The Bluebird Project

My own personal view is to re-instate the HPC and put it back where it belongs doing the job it can still do and is original. I do understand the view of it's a component frozen in time and has been that way since the morning of January 4th but if you remove it and display it surely it takes the component out of context?
I can relate to seeing it in it's position, it's function and capable of doing the same job it did all those years ago if it was back on the boat.

I voted rebuild - as far as I can tell the aim is to make bluebird live again using as much original material as is possible.

i agree with the above posts, if it will fix; fix it. if its back in the boat it is doing the job it was intended for and it wasnt intended to be in a glass case

Hi All,

It seems I'm there out on a limb again. I know it will not be popular, but my view is, and will always be,

"If the Donald put it there, then that's where it should stay there, for ALL TIME".

Regards, Fred




"I'm just a pest, that won't go away!"

My vote goes for rebuild.
Bluebird is a unique craft and we are rebuilding the original, not a copy. If we can use any recovered part, then that's where it belongs.

the water brake is still extended, so should we leave that alone?

Hi All,

It's me again, and my views are just the same about this piece Mike.

"The Donald put it down, It should stay down".

As with the Lever, they are "Slots in time", and should remain sacrosanct!. They could also tell part of the story, more effectively as they are. Whereas remade, they as with my little contribution, will probably never be seen again.

As for the cockpit, well, having seen it, and knowing Gina's views on it, it couldn't have been displayed, in whatever form without a rebuild. Having been involved with the rebuild of parts of the Donald's seat, I shall always remain thankfull to Bill for that privilege.

Regards to all, Fred



"I'm just a pest, that won't go away!"

The Donald also put it on the bottom of Coniston.............

Having seen the item in question could we not do both

conserve the whole outer casing and make new internals (or not) for the museum display and then use the original internals with a new outer casing for the boat

Seems to have attracted various opinions this one. During my time of chief de riveter i spent many many hours stripping mangled panels from the wreckage and passing them on to Bill. Most i never expected to see again. Now as lord of the rivets i find Bill giving me these same panels back in amazing condition and are all now firmly fixed to the boat.
It fell upon me to strip down the remains of the seat pan section which included removal of the blocktube lever. My thoughts then were it would be a shame if that was never used again. I passed it on to Bill. Every part of what i stripped out that day is now back on the boat. It has always been the object of the project to use every piece possible to make her original. if we dont put that piece back as best we can then where do you stop? I can understand respect for Donald but if we didn't change things he did that day we would not have a rebuild. So from the man who took it off my, vote is it goes back on.

Now that we have one or two opinions on the table I'll voice my own; and I find myself properly torn by this one. It's reasonable to say that everything we've rebuilt so far was found just as Donald left it but it's also fair to say that he didn't intend to leave it that way. The HPC, on the other hand, was only moved once the decision to go for it had formed in his mind and it being defiantly frozen in the 'on' position despite the ensuing violence has left us with a tiny time capsule of Donald's grit and determination that morning.

Part of me says it should never be moved, and thanks to our old friend Fred for voicing that side of the discussion, but I've always had a problem with mueum people killing off perfectly serviceable pieces of machinery in the name of museum 'ethics' when we, the public, would sometimes like to see just a little more balls from them. Anyone seen Mallard in the National Railway Museum or Turbinia here in Newcastle? Our team could have either of those machines up and running in the blink of an eye compared to the epic we're going through with this tin boat but both have become victims of museological euthanasia, never likely to feel the heat of combustion again in out lifetimes at least.

For that reason I would rebuild the HPC and put it back with all the other recovered components as a fully functioning piece of the system it was born into. The idea of leaving it dead in a display case, a surrogate doing its work, when there's fundamentally nothing wrong with it is somehow abhorrent and therefore tips the scale for me... but only just.

Having said that, let's not get carried away. We have to be careful here because the moment we move that lever there's no going back so let's be a bit cautious and canvass a few more opinions before the decision is taken. Ask your mate at work in the morning, call your granny, wife, mistres or whoever and let's have as many thoughts on the matter as we can get before work begins.