Are You a Chevy Fan?

Mat,

My preference is Dodge trucks...but, I am impressed at what that little Duramax did there. You are sure to get a few Ford Triton V10 diesel fans with comments, too...so be careful!

Wow, she is just 70 tons? I would have thought more. Did you off load all fuel and water before the pull?

Travis

Well, since I'm on dial-up, I don't get to see the video (at least a half-hour to download, if it doesn't shut down in the middle anyways), BUT! I'm a Ford (prewar) & Dodge Brothers guy--although I did at one time own a '39 Chev town sedan, and our everyday car for many years was a '46 Chevy club coupe. I wonder if my '53 Dodge PU could have done that job--she's got a granny low gear!
S'
David D.

Travis Vasconcelos;19481 wrote: Mat,

Wow, she is just 70 tons? I would have thought more. Did you off load all fuel and water before the pull?

Travis

We do pump off all the fuel, water, sewage, as well as everything else that isn't bolted to the deck. But you have to remember that only the hull of the Belle is steel, everything from the main deck up is aluminum, which is one of the reasons she is so light.

Mat,

Seems to me I remember Capt. Alan Bates telling me that back around the time she first hit the water. I was very fortunate to life 2 blocks up the alley from him as a child (and part of my adult life). He gave me a newspaper article that I will scan and send you if I even find that box again! Like so many on here, my collection is in several storage containers all over the house and basement. Someday I hope to catagorize it so I can just pull out what I want when I do. This way, everything is a surprize and quite hard to find!

Travis

PS. Still think a Cummins Diesel Dodge would be a better choice!

damn, thats pretty impressive! A whole of a hell lot faster than our drydock haha

70 tons looks about right, to me, looking at the size of the CB's hull. This would be actual tonnage, not admeasured tonnage (which would be a much smaller number based on archaic methods -- Alan covers admeasured tonnage in his Oct 19th Waterways Journal column). The Barbara H is registered with the Coast Guard at 51 tons (admeasured), but the actual tonnage is somewhere between 96 and 106 tons, I believe.

Mat, what's the size of the CB's hull? Looks like about 60' x 18' x 3' (?). How much does she draw (light)?

Alan's CB info

According to Alan's WJ article of April 5, 2004, The BELLE's hull is 65 x 22 x 5. He said the cabin and pilothouse are made of aluminum plate and the railings are made of aluminum punchings. He continues with the interesting story of Jefferson "Sludge" Munson, who built the cabin. The engines were made by Henry McBride of Fulton, Illinois (here on the UMR Mile 523). Alan also included a collage photo of Chautauqua Lake Steamboats, some of which I'll bet the other Matt of CL would be acquainted with.
(Travis, I just happened to be sorting out WJ Old Boat pages this weekend, so this article was at my feet, purely by luck!)

Gee whizz, Judy!
Do you save EVERYTHING? I thought my ego-collection of all my Old Boat Columns was the only one.

Hey, Matt,
next year add a sheave to the tow line and the Chevy will walk her out easily, a little slower, but easier on the tires.

Thanks Judy. Just wanted to add that the book "Steamboats Today" (1986 by Rhodes & Scott) lists the CB as 65' x 20' with 30" draft, and 60 tons. Apparently the hull was widened to 20' in 1979 to improve stability. Not sure what the original beam was. Maybe the 22' beam is the "over the deck" beam (from rubrail to rubrail). I guess Mat would know for sure!

Saving stuff

It only seems like I save everything.. but I did save all the Old Boat Columns. I just tossed them in drawers with other newspaper/magazine articles, so now I am sorting those drawers out and pitching a lot of stuff, but not the OB pages. I can sort while watching the endless number of football games on TV, except when I'm watching the Ducks - their games are too exciting - and since I've taken the chance and bought plane fare, game/parade tickets, etc. for the Rose Bowl already, I have more than a passing interest in how their game is going! Sunshine decided that I had put the OB pages into a folder too neatly, so he 'refiled' them all over the floor for me.

Mathew Stage;19480 wrote: Just a neat video I recorded this last time we pulled the Belle out of the water, we use our Chevy 2500 Duramax to pull her up to shore most of the way, and the final pull up we have to bring in something with a little more weight.

YouTube - Chevy Vs Steamboat

You should send this to Howie Long!!!

was the truck in 4 low???

Steve Huffman;19500 wrote: Thanks Judy. Just wanted to add that the book "Steamboats Today" (1986 by Rhodes & Scott) lists the CB as 65' x 20' with 30" draft, and 60 tons. Apparently the hull was widened to 20' in 1979 to improve stability. Not sure what the original beam was. Maybe the 22' beam is the "over the deck" beam (from rubrail to rubrail). I guess Mat would know for sure!

the 22' beam was the original over the deck beam, however when they widened her it became her true beam, however the portions added on do not go clear to the bottom, they stop about a foot and a half from the bottom so they didn't have to redo the sea chests. 65' x 22' x 5' she draws about 20 inches light.

Hopefully Chevy picks up the video! and Alan i don't have anything to hook the other end of the wire rope to if I was to add a sheave or else that would work great!

Would another heavy truck with the wheels well blocked be enough of a deadman?

Hank Bloomer;19573 wrote: Would another heavy truck with the wheels well blocked be enough of a deadman?

Hank from what I can imagine that wouldn't work because the standing block would have to be directly in line with the snatch, and so the wire-rope would have to run under our truck, and stay low enough to not cut up into our undercarriage. We could always run the working end to the side, but then your putting the stress going to three directions now!

Bury a deadman, Mathew! Dig a trench big enough for an old railroad tie about two feet deep and about a hundred feet from the shore. Put a wire line around the tie and backfill leaving a few feet of cable above the ground. Clamp an eye in the cable and hitch your towline to that eye. Hitch a sheave to the boat at the bitts. Run the towline from the deadman through the sheave then to your truck. The tie should be at ninety degrees to the towline. A log or an old beam or a poured concrete anchor will do as well as a tie.

I was going to suggest a buried deadman, but didn't know if you can dig in the ramp area. If you put a truck deadman far enough back and then pull just alongside the cable, it shouldn't produce enough off-set to be a problem. 'Course that would take a lot of cable.