Happy Birthday, Donald!!

[captainbear]

Surely, this must be the best forum on the web. over 200 members and still going strong on interesting posts. Many congratulations to whoever started it.
All because of one man and his derring-do with a rather fast boat!! I'm off for a pint tonight, so I will raise my glass to the Donald and wish him a very Happy Birthday. He would have loved all this but then again, if he was still here at 88 years of age, we wouldn't be mending his boat, would we?

[sheppane]

Certainly not forgotten... Happy Birthday Donald...

[klingon]

Surely, this must be the best forum on the web. over 200 members and still going strong on interesting posts. Many congratulations to whoever started it.
All because of one man and his derring-do with a rather fast boat!! I'm off for a pint tonight, so I will raise my glass to the Donald and wish him a very Happy Birthday. He would have loved all this but then again, if he was still here at 88 years of age, we wouldn't be mending his boat, would we?

Nope-We'd be building his latest one!

[rob565uk]

I have just realised that Donald Campbell would have been 99 years old today.

Happy Birthday Mr Campbell!

[Richie]

Happy birthday

[Renegadenemo]

Over the past twenty-odd years of the BBP I've met a lot of people who knew Donald - many of them no longer with us.
Both Norris Brothers, a good few of his team from 667/67 and even a few from earlier attempts. Several pressmen and engineers and Carl and me even sat at the bar of the Windermere boat club and drank wine with Tonia until we almost fell off our chairs. At least Tonia and me did, Carl was teetotal apart from some vodka the crew gave him when diving Titanic with Jim Cameron and a half a lager that I gave him on one of our Norway expeds whereupon he fell asleep at once. Carl was crafty that day. He wanted both Gina and Tonia to sign his order of service but he wasn't sure whether this might ruffle feathers so he folded it carefully down the middle and presented each side for signature at different times whilst keeping it folded. He got his order of service signed just how he wanted it. For my part I only got Donald's favourite dirty joke.

Anyway, I digress. I always had two questions for anyone who'd known Donald.
What was he like back in the day and what would he be like now? To the first question, two-thirds quoted the party line about what a splendid chap he was but now and again I'd get a glimpse behind the curtain as the other third portrayed him as a rather plummy version of James Hunt at his best.

"If Don's in heaven there's a few angels had better watch out..." Lew Norris told me with a sly wink. Now that's more like it!

The answer to the second question was invariably that he'd be the most cantankerous old bugger imaginable and we'd all better watch out!

So perhaps 'happy' birthday wouldn't quite hit the spot but let's not forget it all the same. 99 today.

[rob565uk]

An interesting interlude at the Windermere boat club by the sound of it!

Are you able to share Donald’s favourite dirty joke on this Forum ?

[Renegadenemo]

An interesting interlude at the Windermere boat club by the sound of it!

Are you able to share Donald’s favourite dirty joke on this Forum ?

It was a great afternoon - that of Donald's funeral. On the one hand it was totally overshadowed by the 9-11 attacks the day before but on the other it was what all good funerals are, a celebration of a life lived well rather than folk getting all miserable and maudlin because someone died.

I spoke at Carl's funeral and when telling the tale of him speaking to his local MP on the phone about his upcoming astronaut training - yes, he really was going to do that with the Russsians - in his peculiar Brummie/Cannock accent, in my local chippy, I distinctly remember the congregation (is that what you get at a funeral?) crying with laughter and that's how it ought to be.
But the morning of Donald's bash the heavens opened and it absolutely tipped it down! Three of us divers, me, Carl and 'Beanie' Woodfine were pallbearers that day and we'd have been better off in our drysuits. Not only was it raining but it was decided to take Donald back down the lake on a launch and the waves were coming over the top the whole way.
So by the time we arrived in the warm and dry of the Windermere Motor Boat Club we'd already stopped off at Hawkshead outdoor store for new shirts and thrown the soggy lumps we'd been wearing into the back of the car.
That done, it wasn't long before we got stuck into giving Donald a proper send-off and, as mentioned, Carl, Tonia and me fetched up at the bar where Tonia and me did in rather too much white wine while Carl remained annoyingly sober.

At one point Tonia asked me if I'd like to hear Donald's favourite joke and, of course, this I just had to hear so... this may well be the first time it's ever been written down. It might be an old one too but I'd never heard it before and haven't since so here goes.

The story tells of a couple arrested for fornicating in the bushes of a public park along with the accused a tramp is also rounded up as a witness as he was trying to sleep on a nearby bench.

Next morning they're all up before the local magistrate and the tramp is asked.

"Tell me, Sir, what did you see?"
"They were having a f**k, Your Honour." Replied the tramp.
The magistrate was horrified.
"You, Sir, shall not use such language in my courtroom," he spluttered. "What is your profession?"
The tramp paused, caught off guard by such a question, then answered, "I'm a poet, Your Honour."
"Then kindly answer my question in a more poetic manner..."
The tramp pondered a while then cleared his throat and addressed the magistrate.
"His pants were down, his arse was bare, his balls were swinging through the air. His you know what was you know where, if it wasn't a f**k I wasn't there..."



And that, folks, is the joke that Tonia assured me was Donald's favourite.

[rob565uk]

And that, folks, is the joke that Tonia assured me was Donald's favourite.

- I have never heard that before!!

The story you relate with such obvious good memories underlines the need for the Bluebird Project and the Ruskin Museum to get round a table and resolve any differences.

However, in the current crisis, it would have to be a virtual table via conference call, but I hope the will is there on both sides to make it happen.

[Renegadenemo]

However, in the current crisis, it would have to be a virtual table via conference call, but I hope the will is there on both sides to make it happen.

At the risk of repetition, the will has been there throughout with BBP but we could see the wheel coming off in mid 2017 when we realised we had an opportunity to get on the water in 2018 and it wasn't going to be on Coniston. There was a feeling from several quarters that that's where it should have happened and that would have been fine but it was never going to be and it wasn't through any lack of effort on our part.

We'd uploaded videos and diary pieces way ahead of time showing that we were heading towards an operable machine so it's not as though we sprung a surprise on anyone and yet Coniston Water was unavailable and it fell to the good people of Bute who got four-square behind us and got us on their loch. And what has happened since?
Basically we've sat about for the thick end of two years while the museum has on the one hand steadfastly maintained radio silence for God knows what reason and on the other, been hoodwinked into almost busting itself.

They've known for many years how the joint ownership thing works and there's no getting around that unless we choose to donate our work.
Not only are they well aware, it's exactly how they wanted it. In their own words.

The Trust owns the wreck of the Bluebird. It has not been recognised in the accounts on the same basis that other heritage assets in the collection have not been recognised. None of the restoration work to the Bluebird is being capitalised.

We were told in no uncertain terms that rebuilding the boat was to be at no cost to the museum and we explained many years ago that this would result in joint ownership unless we donated our proportion but that was always fine because we always said we would donate it but it came with strings attached. That worked for everyone. They could happily own only the wreck without having to capitalise the ever increasing value of our work so it never affected the accounts or insurance at the museum's end and everyone was happy. What was supposed to bring everything to a happy ending was this.

With the reconstruction of the Bluebird being undertaken by volunteers, their schedule and the return date of the rebuilt vessel cannot be determined. A separate working party has been formed to supervise the homecoming. Obviously, every effort will be made to expedite the renascence [sic] and consequent expected benefits to the charity.

That's where it all came unstuck because by the time were in a position to test an operable boat that work was but in its infancy and since appears to have ground to a halt.

It must be blindingly obvious by now that the display cannot go ahead until agreement is reached so everyone needs to be across this more now than at any other time and yet suggesting that any progress will be 'a long time coming' when so much is at stake isn't especially helpful.

By the end of the summer it will have been two years so, assuming the Coronavirus crisis is in retreat and circumstance allows,what are the options?

We can find another project after our Crusader Project is finished and leave K7 under her covers until something changes - we're not short of things to do!

We might receive a call from the museum saying. OK - this is becoming daft, we all need to get our heads together and do something amazing here.

Or, the most likely scenario, is that we'll restart the project and run on Scotland in 2021 and if anyone wants to argue they can find 50k to try and injunct us whilst explaining to the public just why they're doing it.

Doubtless all five trolls will wibble but unless they grow the cojones to stand up and be counted using their real names as we do they're just nobodies.

Is two years long enough to be reasonable and try to promote the opportunity to work together? I'd say it's plenty long enough so the time will soon be upon us when, as George Bernard Shaw once pointed out, if you want progress then you need an unreasonable man.