Amazing news.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-45068703

Wonderful to see it back on the water. I remember the horrific film of the crash on the news in 67. Let’s hope they don’t crash her again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaZ8YhinRY

My cousin’s one of the divers / engineers that has rebuilt her.

Can you believe he wasn’t there yesterday for a lot of the ceremonies but his bosses (a large, national institution) wouldn’t give him time off.

It was down in Henley a few weeks ago – not my album btw

https://www.flickr.com/photos/garyharman/sets/72157696233419512

I remember seeing the crash on the news at the time, one of those things you just never forget. I never, ever thought that Bluebird would ever be recovered in any state other than a collection of fragments, the fact that so much of her was brought up, and restored to original condition is remarkable, and a testament to the determination and sheer hard work of a dedicated team.

I might get to see her on her home waters one day as well.

Was up at the Bluebird museum (at the Ruskin Museum) last week and it was the first time I knew they were rebuilding it.

As a kid I was fascinated by the Campbell land and sea records and the footage of K7 crash really stuck with me. I still remember going to Coniston as a young boy (before they brought up the wreckage) and it feeling very surreal that he and Bluebird were so close still down there on the lake bed. Going back last week rekindled those memories and now this week it is finally back.

Got my picture of K7 ready put on my workshop wall, a little reminder of one of the things from my childhood that made me fascinated with engineering.

I felt a wee bit conflicted about this, after all Campbell died in that boat and it was his resting place for so long. But you know, I’m pretty sure he’d approve so sod it.

I know someone who is a bit fanatical about DC/Bluebird And has spent a lot of time up at Coniston speaking to many people involved then and now.

Lets just say there are those not happy to see it rebuilt, and people with differing motives for getting it rebuilt.

A grave/piece of history has been manufactured in to a modern replica, which IMO a replica could have been made from scratch

I can see both sides, but I believe the Campbell family have been heavily involved and supportive. And as for a modern replica – as much as possible of the wreck was salvaged and restored. Many hours beating panels back into shape. A replica could have been rebuilt in weeks with modern techniques.

tmb467; good pics but that was an earlier boat in which Malcolm Campbell, Donald’s father, held previous speed records.

Gina Campbell originally did not want it recovered IIRC

Are there any original parts in it?  My understanding is that it is a replica not a restoration

eg: 4:20

Are there any original parts in it? My understanding is that it is a replica not a restoration

My understanding is that they’ve used as many original parts as they could salvage. If it was just a replica, they wouldn’t have needed to recover the original.

There’s a blog here http://www.bluebirdproject.com/ (always goes to one of those “welcome visitor 1,000,000 you’ve won an amazon voucher, pages first time for me, seems to work if you visit a second time though).  I’m not entirely sure I like the guy as he comes across in his blog but do admire his work.

The problem with trying to make a replica is there simply aren’t the drawings to do it from.  There’s a couple of examples I remember in the front end which was destroyed is largely based on photographs as the designs have been lost and by it’s nature it was built iteratively to make it faster (or just make it work) so what was on paper wasn’t what was actually built in the end.  There’s another example of a bubble/blister on the side of the cockpit, obviously not part of the original design but gave clues as to how the thing was built.

Building a 300mph speedboat probably isn’t beyond the skills of a group of final year university aeronautical/mechanical/nautical engineering students for their final year project. But rebuilding a 50 year old boat for which there are no plans and trying to restore as much as possible is a different task entirely, the word they used/coined was “conserveering”. A lot of the ‘old’ boat which wasn’t safe to re-use is still in the museum.

What I would like to see is a proper 300+mph replica, I get why they want the original to do 65mph runs (the speed it takes off at) for shows.  But it’d be an equally awesome project for someone to build a replica with computer controlled ailerons to keep it stable/safe, or even just have free reign to tweak the design as the original would have been to get it there and see what it could have achieved.