 4^th Floor, 114 Union Street, Glasgow, G1 3QQ

Direct Line: +44 (0) 141 241 6073 "

You can email her on angela.smith@terntv.com

If, like me, you are sick and tired of fielding opt-in/out emails this will come as good news: We (the SBA) have updated our Privacy Policy to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). We didn't need to do much as we already had a pretty good setup. The minor changes that we have now made mean that we are compliant with the new legislation. If you are curious to read our new policy, or are having trouble getting to sleep at night, there is a link to it from this page: http://www.steamboatassociation.org.uk/page-1163374 

And the even better news it that you don't need to do anything - after careful consideration at Committee and seeking suitable advice we are happy that the minimal data that we keep on our members was 'freely given' under our previous Privacy Policy and that the changes for GDPR haven't required us to 're-seek' your permission to continue to hold it - albeit with perhaps a tad more security than before and other statutory requirements with which we have to comply - such as your 'right to be forgotten'.  

Now can we all please get back to the serious business of Steamboating!

Kevin Slater SBA Chair

While consuming (quite a lot) of the Duckett's underused stock of Single Malt one evening at the President's Rally, talk turned to "things the web editors should do" - so here is one complete:

With the new availability of castings for the Taylor Engines (see small ads) it was suggested that we should remind members of the excellent series of articles penned by John Winn covering the building of one of the compound versions.

So, using the also newly available Funnel back issues page, you have no excuse not to put tool to metal (as it were) and start reading from Issue Number 67

Having just taken over from Roger Heise I would like to introduce myself to those of you that don’t know me – even after many years on the Committee. 

My background is in Marine Engineering having served on everything from tramping ‘Steamers’, to so called ‘Supertankers’, to Container-ships and, eventually, Passenger Ships. A bonus from the Passenger Ship days was that I met my wife, Gillie, on-board one (she was a passenger).

Since coming ashore I have gained Chartered Engineer status via the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) and am actively involved with the Institute both locally and nationally.

I am passionate about promoting Engineering as a career opportunity for youngsters and to that end I am a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Ambassador and have recently had two of ‘my’ teams reach the national finals of the Land Rover 4x4 in Schools Challenge. http://www.4x4inschools.com/home/

I have some ideas about the direction that I would like to see the SBA take, but I will let the dust settle before launching anything – don’t panic, it will be evolution rather than revolution!

There is one rumour that I would, however, like to kill right now – the printed Funnel is not at risk; there will always be a printed version of the Funnel for the duration of my time at the helm (and probably an awful lot longer).

I would like to thank Roger for all the work that he has done over the last 3 years and wish him a happy ‘retirement’ and, hopefully, more steaming on-board Etna. His input re the website and related matters will still be sought so he isn’t totally off-the-hook just yet.

My first Committee meeting as Chair will be in May and I will be welcoming two new members to the Committee: Adrian Greco and John Jewsbury and a returning member: Felicity Palmer.

So, Bye for now and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible during the coming season.

Kevin Slater CEng MEng MIMarEST

As announced at the AGM Cyril taylor's engine castings are available from the original foundry that he used.

John Hendry and myself will be visiting the foundry shortly to sort & identify what goes with what.

We will then produce a detailed list of the various items.

Meanwhile the direct contact information is:-

Charles Tyers

Fenland castings

tel: -1778348940

regards John Maltby

It was suggested that I posted a link to the report on SBA Website Statistics that were presented at the AGM, so here it is!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1icSI8DJkGNTi7cdgEOBHMakkW9NeJR-IzKZOZPbhM-o/edit?usp=sharing

enjoy...

Sue & Michael Morgan report:

"After going to Rutland Water for 2 years without water access and my many protests about not being able to participate in the Steam Fair as it was not possible to land and go ashore there is now a rather large and stable pontoon at The Steam Fair site.  For us boaters the event is back.  The Steam Fair is already in the SBA Events List on the web site and we are a contact."

The Rutland Water Steam Fair 23^rd & 24^th June 2018

Rutland Water

Empingham

Oakham

LE15 8QL

Roger Heise

New publications are available from the SBA

Steamboat Register 2018

A summary of UK owned steamboats from the SBA Register Records as of January 2018.

A handy A5-sized book to identify UK-based boats; it gives details of owner and boat history and (for most boats) a colour photograph.  Spiral-bound, approx. 190 pages and over 400 boats.

As announced, members of the SBA attending the AGM on 24th March may collect copies at the special AGM-price of £12, cash-on-the-day.

Prices by post – see below how to order:

UK £15.00

Europe £19.50

Rest of World £22.00

Members’ Handbook 2018

A list of all SBA members with contact details and names of boats owned by SBA members worldwide, drawn from the SBA membership as of January 2018.  A slim A5-sized reference book, approx. 90 pages, black & white.  This is available only to members and will not be sent to non-members.  (Replaces previous handbook dated 2012.)

The handbook is available free to members at the AGM on 24th March.

It is available to members-only and by post. 

Packing and postal charges – see below how to order:

UK £4.00

Europe £7.50

Rest of World £8.50

How to order

Email your request to  handbooks2018@steamboatassociation.co.uk   from the email address that you use as your user-name when you log in to the SBA website.   When the item(s) have been posted, you will receive a payment request through the SBA website when you next log-in.  You can then pay with a debit/credit card (through PayPal) or from a PayPal account.

Please do not make any payment in advance (for example a PayPal transfer to any SBA email address).

Roger Heise  - Chairman

David Hubbard in Basingstoke sent in this plea for assistance:

We need some help at the Bursledon Brickworks Museum. I am a trustee at the museums (the last steam powered bickworks in Britain) as part of the displays in the museum, we have a Stott boiler that supplied steam to a (semi) mobile steam engine driving a pug mill.  

The boiler failed its pressure test and we initially stripped the boiler to investigate some thinning of the boiler wall. Unfortunately, the damage is worse than we expected and the boiler may well end up as a static museum exhibit. 

Even if we can find the expertise to repair it will be a long job and the museum is looking for a (temporary?) replacement.  If there is anyone  in the SBA  with a Merryweather or similar boiler that they be prepared to lend or sell please let me know, David.