Sunday, November 20, 2016

Steam yacht, Buzz

D.W. Fostle, Speedboat, Mystic Seaport Museum, 1988
Buzz was designed and built in 1887 by Charles Dell Mosher, who had studied hydrodynamics in a test tank he had fashioned out of an unused mill race. He had installed glass panels in the sides and bottom of the mill race so he could study hull shape from all angles. What he came came up with was a hull shape that planed over rather than pushed though the water. 
Buzz was 50' long with a 6'6" beam and drew only 16" of water. She was clocked at nearly 27 mph, and may have been the fastest boat in America at the time.
 The two cylinder steam engine was also designed by Mosher, steam was provided by a boiler from a steam locomotive. 

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