M/V Clyde


Here are some pictures of the new boat built by Ed Newman and his story:clyde mist

I just finished a 44 foot sternwheeler with  a 4 cyl perkins diesel used out of a combine, driving a variable displacement Eaton piston pump powering twin Eaton 6ooo motors with a 2:1 chain reduction to the wheel.  The wheel is 8' 6" wide x 8' 8"diameter with16 buckets. The buckets are 2pcs of 5.5" wide x 1" treated decking.   After working the bugs out I am running 12.5 mph with the engine idling.

The wheel it pretty much all wood with a  4"pipe shaft with 2 1/2 stub shafts welded in the ends.   The flanges and rings are 3/16" steel which I had plasma cut. The arms and segments are 2" Wisconsin white oak which were cut out at a local saw mill and air dried. Buckets are treated decking. In retrospect..a wood wheel is nice and traditional...it is also heavy at heck and you have to keep rotating it so it doesn't soak up and get even heavier on one side... A metal wheel would probably be lighter in weight.   A plus with the traditional wheel design is that if you were to break an arm, you can replace it by removing 3 bolts and a wedge while the boat is in the water, rather than pulling the boat, getting a gas-axe, welder etc.  


Sideview20 The wheel is setting about 5" deeper in the water than I had planned due to the way the boat trimmed out. So I have a little more wheel in the water than I would like.  I  probably will raise the bearing mounts this winter when the boat is pulled.

The design of the boat was based on the rafter CLYDE 1870-1940 and the wheel design was a combination of trying to get the look of the old boat and
details from Alan Bates' book.  

We have always been a river family. Granddad was a raft pilot on the original CLYDE. Dad's uncles were Captains, Engineers and Clerks on her.  My dad built a 20' sternwheeler for me back in 1960. That got me started!  The current boat began life as a 37' Whitcraft houseboat (1970). I bought it 11 years ago. The hull was cut-down 12" and 7 feet of stern was added to accomodate the wheel. The hull measures 44'X12'X3' and the boat is 55 x 14 overall.  Draft is 26". I had to replate the hull and built the decks (steel) and cabin (wood). I started with a 4 cylinder Toyota gas engine driving a 37 gpm gear pump. In addition to driving the wheel, the pump also supplies power to a 8" bow-thruster which I built out of a 20HP Mercury outboard lower unit coupled to a small hydraulic motor. A soleniod valve
gives me forward and reverse for the bow thruster. Main rudders were operated by a rack and pinion cable system left over from the original houseboat.  All controls are operated from the pilot house.  We launched the boat in Alma, Wisconsin on June 22 of this year and to everyone's amazement (especially mine) it floated!   After two weeks of operating, the motor started to knock badly.  Rather than rebuild it,I decided to go with a diesel engine for the following reasons:
 no fire hazard, limited electricals (the Toyota had tons of computer operated sensors which I had no clue how to connect, cheaper operation, and the diesel had an govenor built in which helps with the pump. I found a local farm equipment dealer with a combine which he was parting out. A number of friends who run diesels recommended the Perkins diesel as their first choice and this one seemed to be in good shape. I made up a pump mount and coupling for the Eaton pump, mounted a raw water pump to feed river water to a tube-type heat exchanger and we dropped it in the boat while it was in the water.  Everything seems to be running ok. The rudders take a lot of power to move, especially when backing, so we changed them to hydraulic and this seems to be working ok.

Running


E.C.Newcomb
The CLYDE.