Quicksilver

[quicksilver-wsr]

Nigel,

The Economist has put out a You Tube piece placing Quicksilver at the forefront of the water speed record contenders in 2015. What is the information regarding a bid - will it be on Coniston Water?

Malcolm

Always be a bit wary of what the media say. Facts get misinterpreted.

They are right to mention 2015, as we do hope to get the boat on the water at some stage towards the end of next year, but there is no way we will be putting a record campaign together until we have the boat running at speed in trials.

As you know, trials cannot take place on Coniston - only record attempts - due to LDNPA regulations.

So it's a nice piece The Economist has put together, but the timing part is misleading.

There'll be plenty of prior notice of when we are ready to launch the boat. The dead give-away will be when we have the hull skinned. And that's what we are currently working on.

Nigel

[quicksilver-wsr]

Sad to record on here the passing last night of Gavin Sismey, aged 68, after a short but brave fight against cancer.

Gavin had been with the Quicksilver team for five years, and had in earlier years been heavily involved in both powerboat racing - particularly at Kingsbury - and the world of motorcycling. His legacy will live on in the dozens of beautifully restored classic bikes that sprang from his immaculate home workshop. It was work he loved and only stopped a few weeks ago.

Nigel

[quicksilver-wsr]

The last few months especially, there's been lots of LinkedIn and other such contacts coming in. I guess it's a common problem for some, a boon to others - but as far as Quicksilver is concerned, to anyone who needs or wishes to make contact I would only ask that they do it the old-fashioned way and phone. The number's on our website. Or e-mail is fine.

A LinkedIn account was set up for me years ago, but I don't think I've ever used it and I rarely if ever respond when people "contact" me via networks.

It's great to hear from folks, so this is a general (and polite) message to say: Don't be offended if I don't respond to contact on networks, of any kind. Please just ring up and feel free to chat, or drop a line.

All the best,
Nigel

[Renegadenemo]

While we're on the topic, the same goes for me. No Face-twatter linked to anything for me. As I say to people...

In the beginning there was the text message, and then came email but now there's a new thing you can get where you only have to press a few numbers and, miracle of miracles, you can actually TALK to the person with whom you'd like to communicate. It's astonishing how far technology has come.

[quicksilver-wsr]

I've had a couple of enquiries about the K7 archive of drawings and calcs held by the Science Museum as a result of the discussion on the "Other Record Breakers" thread, and thought it would be a good idea to set out the following for anyone who has a continuing interest.

We created two full sets of K7 drawings and calcs back in the day – by removing, photo-copying and then returning the entire K7 archive held by the Science Museum.

Two sets – one for Ken and one for me – at Ken’s suggestion.

Both sets were held in storage cabinets in the meeting room at Ken’s offices at Bournemouth Airport. This would be 1992/93-time.

However, I never took delivery of my set – partly because I would have struggled for space at my little abode, and partly because … as has been well documented … the Quicksilver project never really ran to the course Ken had been setting out, and therefore I found I had little need of the drawings during the time I was working with him.

As an interesting aside, Ken rang me at one stage after 2001 to ask if I would donate my set to the BBP. I replied that I would be happy to do so. I was somewhat surprised to receive a subsequent phone call from him asking where my set was. Surprised because he held both sets. If I remember right, he couldn't locate either set - neither mine nor his. Ken often got into a muddle like this and it was most frustrating for both of us.

In fairness, this may well have been the time after Ken's business went belly-up, and things will likely have been moved away from the airport by then and it may well have been very difficult to find where things were.

From what I understand, it was quite a long time before the BBP actually got a meaningful set of drawings and related documents from Ken, and even then I wonder if it was ever the fully comprehensive set that we had originally copied.

As I say, frustrating and perplexing are the best words I could apply.

I do have a digital copy of a great deal of the archive, obtained subsequently, but I wouldn’t be able to dig deep enough to find it at present, as we long-since ceased to have need of data relating to K7 and now focus totally on the new boat and not the old one. The old archive stuff is therefore buried deep, along with assorted windtunnel models and other paraphernalia.

Nigel

[Renegadenemo]

We have a fairly comprehensive set of drawings if you want to build a 1954 version. Not much of it would be useful these days, though. Much would be worth a re-design.

[f1steveuk]

Having spent hours creating a file and recovery system for Ken's stuff, as Nigel say's, the problems with Ken's business (I seem to recall either created by, or made worse by 9/11), meant the archive was moved, hurriedly, to the hanger next to A&G, next to Nigel's Buccaneer. This hanger contained the Fireball sailing boat, Jetstar 1, the spare diff boxes for CN7 amongst other treasures. As I witnessed Ken's slow and painful to watch decline, he did indeed become confused and forgetful. Indeed on one trip, Tony James and I traveled all the way down to Bournemouth at Ken's request, and he didn't turn up. After a quick call, he was driven down, and merely said hello, and didn't recall asking us to go, nor what it was about. It was at this time I made initial enquiries into a permanent home for the contents of the hanger, and eventually, the drawings and calc's as well as Ken's famous brown filing boxes were taken to Beaulieu by Mike Varndell. My system was discarded, and so, I have no idea what went, but I'd suggest a lot ifnot all of the copies must have gone there.

[quicksilver-wsr]

I hope some of the archive stuff was what made its way to the BBP, Steve, before Beaulieu swallowed it up.

With the Bucc, long before Ken's business went bust it had gone over to European Aviation's hangar on the other side of the airport. It was only at Ken's for a few weeks - right after we purchased it, late 1998 - because Ken's boys wished it moved at the soonest opportunity, as it was a big beast that was getting in the way of the general-aviation activities on their apron that were, after all, their bread-and-butter.

Can't say I blame them at all for that.

At one point someone - not one of us - pushed it onto the grass at the edge of the apron, to make more space. Of course, it sank into the earth. Not so clever. But we got it out okay.

For the record - purely to stop anyone putting two and two together and making five - the Bucc never at any time went into the Blister Hangar that the Quicksilver project was renting from Ken's business. It just wouldn't have fitted in there. It was too big, any way you wanted to do it, even wings folded.

Yes, it was such a pity the way things worked out for Ken - what with the Quicksilver situation and then his business being gradually forced to the wall by several factors, of which 9/11 was certainly one, although not the only one. If I had that time over I would have handled my side of it a lot more carefully. If I'm honest, I wanted to punish the old man a bit.

There was bitterness, both ways, about the whole thing. But it's done now.

Nigel

[rob565uk]

Your recollections are candid and clearly heartfelt Nigel, but as you say - what's done is done. Heaven knows, I wish I could undo many things I have done, in common with us all. I guess the point is to look back at the past but not stare - just recognise, acknowledge and learn from mistakes.

[quicksilver-wsr]

Yup - definitely older and wiser now.

Nigel