A Lake District museum has begun legal action to gain possession of Donald Campbell’s Bluebird K7.
Legal papers have been served today on Bill Smith, who recovered the record-breaking vessel and Mr Campbell’s body in 2001 from Coniston Water, where they had lain since the fatal crash on January 4 1967.
Mr Smith has kept the boat since then, but in 2006, Mr Campbell’s family gifted the Bluebird to the Coniston Institute and the Ruskin Museum.
The museum, Mr Smith and the Campbell family have been in talks over possession of the boat, but they broke down in 2019.
It was revealed last year that the museum was beginning to take legal action and in a statement issued today, the Ruskin Museum said the first step had been taken.
Jeff Carroll, deputy chairman of the museum, said: “It is with regret that we have had to take this action to gain physical possession of Donald Campbell’s record-breaking boat which was gifted to the museum by the Campbell family in 2006.
“We have taken this action with the blessing and full support of the Campbell Family Heritage Trust. This action comes only after several years of trying to persuade Mr Smith and his organisation to honour the original agreement and allow K7 to be brought back to Coniston so that she can be displayed in the bespoke Bluebird Wing of the museum which cost in excess of £750,000 to build and equip.
“The Ruskin Museum would have preferred that this matter be resolved without the need to resort to litigation however we have been left with no choice but to issue in order to find a resolution for all.
“We have not taken this decision lightly and it is very much a last resort to assert our legal rights. We have an obligation to the many people and organisations who contributed to the Bluebird Wing; to those who wish see Bluebird K7 in Coniston; to those who donated in good faith to the restoration project; to those who granted planning permission for the Bluebird Wing, and to the Campbell family who gifted the boat to us and wish to see her reside in her spiritual home, as close as possible to her brave pilot.”
In 2019, the museum proposed that Mr Smith and the Bluebird Project could display the boat for 90 days a year, and the rest of the year in the purpose-built wing.
The proposal also included plans for a steering committee, made up of an equal number of representatives from the Bluebird Project, museum and Campbell Family Heritage Trust, to be set up to manage the future of Bluebird.
The museum claimed the proposal was rejected immediately by Mr Smith and the Bluebird Project and said the boat was currently being worked on at Mr Smith’s North Shields workshop.
Mr Smith had plans to run the boat on Loch Fad on the Isle of Bute, but the museum said he did not have its permission to use its property in this way.
