Quicksilver

[quicksilver-wsr]

Yes, I think it's a fairly safe bet that if someone sauntered into a pub in Govan and addressed the barman with an "Old Boy" or an "Old Lad", the resultant response might well take the form of a "Glasgow Kiss."

As a Sassenach moving up there in 1969 at the tender age of 11, I've got to admit that it took some time to get used to the unusual Glaswegian customs - such as greeting strangers with a nice big kiss. On the forehead. With their forehead.

But I still have an abiding love of the place and I'm always glad when I get the occasional chance to pay a return visit.

And Scotland really left a lasting impression on me - and I don't just mean my two loose front teeth from my first "Glasgow Kiss."

Did I ever tell you about the time that a couple of my school-chums told me that if I went behind the bike-sheds there would be a couple of lovely girls who would give me a nice big kiss? ...... [continued on page 94]

[Renegadenemo]

I have a proper soft spot for that part of the world too. My dear departed granny was a whiskey-drinking Glaswegian and her old mum came from Dunoon on the Clyde. For many years I went fishing around Bute with a good mate of mine then later our crew dived all the Clyde wrecks plus a few secret things we rooted out with the sonar and magnetometer. Happy days...

[quicksilver-wsr]

Yes, Bill, a nice part of the world. During my time there you could go "Doon the Watter" - down the Clyde on a day trip - on Caledonian McBrayne's 1933-built excursion steamer Queen Mary II, and Dunoon was one of the stopping-off points. And we used to go fishing, too - my Dad and brother and I - in a hired boat off Brodick on the Isle of Arran.

While you were exploring Davy Jones's Locker, I was off in the opposite direction - upwards, into the sky, for Sctoland is where I really started my love affair with aviation.

I'm digging out a lot of my old archive material from our HQ at the moment and moving it to make more room for the boat, hence the nostalgia trip. I'm finding all the old souvenirs.

Thanks to Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic - whose objectives I entirely support, incidentally - you will soon be able to go for a day trip into space. But you can't go "Doon the Watter," not any more.

That, alas, is what we in the human race call "progress."

[quicksilver-wsr]

Well, I'll eat my hat!

After writing my last post I thought I'd quickly Google "Doon the Watter" and I see they've reinstated it!

On my last trip up to Scotland, 2008, I rang Caledonian Macbrayne to see if you could still do the Firth of Clyde trip and they told me it was long-gone. Google also confirmed this, I remember.

It seems that nostalgia is alive and well and that someone has seen the sense in reinstating a Glaswegian ritual for new generations to experience.

Maybe there is hope for we humans, after all.

[Renegadenemo]

If you want to reacquaint yourself with messing on the Clyde you can't do much better than taking a trip on PS Waverley,
http://www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk/
the world's last ocean-going paddle steamer. My mum used to catch the Waverley from Greenock to Dunoon to visit her granny. Good job the HLF spent £6 million having her original boilers and most of her upperworks torn off and skipped before rebuilding her to full working order or she'd have joined the armada of other classic ships quietly rusting away in harbour basins the world over.

[Piston Broke]

Good job the HLF spent £6 million having her original boilers and most of her upperworks torn off and skipped before rebuilding her to full working order.

What about the L.O.O.F (Loss Of Original Fabric) Wasn't that one of the reasons we got turned down because the HLF said we would lose most of the original material not the 2 shoeboxes we have had to lose

[quicksilver-wsr]

Heck, we're way off-thread anyway, Mike.

My fault entirely, for rattling on about my fishing trips to the Isle of Arran and the perils of Glaswegian hospitality.

As regards your concerns about K7, post-restoration, I believe - and sincerely hope - that you will be proved wrong on this occasion and that the general public will accept the boat as the original-and-genuine article. Yes, be on your guard ... be ready to reinforce your message, crystal clear, that the restoration was painstaking in its pursuit of originality ... but if there is any justice, and I believe there is, you will encounter only a tiny minority who will attempt to discredit your Herculean efforts.

For as I know from my own personal experience with Quicksilver, there will always be that tiny minority of moaners whom you wouldn't be able to please no matter what you did.

So stuff 'em!

[Renegadenemo]

I think people would be staggered if they knew the lengths that were being gone to sometimes to keep every last possible tattered original piece of K7!

Five people spent the whole of this afternoon and most of the evening trying to chase an inch and a half twist out of the air intake structure, each working on losing tiny errors from a dozen different components and tonight when we left we'd eradicated an inch and a quarter of it. Considering what it looked like when it came out of the water, being inside a quarter inch isn't bad and we'll be within 1/64th tomorrow. It won't matter how we try to explain it - you have to be there.

[bluebirdsback]

When i first started to dismantle the twisted mess that was the air intake I never in my wildest dreams thought any of it would be used again it was so badly damaged. The fettling team really have surpassed themselves this time. I think i mentioned before that for all we are in the same workshop, it could be weeks before we see each others efforts and even now we never cease to amaze each other . Then the time comes when the fettle team brings the finished bit to the rivet team joined by the widget department with specialy constructed bits and another bit is nailed to the boat. We then retreat back to our own departments till the next time. Its bloody great.

[klingon]

You forgot to mention the fact that oor dear auld Waverley was cut in two with a big plasma torch and "stretched" by a guid wee bit to accomodate onboard waste tanks for the cludgies-(thunder boxes or bogs to the uninitiated) in order to meet some EEC directive or other-while at the same time the MV Garrioch Head was dumping Glasgows sewage effluent in the Clyde just off Arran!-stopped now thank goodness!-funny wee brown fish in Brodick!-I reckon that the Waverley is no more than 40% original compared with her build specification-the LOOF shoebox for her must be incredible!

And that brings the advertisement from the Scottish tourist board to a close!