First water contact 07.10.2005
Two days after my birthday, on October 7th 2005, the time had finally come for Emma to be put into the water for the first time. As a reminder: In March 2001 I had started removing the old cabin. In the summer I had the deck coaming added to my specifications at a youth shipyard. In December 2001 I started the actual boat building with the roof. In December 2003, after only 2 years of after-work construction with exactly 2 hands, the boat was finished. In August 2005 the engine was finally finished in my 10 m² basement in Berlin and was installed immediately.
The subsequent heating went smoothly, but the machine didn't do what I wanted. There was something wrong with the timing, even though at home everything in the basement had worked with compressed air.
After a lot of technical discussion, it turned out that I had simply not installed the key between the crankshaft and the reversing eccentric. The press fit was sufficient for compressed air operation, but during longer steam operation with higher pressures the timing kept getting out of adjustment. The first test drive was therefore postponed until the following weekend.
Nevertheless, this was a successful day and a milestone in the realization of my steam boat dream!