Paragraph 2 seems to hold the key to the reasons behind the dispute. I surmise that when they built the new wing at the museum to house BB they never expected it back as an operational boat and therefore didn't specify the requirements for the new wing adequately. i.e. similar to an aircraft hangar. I have no doubt that after spending the money on a museum wing they were horrified to find it was unsuitable and probably doesn't meet the requirements for legitimate boat storage. It is quite likely that this is the real reason for them reneging on the agreement. They do not have a suitable site to store an operational boat despite spending their funds to that aim. They now expect BBP to resolve their difficulties by saying only dead exhibits can be stored at the RM. in addition paragraph 1 seems just a feeble excuse since I believe that BBP had at one time negotiated permission to run at more than 10mph on Coniston Water. It smacks of a lack of willingness to try and another excuse to kill BB.

I am bitterly ashamed of the Ruskin Museum. The restoration work was magnificently done and acts as an inspiration to all. This can only continue if the Bluebird is exercised regularly by knowledgable personnel. Without the BBP and Bill Smith in particular the only thing RM would have to exhibit would be wreckage similar to many other museums around the country, interesting maybe to a few but in no way inspirational to the many. Their actions smack of an opportunistic cash grab. When they did not understand what full restoration meant they were happy to have others spend money time and effort on the boat but when they saw what was being created they got greedy and tried to freeze out the workers and artisans who had poured their souls into the work. Shame on the Ruskin Museum.

Here's to the BBP. To whole purpose of the restoration was to have BB running not frozen in a mausoleum. The Ruskin Museum should be ashamed of it behaviour that we have seen over the years. It is a disgrace to museums everywhere as they would have displayed the wreckage in its recovered state since they would have been unable to afford to fund the restoration. Wreckage, while interesting, does not inspire people like the full restoration does. If RM did finally win the boat would languish and gradually decay under layers of dust getting less an less interesting to people by the decade.