Ryde Paddle Steamer

[Ian WinchesterParticipant @ianwinchester42058]

Colin

I see in my Steam Railway (another hobby) that ship restoration firm have begun the process Of restoring the ship. Siward and Co.is the company.

Remember the model you built, not sure if it was a sister ship Shanklin. Gosh thats going back some years

Best regards

Ian

[Ian WinchesterParticipant @ianwinchester42058]

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Ian,

You are close! I did build Shanklin back in the early 80s and she was an Isle of Wight ferry too but she was a Denny built motorship. She was quite good in the steering regattas and I still have her boxed up in the garage, her running days long over.

The project to restore Ryde is a complete non starter and will never come to anything. It would be cheaper to build a replica from the plans in the NMM Denny collection. The vessel today is just a heap of scrap metal with sides, decks and frames all rusting right through. There might just be something salvageable left of the engines as a static exhibit somethere inside but the ship is unsafe to enter now. You can see something of her present condition in this drone video.

**LINK**

Hope you get somewhere with Garnock, it was a lovely looking model.

In the meantime welcome to the forum and I hope you will be a regular visitor.

Cheers,

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Engines, a paddle and a couple of the big cowl vents would make a nice exhibit, but I have to agree with Colin, a restoration would likely be a total rebuild and more expensive than making a new one. WHICH you could then sail for revenue paying passengers!

A different project compared to Warrior, the hull of which was in great condition.

Ashley

[Tony HadleyParticipant @tonyhadley]

To add further to Colin and Ashley's post, a restoration of this vessel would need more than a lottery win. Two other paddlers, Medway Queen and Maid of the Loch are still not ready despite investment. The Medway Queen had a new hull but still needs massive investment.

The currently in-service Waverley had a paddle wheel and shaft problem back in 2008. I read an article about the repairs needed – they needed specialist machining facilities to one of the paddle wheels and after a series of phone calls it looked like they were going to have to loose a lot of sailing time to send the wheel to Poland for machining. It would require six weeks to complete the paperwork first. Luckily a company in Manchester was located, who make tunnel boring machines and they were able to carry out the work.

To undertake a project such as this, it has been mentioned many times about the skills not being there, but lets not forget this is a heavily de-industrialised country and would probably involve parts being made abroad e.g. the famous steam locomotive Tornado had the boiler made in Germany.

Waverley paddle wheel repair can be seen in the link –

**LINK**

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

The Medway Queen has a new hull and new superstructure so I'm not entirely sure just how much of the original ship is still there. She would appear to be more of a replica than a restoration by all accounts.

Although the long term intention is to restore her to a seaworthy condition and get her back in steam I did read somewhere that there is no intention to offer public sailings in the vessels as with Waverley.

Colin

[Tony HadleyParticipant @tonyhadley]

That's interesting Colin, I had a look at their website and nowhere does it say what the planned future use is for the vessel, only what you say in your post – "to restore her to a seaworthy condition". What plans they have for her future could be anyone's guess, static exhibit, museum ship, private hire, conversion to a restaurant or other use.

I can remember reading some years ago, before the new hull was built, that the lottery grant required a riveted hull in order to receive funding. The MCA had a problem with this for public/passenger use. I thought these problems would have been overcome by now.

[Author]

Posts