Why cant the BBP just get some sponsors and money and go it alone and show off K7 without the museum .
We have sponsors and money and we'd be happy to run the boat but someone at the museum saw fit at the start of last year to wheel in a lawyer and we all know how that always leads to harmony and accord - never fails.
There was a slight problem in that whoever did that had no grasp of the position so all it did (apart from set the record straight with regard to the position, which was a good thing and long overdue) was waste a lot of time and money but it also set a precedent that if someone could be so foolish once then maybe they could do it again.
Agreement was reached on the way forward in 2013 but now the museum wants to re-negotiate that - not that there's any sign of this happening - but the main reasons we're in the workshop and not on the water are twofold.
Firstly, when we went to Bute we were a long way from finishing
K7's rebuild. We had her at a point where we could test a lot of things, mainly ourselves, but there was, and remains, much work to do so we came back all ready to crack on with our work only to be brought to a standstill by events that followed.
Secondly, Bute was a big commitment not only for us but also for the isle and its community. The army came to put our slipway in and local people and businesses made provision to accommodate us and handle the increased visitors - a challenge they rose to magnificently. Then, when we got back, we were immediately invited to run on Coniston in July this year so we threw ourselves into that with equal commitment only to have the rug pulled later once we'd done a lot of preparation. To prevent total calamity we immediately invited the museum to join us in a joint venture back to Bute on the same dates but all we got was a lawyer's letter, the net result being that we had people all over the place having to cancel accommodation and take leave with nothing to go and look at. It was a disaster for no reason whatsoever.
For that reason we'll not be going back to the water until we're categorically assured that there'll be no similar shenanigans and we have a bulletproof contract in place to ensure that
K7 lives and runs into the future - and is properly displayed the rest of the time - and until then those who want to continue working on the rebuild will do that and those who would prefer to wait for the ink to dry can develop our other projects.
Now you would imagine that, seeing as it's the museum that wants a new agreement, there would be emails flying and the phone would never stop in an effort to get this down but all we hear is deafening silence. So, in conclusion, in the absence of any progress we are not going to put our people, supporters or sponsors in the way of similar behaviour to what we saw at the start of this year until we are totally happy that there won't be any further issues.
It's not as though we're stuck for things to do, though. The Vulcan project was immensely fun and rewarding and extremely well received - summer is coming, watch this space.