Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Steamers can have trouble with ice choked sea chests. Aboard the Mauthe, while in ice, on Whitefish Bay, our sea chests for the main circulating pump got clogged, cutting off water to the main condenser. We lost vacuum, thus could not steam ahead. The engineers ran the turbine astern slowly while the vacuum, very slowly returned. All the while a ice breaker was clearing us a path and that we couldn't follow. After an hour or so the vacuum was reestablished and we continued on our way only to get suck again. The ice breaker had to come back out and knock us out again.

The Presque Isle and the Speer are diesels too. Steamers don't have problems with plugged intakes for water and they certainly don't stall.

Pat wrote:As far as the Port Huron ice last year, it stopped the Speer too, so I doubt the steamer Beeghly would have done any better.

The ice above Port Huron also stopped the Presque Isle.

As far as the Port Huron ice last year, it stopped the Speer too, so I doubt the steamer Beeghly would have done any better.

I heard that the reason it stalled in the ice last winter was because the cooling water intake became blocked with brash ice.

Guest wrote:They lost a couple of knots worth of speed overall.

JIM

They must have known this outcome ahead of time when they decided how much diesel HP to purchase? I assume that the loss of speed must be acceptable for the higher efficiency?

Dan

Alex wrote:It was interesting this past Spring to see it get stalled and set in ice which it would have plowed through when it was steam.

Are you referring to when the Beeghly got stuck above Port Huron last Spring?

They lost a couple of knots worth of speed overall.

JIM

It was interesting this past Spring to see it get stalled and set in ice which it would have plowed through when it was steam.

Has anybody heard how the performance of the new diesel powerplant is versus the old steam powerplant? I see they lost some HP on paper atleast.

Dan