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[rugsta]

Hello all,

I apologise for the location of this query and hope someone can slot it into where it should go.

My father was a keen modeller through the years, boats, aeroplanes, helicopters (even in the early 80's), through to self built FPV Drones and even a hovercraft. He sadly passed away a few weeks ago and as I'm sure other members here have had to do I am currently slowly sorting through his items.

One such item is a steam launch he built in the mid 90's. The boat is around a meter long but I'm unsure of the boat hull type. The boiler is a Scott Marine with copper barrel and tubes fired by a butane gas canister up front. Documentation for a hydraulic test states water capacity as "430cc liters" and Max working pressure of 50psi. R/C gear is restricted to rudder only. The boat was taken to the Lake Windermere model steam boat rallies in the early 2000's but hasn't been used for some years, the expiry of the last boiler pressure test was 2010.

He was a member of a model boat club and existence of this model is known there as some members are interested in it. I have some r/c knowledge but nothing of this type, I literally have no idea of its value and was hoping some forum members could give me some ball park numbers.

We are not trying to extract as much cash as possible here and really would like to sell it to a fellow club member who knew my father but also we want to be respectful of the time and effort he put into his models and not simply give things away. I hope forum members understand this and appreciate if anyone can help.

regards

[malcolmfrary]

Rules regarding boiler testing change from time to time, the last one I saw indicated that

"That the Owner/User of a steam powered model or a steam
powered boat has proof that the boiler, of 3 bar litres or above but
not exceeding 1100 bar litres (see paragraphs 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4),
has been examined, tested and duly certificated."

This boiler, rated for 50psi (=3.6 Bar) and 430cc gives 1.54 bar/litre.  Translating, effectively it doesn't need a certificate being below 3 bar litres.  It "might" need a certificate to say that. 
It would be good sense to pressure test it to ensure no leaks and ensure that the safety valve performs correctly, but the thinking behind the lower limit is that a small, low-ish pressure boiler does not contain enough energy to do serious damage.  While it could cause serious discomfort through scalding to the operator, it won't scatter shrapnel over a wide area.