Coniston Water Byelaws "2019"

[Malcolm Ops]

Keeping up to date with the Byelaws for the 'home water' of K7.

The LDNPA have apparently submitted the proposed Coniston Water 2019 Byelaws to the Secretary of State for approval and comments. There is no indication (that I can find) as to when there may be a response from that person. There will be a final period of waiting, once notification to the public has been made in a formal way. Then it is to be hoped that the Byelaws will be 'signed off' and will come into force.

Once available, the Proving Trial' of Bluebird K7 could be planned and undertaken.

As a guide, the LDNPA officers have noted that each 'application' for any event on Coniston Water which involves a craft exceeding 10mph will take about 3 months to process under the new Byelaws. A suitable village festival event for K7 could take over twelve months to organise, plan and implement. Adding these periods together suggests that another year will pass before the Proving Trial on Coniston Water.

[Richie]

Needs to be a cohesive effort to get this done, the village can’t be expected to foot the entire bill, quite simply it’d be a monumental cost insurmountable for even the biggest of cities let alone a picturesque village in Cumbria.

Sponsorship would be the way forward I’d say....problem is the ongoing issues followed by the vocal and written slurs by an individual who shall remain nameless for now, will make sponsorship for the village almost impossible as the instability surrounding K7 and ownership etc etc will chase potential investors away. The online threats have been rampant this last week from the same handful of individuals, it will likely end in an expensive libel case at this rate and it isn’t helping matters at all for either party (Ruskin / BBP).

BBP and Ruskin need to get this sorted ASAP if K7 has any chance of getting onto Coniston in the next 24 months.

Either hash it out in court or mediate....but get it sorted.

[Renegadenemo]

Sponsorship was all but a thing of the past even pre-Covid. OK, it was easy to ask for a few thousand rivets in return for beer and a curry with the guys from the rivet supplier and writing a few product reviews but in these days of targeted online advertising there wasn't much out there and now there's nothing. We're never short of offers to make docos and there's a film script being written as we speak along similar lines to The Fastest Indian but in terms of getting an event onto Coniston Water, that's going to take a lot of volunteers and people giving their time and services for free. The Mountstuart Trust and good people of Bute are a good model.
And no sponsor is going to touch it without everyone singing from the same hymn sheet so that needs mending. There's a couple of lone, negative voices making themselves ever more lonely when they could be helping while the vast majority can see who is who and what is what. For example that Gina totally trashed her credibility back in January by turning on those who have done so much for her, so many bridges to build there. Then there's the Qualcast Kid who made yet another ill-judged attempt to put his hands on the boat (No.4 and counting) then ran away leaving the museum with a 40K bill to pay when his scheme fell on its arse. No doubt that will somehow be our fault - except it isn't and now the museum has even less money to do anything with. We did offer to run an event with them in 2021 to help alleviate their financial problems but it's not been accepted as yet.

Nope, 'fraid it has become the big, sorry mess we knew it would become when, after many years of imploring the museum et al to start planning and fundraising in good time, nothing was done. But no harm - it'll fix, as we say.
We'll mediate any time but that involves a decision maker - not a committee - from the museum and BBP going into a room and agreeing a deal then signing off on it that very day day and It involves another big chunk of money because you go there with your lawyer and counsel, unless you're stark raving mad, so the options are...

1. Mediate, which will get everyone to where we know this is going anyway, i.e. what was always agreed, BBP operates K7 while the museum displays her but it will cost a fortune.
2. Save a fortune by picking up the phone and being professional.
3. Make a formal request that we break the boat up and go our own way in building a new one while the museum does as it pleases with its wreckage and just how petulant would anyone have to be to choose that over picking up the phone!
4. Keep the foot on the gas with the lawyers to have the 2013 agreement accepted. Don't ever forget, lawyers were never our idea - that was the Qualcast Kid but, hey ho, I like lawyers.

Bottom line is, we'll be here when the decision is taken to do something...

[Malcolm Ops]

Now called Coniston Water Byelaws 2020, the final drafting and second stage consultation has resulted in a final opportunity for comments.

Should nothing major in these words have to be altered, the Byelaws will be probably be signed in late December (on behalf of the LDNPA) and come into operation in January 2021.

The Byelaws are designed to be "future proofed" because they no longer contain references to particular named organisations with regard to seeking and gaining permission for events to exceed the 10mph speed limit.

The new Byelaws do not mention the 'Proving Trial' of Bluebird K7, but any village celebration or festival for the boat which involves running on the 'lake' will need to involve speed progression through the Development Runs and then Proving Runs to show the public over a number of days what has been achieved by the Bluebird Project Team.