A Little Correction Required

After a year of inactivity our old friend, Bluebird K7 was shipped to Wales last month to have an engine fitted. Now first and foremost, the failure in this task (as Lord Shugs might say) was in no way down to the people charged with doing the job. They never stood a chance and we knew that as soon as it was announced. They are very good with aeroplanes - not so good with boats just as we don't know much about aeroplanes.

The engine would be fitted and tested in the hull, the announcement said. Can't be done in just four weeks by inexperienced Bluebird fitters from a standing start, is what we said amongst the team. And, sure enough, Bluebird came back four weeks later to a very subdued reception and a few weasel-words about the engine being fitted and tested, which had they been honest and transparent with us all, would have actually read.

The engine was tested on a transport cradle outside of the boat before parts were taken off to get it into the hull but it doesn't work.

Of course, it will have to come back out again in order to make any progress, no one was fooled, and so the whole exercise was a total waste of time effort, not to mention money, because their free of charge maintenance and engineering facility is building a priceless rally car right now.

Now none of this came as any surprise to the Bluebird Project team and we could write the script for what will happen at the next attempt too.

They bandy the names of big sponsors without seeming to remember that ours were equally big if not bigger, but at the end of the day we have all that hard-won experience and it was us who solved the problems and that's what it comes down to - no matter what it says on your business card - an individual must look at the difficulty and work out a solution, and some of them were real thorny problems.

The result of all this was equally predictable. By far the great majority feel that Bluebird Project was wronged and treated badly and that it's a total no-brainer to leave the team in charge of the engineering side but many have sat on the fence this past year waiting to see which way the wind blew. Now that it's blown away from the Ruskin museum and towards the Bluebird Project many have climbed down and had their say, and you can bet that for every one who speaks up there's another thousand having the same thoughts.

You see, there is absolutely no question whatsoever that in those four weeks, Bluebird Project could have installed an engine, integrated it to the boat's systems and fully tested it and it wouldn't have cost a penny. Maybe had the Ruskin's mission been a success the only issue would have been cost, though people do like the romantic side of the Bluebird Project and do not agree with charity money being spent in big wads when they could have had it for free, but that might have been overlooked in the face of a win. But that chance has gone for good now.

Now there's talk of Bluebird going away for five months to have another go at fitting an engine. Five months! When compared to what Bluebird Project can deliver in a fraction of that time that is just ludicrous and partly what led people to speak up. So much so that, predictably, the Ruskin Museum shut down the comments. It happens time and again. The announce something they think is good and will garner support until right-minded people say, what about the Bluebird Project? They don't like that so they turn it off instead of listening. But it got worse this time because, along with shutting down the comments they also issued this bizarre statement.

They have tried to give the impression that there we all were, beavering away looking for solutions to how we could all work together going forward under the guidance of a mediator when, out of the blue and without warning a letter arrived saying, can't be bothered with this, come and take the boat away and that that is what we wanted. It also makes mention of the 'real story'

Well here is the real story.

First of all, the Ruskin Museum didn't want to mediate, it's one of those things the legal system expects of the protagonists and it counts against you if you don't do it, and whereas we welcomed the opportunity, they didn't and made damned sure they frustrated the process at every turn. There's a raft of letters in the archive about how Loch Fad is too small, to shallow, too far away, too watery and that's only one example. They weren't mediating at all - they were making sure no one could, to the point where the lawyers on both sides were shaking their heads in wonderment and frustration and writing to one another to that effect.

It was therefore blindingly obvious that even if the museum trustees were forced into an agreement their endless obstruction would continue into the future and so it was equally obvious no one was ever going to get value. The only option was to pass the baton and invite them to do what we all knew they would do and it's all happened exactly as we envisaged. But to suggest that that's what anyone over here 'wanted' is just ludicrous - but everyone knows that.

So what's actually been done - or not done in the past year?

Spray baffles still not fitted - 24 screws and half an hour' work, but it's not happened. Why?

No canopy has materialised despite our offer to build one anyway and later giving them permission to use our CAD model. If and when a canopy does appear it had better be beyond perfect too because that's what we would have provided. Then they'll need to solve the problem of a running canopy or it'll blow off like ours did if the boat ever takes to water with such a thing up top again.

Part of the trailer was left outside where the scrap man might nick it.

Where are the wooden extensions to the cradle to give that authentic 1966/67 look? No excuse not to fit those - half a dozen bolts.

And of course - the disastrous attempt to fit an engine.

They say they are moving forwards but they aren't, they're not moving at all. Nor have we bad mouthed any engineers - we've only ever said they're good in their particular field - as we are.

So that's the 'real story' and a sad one at that. You would hope that a year on someone there would say, hmmm, maybe those BBP lot have a point, this is quite tricky, let's look at ways of building bridges, after all it's what a lot of people would like to see.

But, no. It's now seemingly guaranteed that K7 will not be operational this year and it's entirely likely the same will apply next year and if it is operational it's going to be after FIVE MONTHS of work when we could do it in one - absolutely crackers!

But here is the most inexcusable part.

When we were on Bute a sizeable number of visitors were of a generation that remembered Campbell and Bluebird and as something like 75k people crowded onto that little island over ten days to see us, that's a lot of people. The oldies wanted to bask in the nostalgia and close a circle from their youth and many were seen with tears in their eyes.

Bluebird hasn't run for seven years for absolutely no valid reason. How many old folks will now never get the chance we offered on Bute because they're either dead or past making the trip?

There is no reason on this earth why Bluebird could not have been run every year apart from during lockdown and the reason it hasn't is not down to Bluebird Project. It is beyond comprehension.

The situation is only getting worse and it could all be put right with a single phone call. So when someone mentions the 'real story'. This is it.

Postscript.

I took no pleasure in writing any of that. It should never have been necessary but to make such ridiculous claims on a public forum was beyond the pale. Sometimes the record needs to be set straight so that's it done.

Bill