Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Cheap Chinese Temu Steam Boat

Ooooooh .... that is (was) a real beauty!

Maintenance be damned, it would still be worth having! Heck, you could even put a steam engine in that fair craft!!!

I have a wooden canoe that I've probably put most of ten thousand miles under the keel in half a dozen States and three Countries, but haven't had it out on the water for several years now, though I do still have it ...... and yes, it does need some maintenance now that you mention it!?!?    ;c)

These clinker built boats (carvel built was fairly rare in my neck of the woods) weren't built as 'forever boats' they were hard working boats that came with a holiday house or could be rented out at the boatshed in tourist season. They were built in a very small lakeside boat shed that was near me (long gone and now just foreshore). Its virtually impossible to stop a wooden boat from eventually developing rot somewhere. Clinker boats needed to be kept in the water to remain water tight. It was a big job for someone to bail them out throughout a high rainfall night (maybe get out of bed multiple times to do it) so that the engines didn't go under water. Lots of folks tried fibreglassing the outside of boats which made them heavy and not as elegant motoring, but it backfired on them because it amplified rot.
As soon as aluminium boats came on the scene (first ones weren't welded they were riveted) these beautiful old boat were left to rot on the banks and foreshores.