Coniston Bye laws/Ruskin

[Renegadenemo]

Problem being Bill that common sense ain’t to common these days .

It's absolutely baffling. I assume the museum and institute want money coming in and much recognition to swell visitor numbers and further their charitable aims - not that I've ever met anyone who really gave a stuff about John Ruskin, so, assuming that, although it's a charity, there still has to be a business element, what do they do? Sit in an enormous stinking huff with no more cards left to play - or align themselves with a team that can and would make their dreams come true?
Likewise, Gina. She loves the publicity and being fêted and photographed so, what to do there? A proper hatchet job in the back for the guys, girls, families and supporters who've done so much to make many of those appearances possible in recent years or, get right behind them in anticipation of the next big TV and public knees up?
And as for the Qualcast Kid - he puts me in mind of one of our chickens that never learned how to go around chicken wire. If it could see its mates through the wire it would hurl itself at the mesh time and again in a vain effort to get to them and it died at a ripe old age having still never worked it out!

We have sat here quietly soaking up the false accusations and allegations and listening, taking the blows and putting up with the bulls**t in the hope that those who have made such catastrophic arses of themselves would wake up one morning and think, oops! So we just kept our heads down so as not to make matters worse but seeing as there's no sign of any epiphanies I will be setting the record straight. I will set out how the museum got in league with The Kid to draw up a new donation agreement that cut BBP out completely (not that that was even remotely possible) then published the old version that they knew very well had been superseded and claimed we'd failed to meet our obligations. I will tell the story of Novie and his number plates and set out in detail all the silly nonsense with the lawyers - the museum broke every rule in the Charities Commission book when it comes to litigation, oh there's a lot of long-overdue home truths going to be laid bare as soon as the diary comes back and that's imminent.

Having given all of this much thought I've concluded that my take on it is a by-product of having a background in industry and manufacturing. I saw plenty of suppliers and customers that would never go for a pint together after work but I never saw a customer harm his or her business because they were in a big stupid huff with a supplier and vice-versa, it just doesn't compute!

The number of people who ask me what the latest is I tell them and they're appalled and disbelieving in equal measure. But it matters not because, as I've said before, the BBP has long since transcended the tin boat. We finally launched our support boat this week and thoroughly enjoyed having it back under our feet after so many years and its near destruction by scallop fishermen and we'll get much joy from it from here on.
We had a wonderful evening of BBP team members and their partners and kids last night firing up Richie's home-built pizza oven for the first time and our Rob - a veteran of the project of fifteen years - has some long lost family staying nearby this coming week so we'll all enjoy meeting them. Then there's our Crusader model that we're all enjoying getting ready for the big anniversary in 2022, Jetstar awaiting resumption of its rebuild and a thousand and one other tasks. And, get this - there's a film script about the project nearing completion with interest from some big players and the question is already being asked, will Bluebird play herself in the movie? That, of course, would be fun but in the event that the silliness continues we'll be building a running movie prop so all our lovingly built chunks of Bluebird will be coming off to be used on that. There's much to be getting on with while we watch and wait and wonder if common sense will prevail but don't cross your fingers and toes or you'll get cramp after a while.

[mtskull]

I will tell the story of Novie and his number plates

Aye, do tell. Last time I looked they were on a Subaru in Coniston (presumably Novie’s?) and now they are on a new BMW motorbike. Odd that...

[Filtertron]

The Qualcast Kid sounds like Wile E. Coyote from the Looney Tunes. Every time he tries to catch the Roadrunner, he fails miserably.

[Renegadenemo]

The Qualcast Kid sounds like Wile E. Coyote from the Looney Tunes. Every time he tries to catch the Roadrunner, he fails miserably.

It is a bit like that but at least Wile E. Coyote is up front with his schemes. You know, a big box of TNT from the ACME store, that sort of thing.

[Renegadenemo]

I will tell the story of Novie and his number plates

Aye, do tell. Last time I looked they were on a Subaru in Coniston (presumably Novie’s?) and now they are on a new BMW motorbike. Odd that...

Odd indeed - it does raise a few questions.

We first met Novie (along with Paul Hannaford) on the shores of Coniston in about 1998. They were obviously watching us but we knew not why. Our best guess was that they were press, perhaps. So I approached them and to my consternation they turned out to be speed freaks on a mission. Now we were acting completely above board but it seemed that these two had been sent by Gina to keep an eye, which was fair enough in those early days, and it wasn't long before Novie had whipped out a couple of books signed by Gina and proudly explained that he was a friend of hers. This gave the embryonic BBP a great opportunity and we immediately invited them to join us on the boat as our independent observers and that is how it began, both of them later becoming great friends and intimately involved members of the team and it becoming very obvious very early on that our Novie was devoted to Gina and would do anything for her. And this never changed.
For example, Novie ran the Coniston 14 mile race to raise money for the project but made sure that some of it went to pay for a footpath all the way to Donald's grave where he would regularly cut the grass, pull the weeds and tidy the flowers. I could write another five thousand words on Novie's loyalty to Gina but you get the picture.

But that loyalty was stretched to breaking point when the project we'd all slaved over for 15 years came under direct attack on 4th Jan 2020 as Novie, along with the rest of us, had always thought we were doing the right thing by Gina and Donald's memory so her blatant attack on us was as shocking as it was disgusting (even though the press had already tipped us off weeks earlier) but there was more to follow.
Novie just wasn't going to throw his mates under the bus (there seems to be a total inability for some people to grasp that there is a whole lot of us over here doing this BBP thing) so he declined to join the damp squib that was the effort to disrupt us and refused to budge.

See where this is going? Here's the short version. Novie had a pair of number plates, loaned to him by Gina for as long as I can remember but when he refused to toe her line they were mercilessly reclaimed and 25 years of Novie's undying friendship were sacked off in a heartbeat because Little Miss All Her Own Way was told 'no'.
Five minutes later they turn up on Mr. Head's shiny new bike.

I'm happy to go on the record and say it's one of the most vile acts of spite I've ever seen and it leaves me with two questions.

Did Gina explain to Mr. H that the plates were with a dear and devoted friend of 25 years?
Did Mr. H know all of this and just not care one way or the other?

Don't worry, Novie. We still love you, brother.

[rob565uk]

Bill - you and I both know Novie and like you, I am utterly appalled by his treatment over the number plates. For more than 20 years, he has worked tremendously hard, with great dedication and complete honesty to restore K7 and honour the memory of Donald Campbell. He of all people did not deserve to be treated that way.

I will watch out for the next Diary updates - sounds like they will make very uncomfortable reading for some ... but I agree it’s time to set the record straight.

[Richie]

The treatment of Novie was a great shock to me, used and cast aside like a piece of filth.


But that seems to be a regular thing, I recall having to take time off work and driving to a house spending the entire day with a team of volunteers doing a fingertip search of what I can only describe as being a golf course in the rain for a certain lost St Christopher.

Clearly all forgotten when the baseball bat came swinging in at our legs on January 4th 2020.


And reading the subsequent vile derogatory comments from Mr H and Gina has left myself and many of the guys feeling foolish and used....

I always try and extend an olive branch in these situations, but I fear that branch is slowly smouldering away.


I feel for the museum as it appears from what I have seen to date, they have been taken for a ride.....contrary to belief, not by us !

[mtskull]

But that seems to be a regular thing, I recall having to take time off work and driving to a house spending the entire day with a team of volunteers doing a fingertip search of what I can only describe as being a golf course in the rain for a certain lost St Christopher.

A certain lost St. Christopher that had been lost once before and was only recovered by the efforts of the BBP, I recall.

I’m not one of those people who feels the need to air their every opinion on this forum, so I’ll just reiterate what I have said before:
It is you, the guys and gals of the Bluebird Project, who are the true keepers of the “Campbell Legacy”. Nil illegitium carborundum....

[Renegadenemo]

But that seems to be a regular thing, I recall having to take time off work and driving to a house spending the entire day with a team of volunteers doing a fingertip search of what I can only describe as being a golf course in the rain for a certain lost St Christopher.

A certain lost St. Christopher that had been lost once before and was only recovered by the efforts of the BBP, I recall.

What is little known is what actually went into recovering even the smallest of personal items. It was a ground-breaking task and a huge and expensive team effort to locate a body in 140ft of black dark water and mud but that wasn't enough for us. We'd erected a lighting tower over the site and even after poor Donald had been scooped up we continued to dive, taking it it in turns to journey to the lakebed with a net. The procedure was to dive into the floodlit area while your dive buddy waited at the top of the tower, look about for anything obvious to pick up then scoop up a big bite of mud in the net. With a leaking bag of mulch now secure the bottom diver, now totally blinded by the swirling mud, would swim up and grip the tower then use their fins (not flippers) to fan away more mud below and hopefully expose any heavier items for the next diver. Once on the tower he (or Sally) would squidge the bag of mud until all that remained was bigger bits and that would be carried to the surface for closer examination. Give the lakebed an hour to settle then down would go the next pair and so we were able to recover even the smallest items.
You may therefore imagine our immense pride at a job well done when, having had a special request to do so, we were able to present Gina with her dad's St. Christopher and the Coroner with fairly complete remains.

And then came something that upset me greatly but of which I've rarely spoken. Only a matter of a couple of weeks later, Gina and her then partner, Marshall proudly showed me his and hers gold Dunhills cigarette lighters - a gift for having put the St. Christopher on display in Dunhill's London club. After all the hard work and danger to recover what we imagined was a deeply sentimental item it was loaned out within days for a pair of tacky fag lighters. Might just be me but that stung.

But I always got along with Marshall. He was very planted, patient and unflappable even when Gina was having one of her Violet Elizabeth Bott moments and a far cry from the new Johnny-Come-Lately who, with no knowledge of what's what, has caused more damage to the whole Campbell story in the few short months since his arrival than the Qualcast Kid has managed in fifteen years! Though there's every chance it's been a joint effort.
Gina should have been listening closely to Novie, her closest aide and confidant instead of taking back her ball and sacking him off. That was a dreadful mistake because everyone loves Novie and even the most bitter and twisted Type III can't dispute his absolute integrity.

That said, I can't help feeling that Gina is something of a victim in all of this. I mean, she did have a bit of a loveless childhood and that can't be healthy for a little girl if my two are any gauge of such things, so having emerged from that it wouldn't be unreasonable to set off in search of love but then someone can have too much of their own way for too long and with no one to tell you you're being a dick-head, as the team do to me when I get ideas above my station, such news becomes harder to swallow when it finally does arrive so about the last thing of any use in that condition is a fawning yes-man.

Mr. H, I suggest you have a long hard look in the mirror then appoint Novie as your adviser on all things Campbell / Bluebird. He'll keep you right.

[thunderer]

But that seems to be a regular thing, I recall having to take time off work and driving to a house spending the entire day with a team of volunteers doing a fingertip search of what I can only describe as being a golf course in the rain for a certain lost St Christopher.

A certain lost St. Christopher that had been lost once before and was only recovered by the efforts of the BBP, I recall.

I’m not one of those people who feels the need to air their every opinion on this forum, so I’ll just reiterate what I have said before:
It is you, the guys and gals of the Bluebird Project, who are the true keepers of the “Campbell Legacy”.

Nil illegitium carborundum....

Can't help but laugh at how that appears to be a fitting description given certain actions and behaviours that have been described....


*** EDITED TO GIVE CORRECT SOURCE OF QUOTE ***