Bute / Coniston Back to Back

[Renegadenemo]

Email sent to the Ruskin Museum trustees today. Hopefully this will meet with approval so we can get on with things.

Dear Sirs,

It is two years since Bluebird K7 last ran and those two years have given no benefit to anyone. We, and many others, therefore feel that enough is enough and the time for positive action has come.

We have spoken with the relevant authorities on the Isle of Bute and obtained their complete support for a second crew training exercise, now necessary due to the lengthy lay-up of both machine and crew, and we hereby formally invite you to join with us in planning two back to back events.
We invite you to work alongside whomsoever of our team you prefer in planning and hosting every detail of a new crew training exercise, which will be in effect a homecoming to Coniston event in perfect miniature. We offer to share our experience and knowledge with the aim of planning in parallel a similar event on Coniston Water a year later.

Carrying out a second crew training would not only bring both machine and team to the peak of efficiency ahead of the Coniston event it would also give us the necessary time to complete the restoration and bring the boat to display standard.

Having come off the water in this condition we would then have approximately 12 months to not only carry out any necessary maintenance on the boat and construction of any items needed for her display but also time to work with yourselves to finalise the Coniston event.

We would then hope that having travelled this journey together we would have long since ironed out in a friendly way any lingering issues and be in a position to place Bluebird on display in her wing following her triumphant homecoming and operation on Coniston Water.

2021 and 2022 is just achievable or, should you require more time, we can aim for 2022/23.

We feel that this is a very reasonable and positive way to move forward and hope that you agree. We would appreciate your thoughts at the earliest as there is much to do and the sooner we get started the sooner everyone can enjoy Bluebird again.

Yours faithfully,

The Bluebird Project Team.

[Jordangbr]

I think that’s a very fair offer. The deadlock has to be broken and in the most positive way as can be by allowing the public to see her in her natural element and then working towards a Coniston homecoming and display in the Ruskin Museum. After all it has always been the aim of the Project and we have never wavered from this. I Implore the good folk at the museum and the trustees to pick up the phone and let’s move this forward.

[JfromJAGs]

In a perfect world this sounds like a really good plan.

Problem is, there are some circumstances, circumstances which I don't know and thus don't understand, which prohibit the museum side to also think the above is a good plan. As long as these circumstances are unclear, I have doubts you will receive an answer to that plan. They will probably even take it as an insult.

I'm hoping I'm wrong.

BR,
Joerg

[bluebirdsback]

Museum could make an absolute fortune from events like this. People watching the runs would want to visit the museum to see her displayed. They could set up a stall to sell their goods during the running exercises. I woldn't turn a chance like that down.
Hope something happens soon though. I'm 66 and 1/4

[Renegadenemo]

Problem is, there are some circumstances, circumstances which I don't know and thus don't understand, which prohibit the museum side to also think the above is a good plan. As long as these circumstances are unclear, I have doubts you will receive an answer to that plan. They will probably even take it as an insult.

I'm hoping I'm wrong.

You're not alone there. There are circumstances we don't understand either. I literally get hundreds of messages from baffled observers asking me to explain the bit they're missing and I have to say every time that we're missing it too.

Some say that the museum trustees are just plain and simple in a huff, but I don't buy that. Yes, feelings have run high and things have been said but that's very much a two-way street because if we wanted to make something of it we have been very badly let down, falsely accused, stabbed in the back and outrageously libeled with that old DoG and fake letter but we're not sitting huffily refusing to speak. It has to be consigned to the past, line drawn in the sand and step over it, time to move on and I just do not accept that people in such a responsible position with so much at stake could behave that way so there has to be something else.

Another oft-suggested cause is the brief revisiting of the joint ownership thing last year and whether that's causing a delay but not only did the lawyers bat that back and forth last year and set out what's what, there's also no valid reason why it should cause a moment's delay because which ever way you slice it between BBP and RM we own all of K7 and don't have to go asking permission anywhere so no reason for that to be an impediment to progress.

The Ruskin Museum's own Wiki entry sets it all out very clearly though it stops short of explaining exactly why there's no ongoing drive towards an agreement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruskin_Museum

So that doesn't explain the lack of progress either.

Folk have also asked whether the museum's wish to revisit the 2013 agreement is slowing things up but in the first instance that agreement works towards running on Coniston then display in the museum so you'd think we'd be all over it ironing out the wrinkles as we go and in the second instance it can be revisited whenever but there's no sign of us even being asked - it's a total mystery. Why hang about?

But possibly the most FAQ is what happened to Gina because to go from, 'she's too young to sit in a crusty old museum', to a most impassioned plea to the trustees at a meeting we attended the following July that Bluebird be displayed by BBP all over the world to what happened on 4th January was simply staggering and without rhyme or reason. We did nothing any differently over that period yet look what happened. Yet another mystery but at least that one caused the scales to fall from many people's eyes and the widespread feeling that we were wronged that day is often expressed so at least we know it wasn't us.

Nope - nothing so far adequately explains what is going on so we remain as baffled as you.

[Engine 711]

But possibly the most FAQ is what happened to Gina because to go from, 'she's too young to sit in a crusty old museum', to a most impassioned plea to the trustees at a meeting we attended the following July that Bluebird be displayed by BBP all over the world to what happened on 4th January was simply staggering and without rhyme or reason. We did nothing any differently over that period yet look what happened. Yet another mystery but at least that one caused the scales to fall from many people's eyes and the widespread feeling that we were wronged that day is often expressed so at least we know it wasn't us.

The shift in position from Ms G Campbell - a full 180 about turn - is what is very difficult to understand - or explain, in any way.

Understanding that, appears to be the key.

[Filtertron]

But possibly the most FAQ is what happened to Gina because to go from, 'she's too young to sit in a crusty old museum', to a most impassioned plea to the trustees at a meeting we attended the following July that Bluebird be displayed by BBP all over the world to what happened on 4th January was simply staggering and without rhyme or reason. We did nothing any differently over that period yet look what happened. Yet another mystery but at least that one caused the scales to fall from many people's eyes and the widespread feeling that we were wronged that day is often expressed so at least we know it wasn't us.

The shift in position from Ms G Campbell - a full 180 about turn - is what is very difficult to understand - or explain, in any way.

Understanding that, appears to be the key.

I'm going to be slightly controversial here and ask: Will understanding why Ms. Campbell did a 180 really matter? She, and her family have signed the original parts (wreckage) of the boat over to the Ruskin Museum, effectively severing their interests in K7 in a legal sense. Really, it's up to the Ruskin Museum and the BBP to sort out now. What Ms. Campbell; you or I, or Luigi the Wonder Dog think doesn't really matter when it comes down to it. We're all on the sidelines. If both the Ruskin and the BBP can come to an agreement on a direction forward, everyone wins. The only way that will happen is if they start talking to each other directly or mediate with an impartial party. It's as simple as that.

[JfromJAGs]

Will understanding why Ms. Campbell did a 180 really matter?

I think it does matter. Maybe not from a legal point of view, but - first - understanding this might give everyone else a clue what's the real problem of the Ruskin side is and - second - I doubt any operation of K7 makes sense without the support or even against the will of the Campbell family.

[Renegadenemo]

I think it does matter. Maybe not from a legal point of view, but - first - understanding this might give everyone else a clue what's the real problem of the Ruskin side is and - second - I doubt any operation of K7 makes sense without the support or even against the will of the Campbell family.

To quote one wise soul from the world of speed records, 'Gina will take up the cause of whoever she sits next to at dinner' and it's true - we've seen it many times but what has happened this time is that others loaded the bullets for her to fire for their own ends.

And it has to be baffling to the museum because one minute they think they have an ally then they realise that that ally will run away leaving them holding the baby when it all goes wrong, another will cause them huge public embarrassment. Who to trust? At least BBP has always sung from the same hymn sheet.

As for future running K7 - there's now a generation of young adult who learned about K7 via the BBP rather than Campbell and I'm sure that most of the youngsters who watched the big blue jet monster on Bute couldn't care less at the time whether it was previously driven by the man in the moon. They'll pick up the historical side later on so it has educational and inspirational value in its own right. We obviously hope that the Campbell family will add to that as long as they're able but the two elements aren't so intertwined that one can't exist without the other.

[Filtertron]

Will understanding why Ms. Campbell did a 180 really matter?

I think it does matter. Maybe not from a legal point of view, but - first - understanding this might give everyone else a clue what's the real problem of the Ruskin side is and - second - I doubt any operation of K7 makes sense without the support or even against the will of the Campbell family.

I don't think it would make any difference, to be honest. In the scheme of things; the BBP and the Ruskin need to sort out their differences, and come up with an agreement that suits them both. That is the most important thing. To do so would require as little outside interference/influence as possible.