Bluebird K4 Proprider

[Black Knight]

Has anyone got detailed photo's of K4 when she was a proprider? All over views plus underside & cockpits would be fab.
Cheers

[longarmedgibbon]

Heres my dads model if any help

[Black Knight]

Cheers but thats the standard K4. I'm after the converted version with the forward half of the boat flat decked & 2 cockpits either side of where the original cockpit was.

[quicksilver-wsr]

Two cockpits!

Jesus - just think of the disorientation. The parallax effect. No wonder Donald didn't win the Oltranza Cup.

Nigel

[Black Knight]

When Donald had K4 reverted back to her original config, he had a cockpit mounted to his right for Leo to sit.

What a place for a joyride

[quicksilver-wsr]

I was having a dig, Black Knight - though not at you.

It has been said that sitting well off-centreline when driving a high-speed boat results in disorientation to such an extent that the driver cannot maintain control of his craft, etc.

Never mind that this has been disproved countless times throughout fast-boat history.

Yes, Donald had K4 modified with a cockpit for Leo to his immediate right. Later, as part of a wholesale shift of emphasis, they did away with the centreline cockpit altogether and placed a cockpit on either side, symmetrically - both well off-centreline.

History records that the difference from the driver's point of view wasn't exactly debilitating. I believe Donald even collected a small piece of silverware for his efforts - in what was his first race meeting.

Nigel

[f1steveuk]

The K4 prop-rider, probably one of the least photographed record attempt boats ever. I don't think there is very much about on her at all. I have never (and I've been doing the record breaking/Blue Bird (two words for Sir Malcolm) thing for some time), seen a picture of the dash board. Even in Leo's archive of notes, drawings, logs and pictures there's hardly anything. But Howard Statham's model was very well done, and it was he who did the 1/43rd drawings etc

This picture has always puzzled me though



Ewan Corlett with the prop-rider prop of K4, with the water scoop to the port side. Where's the skeg, and the holes to fit it????

[quicksilver-wsr]

Thanks for posting, Steve. I'd seen that shot before, but maybe some visitors here haven't.

I have to agree that there's not a lot of documentation survives on K4 in prop-rider guise. Howard would know most of what there was left to know, as he had several pix from that time - many of which I eventually purchased, way back. These had been owned by Leo before, and later passed to Leo's son Tim in Derby.

The most impressive of these was a very large hand-coloured photo in a frame - this being one of (I think) seven that were produced for the core Bluebird team-members to mark the splendid achievement of the Oltranza Cup victory - one of Donald's very finest moments.

There is a picture in one book I've seen of Donald sitting in his study in which his example is hung on the wall behind his desk. They were all identical, mine being the one presented to Leo. You could see the upper-hull detail very clearly, I recall. It was a lovely shot of the boat with its crew and the Cup, posed for the occasion.

Anxious to fund Quicksilver, I sold it some years later - as part of a batch of materials of Leo's - to Don Sidebottom. Lord knows where it is now. When I looked round the museum at Holker Hall several years later (2000) there was no sign of it.

I was quite disappointed, as I'd sold it to a museum-owner because I wanted more people to be able to see it - as well as needing the money, of course.

One day I guess it will surface.

My view is that someone should have formed a proper Bluebird Historical Trust after Donald died and pulled as many documents and artifacts as possible together, maintaining them for posterity. This would have created a wonderful national resource. Heaven knows, there were enough people with the money to have funded it. There would have been no need for the K7 and CN7 archives to have gone to the Science Museum, for a start - so Ken would have been happy. Everything could have been kept together ... and added-to later, as other items became progressively available.

I'm saving my remarks on all this for my book, however - so that's enough belly-aching for now!

Nigel

[Speedfab]

The K4 prop-rider, probably one of the least photographed record attempt boats ever. I don't think there is very much about on her at all. I have never (and I've been doing the record breaking/Blue Bird (two words for Sir Malcolm) thing for some time), seen a picture of the dash board. Even in Leo's archive of notes, drawings, logs and pictures there's hardly anything. But Howard Statham's model was very well done, and it was he who did the 1/43rd drawings etc

This picture has always puzzled me though



Ewan Corlett with the prop-rider prop of K4, with the water scoop to the port side. Where's the skeg, and the holes to fit it????

Steve, if by skeg you mean rudder, that IS the item to the port side. I do not see a water scoop in that picture. Rudders are commonly offset like that in prop riding hydroplanes to keep them in "clean" water and out of the prop turbulence. If you look closely you can see a zerk fitting in that lower rudder shaft bearing block.

I more wonder what demolished the lower leading edge of the prop (it appears he is holding it backwards) in the gentleman's hand.

[f1steveuk]

Well I thought a "skeg" was rudder and prop' support all in one, and I knew they had gone "offset", I was pointing out that it may have been a mistake, as the prop support at the stern doesn't look up to the job, and as shaft flexing is what "did for" K4, I thought it was worth pointing out.

Anyway, have you seen this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAHhMp1YCnA

Some close up stuff, but not much.

Nigel, I recall the picture you mentioned, was it inside the cover of "Into The Water Barrier"? I had one for a short time that was Reid Railton's, I believe each of the team got one. If I recall correctly (unlikely!!) Reid has one hand on the Oltranza Cup?