S/S Lalli

Story

Lalli is a steam loop built by an individual for his own recreational use according to Selway Fisher’s “Fanny, the fantail launch” drawings. Construction of its plywood-epoxy frame began in April 2002. Initially, a scaffolding was made to which softwood plywood arches were attached, to the edges of which larch boards were glued. The plywood base plates were first sawn to approximately their shape, glued with epoxy, and planed to their final shape. The frame is laminated from two 5.4mm mixed plywood layers with a fiberglass mat on the outside. After painting, the frame was inverted and its inner surfaces were epoxidized and the seams were reinforced with fiberglass tape. The benches were built of larch, in addition to which teak and mahogany have been used in the “interior”. The finished hull was launched in July 2003.

Lalli’s first boiler was a vertical horn / fire tube boiler manufactured by Saimaa Steam Power. However, problems with its durability began to appear in 2006, and eventually a new boiler was purchased for it in 2008. A B2 vertical flue boiler was ordered from Sweden unfinished: the painting, insulation and paneling were done by the owner himself. In the same context, the ship’s original surface condenser was also replaced with a “keel condenser” consisting of two parallel 10mm copper tubes placed on the sides of the keel. The feedwater system was also renewed. With a pump attached to the bed of the machine, the feed water is pumped to the boiler via an exhaust steam preheater.

Lalli’s machine, like the boiler, is manufactured by Swedish B2. It is a single-cylinder machine with a Stephenson skate mechanism. The speed of the machine is 200rpm, but to keep the size of the propeller small, the owner has built a system in Lalli where the chain drive makes the propeller rotate at 500 rpm. The lubrication of the machine is arranged in the so-called with a condensing lubricator. In it, the steam is led along a pipe to a lubricating oil tank where it condenses into water. The water sinks heavier under the oil layer and lifts the oil into a pipe from where it travels with the steam to the machine. When filling the lubricator, the water is drained and the tank is filled with oil.

Due to its small size, the lalli is quite easy to transport from one water body to another, and it has often been seen at various steamship and other events. It has also been abroad: it participated in the 2011 Steam Regatta of the Finnish Steam Sailing Society.