Steamboat Minnehaha Blog

Summer is here and on Minnehaha our crew is very enthusiastic about this years operations! This past Wednesday was our first evening Concert Series cruise of the Season. Every Wednesday now through the last week in July you can catch the Minnehaha at the Excelsior City Dock for a cruise to Wayzata at 6PM. Be sure to bring lawn chairs and picnic coolers as we will be stopping at the Wayzata Depot for a on-shore Concert. Beginning at 7pm (when the boat arrives in Wayzata). The Concert lasts 90min. and following the Concert all Minnehaha guests get another (SUNSET!!!) cruise back to Excelsior. The evening concludes with a calm quiet (95% satisfying) sunset on Beautiful Lake Minnetonka. If you have ever thought about the Minnehaha for an evening cruise this is one that you will not forget for awhile. So Jump on board, buy advance tickets through our website or on the boat. Oh, one more thing, don’t be late! I recommend arriving at least 15 min. prior to Departure.

Once again we are having a fantastic season so come on out and meet our fantastic crew members and Sail on MINNEHAHA!

TOOT TOOT!

If you are going to be out walking around Lake Minnetonka in Excelsior or Wayzata in the next week or so you may observe that Minnehaha is out operating. We always re-train our crew before the season starts. I have also heard through the grapevine that we will be offering a few short rides out of The Wayzata Deopt on Sunday May 17th. I believe the rides are free or super cheap. If you are in the area around the noon hour I believe that will occur. I know Minnehaha Will be in Wayzata Bay that Day.

Also Our schedule has been posted on our schedule page and you may all begin purchasing your tickets today! Also Memberships to the Museum are available on our website as well as the ability to donate!

To keep track of the News happening around Minnehaha I have created a new page: blog.steamboatminnehahah.org/news You can keep track of all that we do. Check it Frequently!

On Behalf of the Museum of Lake Minnetonka and the Steamboat Minnehaha I would like to formally Welcome all of our Riders and Sponsors into the 2009 Steamboating Season!

We will see you on the Boat!

Adam

The Steamboat Minnehaha was lauched on Lake Minnetonka this past Saturday May 9m 2009. We even had some Guests along for the fun of it all! Guests included the Boy Scouts color guard who raised the Minnehaha’s Flag for the first time this year! As well as some new crew members this summer! Also for those who I talked to this weekend about crewing on Minnehaha (and those who are interested!) please send me an e-mail coloradosparkyred@yahoo.com or call my cell 763-486-9886!

 Oh and I am creating a page with all the pictures we took of Minnehaha at the Launch. Just follow this link: http://blog.steamboatminnehaha.org/news/

Thanks Adam

Welcome to SPRING! As spring arrives the Museum has woken up and all of us at MLM are getting ready for a super successful season.

Check our Schedule Page for this year’s Regular, Concert, and Fall Cruise schedules

 This Year will be a very new experience for the Minnehaha’s Crew. In order to get ready the Minnehaha crew is undergoing Classroom training prior to the scheduled May 9th Launch. Crew training will be the following week (so if you see Minnehaha steaming around the lake it is for training the crew (until Memorial Day weekend). The Crew (after the first meeting) seem very well accepting to the classroom training. It promotes teamwork and cross-training for emergency situations. This year we can guarantee that our crew is on top of their game more than ever before!!!!

If you are looking to Join the Crew this year we highly encourage it. Please contact Adam Steinmetz @ 763-486-9886 or coloradosparkyred@yahoo.com for more information on our volunteer Crew positions. P.S. It is a lot of fun to be on a cruise for free all summer long!

Once again we are EXCITED for this upcoming season and we look forward to seeing all of our riders back out in Excelsior this Summer.

Allow me to introduce myself as a new contributing editor to the Minnehaha Steamboat blog.  My name is Karl and I volunteer on the Minnehaha.  You most likely will never see me as my volunteer activity occurs in the winter, when we do maintenance and repair on the “ha ha”.  Adam who has been writing this blog is currently busy with his studies and is more involved with the boat in the summer when she is afloat.  He and I will split the seasons, hard water and soft water, such that we can update you on the Minnehaha’s activities year round.

This is my fourth year as a volunteer and all four years has been spent helping with the winter maintenance.  Each year there has been something different to work on which keeps it interesting.  My ”day” job is in the white collar sector and does not provide me the opportunity to play in the dirt with fun tools.  This makes Saturday mornings with the Minnehaha play time, and I enjoy the change of pace working on the boat provides.  My wife also volunteers and she is an active volutnteer year ’round.  As part of the Minnehaha marketing team she wished to see the blog updated on a more frequent basis over the winter.   She is a lovely and intelligent woman who suffers from the misguided belief that I possess a modicum of writing ability.  Her spousal belief in my writing skills, combined with her marketing goals and persuasive ability created a perfect storm which has led to my new position as a Minnehaha blogger.  You should know that I am learning to touch type ( I sure miss looking at those keys) and am not particularily fond of the word blog, however I do like what blogging is able to accomplish so bear with me as my communication and typing (keyboarding) skills grow with this blog. 

Right now the Minnehaha is undergoing significant hull restoration and she does not look like she could possibly be floating come this May.  She will be ready, and if you are interested in following her progress please come back and watch the Minnehaha’s hull repair as we get her ready for the coming boating season.

I thought a catchy title might attract a few curious readers.  Here is the Minnehaha today, she has a few ribs showing, thus the title of this blog entry. How did we get to this rather unbecoming look for a boat?

Winter is a time for maintenance, inspection and repair.  As some of you may have read in an entry from last spring the Minnehaha took on a lot of water when she was launched, so much in fact that the extra pumps could barely keep her afloat.  Wood boats built with traditional construction methods take on water when launched in the spring.  This happens because the wood dries and the planks shrink in the dry winter air, while they are out of the water.  When launched in the spring they all leak a bit as the planks take up water and start to swell against each other.  Once the gaps have swelled shut the leaking is pretty much done until the next spring when the cycle is repeated.  Last spring’s launch was much worse than it should have been, and it was apparent that she would need to have some work done on her hull this winter to avoid another high anxiety spring launch.

This fall, once she was stored in her Excelsior based custom storage shed it was time to assess her hull and find the planks that needed replacement.   It seems like the bad planks should be easily found when she is on her trailer, but nothing worthwhile comes easy.  First the paint needed to be removed by cob blasting in order to see the bare wood.  Cob blasting is sand blasting, substituting corn cob bits for the sand.  The cob bits are much softer than sand and do not tear up the wood like sand will.  Once this beautiful lady had been stripped, a few planks with longitudinal cracks, (a.k.a. checks in the parlance of woodworkers) were identified and obviously needed replacement.

Alright, that was easy wasn’t it?  Obviously not if you view the photos,  even the most casual observer can see that more than a “few” planks are missing.  How did we get from a few planks to major chunks of the hull missing?  Come back in about a week and I will continue the tale of “How the “”ha ha”" lost her hull”.

Join the Steamboat Minnehaha’s Crew!

As we begin our winter maintenance season I begin my recruiting season. As a 4 year member with the Museum of Lake Minnetonka I’ve seen a lot. And one of the most important assets we have is our Volunteer work force. They allow us to expand our arms and reach out to the public to educate them on the historical significance of Lake Minnetonka. When I began with the Museum 4 years ago I never knew who Thomas Lowary was, Today I know that he was the owner of the Twin Cities Rapid Transit Company, that his company owned 7 Streetcar Boats (including the Minnehaha), Owned Big Island Park, Streetcar line from Stillwater to Excelsior, 3 Ferry boats, and 3 tour boats.

I would not know this today if I had not joined the museum 4 years ago. Today I am a pilot (soon to be Captain), a well sought after purser, and a pretty darn good narrator. I have implemented many Ideas into this museum who’s average age runs around 55 (I’m 17) and we have become so much better as a museum since we have restructured to appeal to the younger folk. We now realize that if we don’t educate the generation of tomorrow the history will not live on. 

So this is a challenge to all of you who read this blog… call me (763-486-9886) e-mail me (coloradosparkyred@yahoo.com) and join the Museum of Lake Minnetonka. Especially those of you under the age of 40. We could really use the energy that a younger generation can put out. The more we have the quicker we can get things done to better improve our mission and also to expand our services. The more crew we have the more frequent we can run the steamer and the more frequent she is running the more passengers we will get and the financial status of the Museum will further improve $$$$!

Please consider joining the Museum in any way you like.

We have positions from advertising to managing the booths to public speaking at schools.

Thank You for your interest in the Steamboat Minnehaha and the Museum of Lake Minnetonka

Adam Steinmetz

Youth Recruiting! Steamboat Pilot! Purser! All around fun kid!