Quicksilver

[Black Knight]

Any chance of posting photo's of what's done so far? Would be nice to see a facebook page with some sort of updates as to what's happening???????

[Jordangbr]

Let us see if Nigel pops up first, I don't want to tread on his toes.
It was a well attended informative talk I must add.

[quicksilver-wsr]

Morning All,

It was good of Jordan to come along - if only to see what the fuss is all about and what we have been doing that has taken so much time.

It's a small world, as they say, as I was doing a low-key talk for a private-members club in Barrow a few weeks earlier, and finding myself - as one does - propping up a bar in a pub in Barrow the evening before, a friendly fellow and his wife came up and started chatting to me. They asked what I was in Barrow for and the chap piped-up, "I know someone who's involved in this sort of thing. Jordan Aspin". So I said, why not ask him to attend the public-access talk I'd be doing at The Forum a few weeks hence.

Anyway, on the night in question there was Jordan among the early arrivers, and I introduced myself and told him what he'd be seeing is a comprehensive account of the history of our project that he would view either as highly informative or a bunch of good excuses, depending on his viewpoint.

I must say the talk went down very well, there was lots of enthusiasm in the room, and Jordan seemed to enjoy the whole thing, so I set off for the drive home, getting back at 2:30am, feeling it had been a success.

The way I look at it, I do these talks - loads of them, up and down the country - set out my stall, leave time for questions at the end, answer them sincerely, and then leave it at that. The project is what it is, warts and all. It's good, though, to get out and see what people have to say. I have never encountered any negativity. I reckon people can see I've got my heart in it, and that a lot of good people have worked to get us where we are to date, and then what will be will be.

Cheers,
Nigel

[quicksilver-wsr]

Any chance of posting photo's of what's done so far? Would be nice to see a facebook page with some sort of updates as to what's happening???????

Sorry - I didn't see this other post, so have replied above to Mike's/Jordan's messages without reference to it.

In answer to the question of what's going on, it's been pattern-making for the outer hull structure and design/analysis work for some considerable time now and it's not possible to show the latter in any interesting way, while the former is something we are generally keeping under wraps until we know everything has gone to plan. If this stage of the project goes badly wrong, I don't want to embarrass the sponsors who have kindly been helping us. If it goes wrong, it will have been our fault, ultimately, not theirs. I do show some pattern-making pix at my talks, however, and I think people who see those are impressed by the scale of what's being done.

I don't like Facebook particularly - nor Twitter. Call me Old School, but I'd actually rather be thought of as someone who talks directly to people, either in person or on the phone. In fairness, though, our website badly needs some updating, but I decided some time ago that it's done it's job and we have been building a brand-new one. I hope that it will go live at Christmas.

I know it's frustrating for some not to be able to see what we're up to - but just remember that there are several other WWSR projects out there, including British ones, that apparently do a better job of communicating than we do. There's plenty to look at for WWSR fans.

Nigel

[mark-f]

Why on the quicksilver web site is the last news update from March 2013?

[quicksilver-wsr]

Why on the quicksilver web site is the last news update from March 2013?

Because that's the last time major elements of the boat were delivered to us after manufacture.

I don't see the point of reporting every little detail of what's happened since, because the project has been going for so long now that it becomes fairly meaningless to describe small steps forward. We are well past the stage where that has any impact.

We are currently working on the biggest chunk of all - the outer hull 'shell' - and have been for some considerable time, and it is taking a long time to get it done. I wish it were different and we could accomplish more, more rapidly, but that's the way it is.

Nigel

[mark-f]

Thanks for the reply Nigel,

But I would respectfully suggest that the first item of "News" being over 3 years old gives totally the wrong impression.

This is not a criticism, I know you have been working on the project for many years. But all you have to do is look to see how many people check into the Bluebird project regularly to see the latest update, any info, no matter how small serves to keep people interested & more likely to pitch in in some way.

I really feel you are missing a trick in this matter.

[quicksilver-wsr]

Thanks, Mark - and I really appreciate your observations and constructive suggestions.

You are, of course, correct. It gives a bad impression to leave the news section like that. No doubt about it, it's doing us damage letting it lie seemingly dormant, as if we are not bothering with the project any more.

There's a key difference between the Bluebird restoration project and ours, and that is that the BBP are making tangible progress and we are not. You can look at the trajectory of the K7 restoration process and it's been an upward arc. Quicksilver's been different. There was the upward arc and then there's been a general plateauing-out. The progress has slowed and slowed. So it's difficult to present that as anything other than it is.

For the record, our website is worked on from time to time. It's not much, but we do make certain changes. But the news part is very neglected, and so the site tends to serve as a "This is what's been done so far" site and not as a dynamic "Look what we've just accomplished" site in the BBP manner.

More robust progress on the engineering front "feeds" the site with fresh material. We don't get that benefit. In retrospect, we might have been better continuing to get smaller parts made for the boat than tackling the biggest part of all. The aim was to lift the whole thing forward, by getting the outer shape made - then it looks like a boat. But like all things Quicksilver, the process turns out to be much more tricky than I first anticipated. Partly it's been some bad luck along the way, and partly it's been that the job we're currently engaged in is really a composites-company job, not a job for people with our limited facilities and skills. So we have become very dependent on outside help with this, and you can't always depend on outside help being on-tap just as and when you need it. We've had to patiently wait in line for when we could get that help, at each and every stage of the game.

We're getting there, though - no question - and maybe the new website will give me a fresh start, as far as presenting to the outside world what we are doing is concerned.

Interestingly, with the present site I get some people who say how absolutely fantastic it is - and other people who say it's absolutely terrible!

Nigel

[quicksilver-wsr]

But I guess it must be tricky to show progress when there isn't any!

There's been some progress our side, Mike - but it's not been the type of stuff, of late, that's particularly photogenic or newsworthy.

If you are dealing with a whole bunch of bits, each one going through a process, there's something to photograph. Whereas designing something or resolving something-or-other behind the scenes, is pretty boring to all but those involved.

N.

[f1steveuk]

Like a swan going past. Not much happening on the surface, but going like the clappers below!