Morris Arthur Posted: 2 weeks ago | Reply

This site popped up when I entered the name into Google.
The ownership note above is incomplete. While building her the question of ownership cropped up. This was never recorded with any precision.
Whilst the core team of builders were being driven to the site, initially a derelict cattle shed, a member asked "Who will own Pipedream?" I answered "She will be owned by those who work on her and those who finance her, One half work earned and one half those who finance her." This was never contested. It was never defined. Hugh Tusting and I were the principle parties in all areas of control from conception to operation. We had some shared influence on everything. There were some areas where one of us had greater degrees of involvement.
Broadly speaking Hugh produced a team of volunteer workers and organised logistics while I designed the craft specified materials, ordered fabricated parts and controlled the work. Hugh recorded the work hours and raised the money, with the exception of sponsorship from my employer Anglia Television. Hugh dealt with non-technical communications and an initial local BBC programme. I dealt with Anglia ITV who conducted regular programme reports. Sadly the BBC, who first took interest in our project, dropped out when Anglia took interest.

During the Round Britain race Hugh and I acted as co-skippers, neither one of us was prepared to sail under command of the other. For some reason the Royal Western Website has Hugh as skipper. This certainly was not on the entry information that I saw and was certainly not the case. The skipper was the man on watch at the time.

I was navigator and ran 3 logs based on three methods of input into dead reckoning.
1. An RDF log (In the RAF I had calibrated RDF stations.)
2. Speed input from a Push Pull doppler log that required some mathmatical analysis.
3. speed visually estimated from observing the minor hull.

It would be remiss of me not to identify the first volunteer members of the team, without whom the project would have been nothing but a pipe dream.
Jimmy Cook and Pauline. John Hovey and Cilla, Chris Hovey, Roy Cubitt, Mike Williams, Hughs wife Mette and my wife Brita. We worked for four years together and formed friendships that have endured as long as life and memory has allowed. Some of the team are deceased
There were many others, approximately 120 who freely helped us and another group who bought nominal shares - Only Hugh has the record of these generous people. A very significant contribution came from a number of local firms who made parts - frequently without charge.

There were times of stress between us but the shared experience remains a much stronger bond.

To continue would require a book - All one needs is the time to write it.

With thanks to whoever launched this site, Morris

Ian Cubitt Posted: 1 year ago | Reply

As a boy I was involved with my father in building Pipedream. I'm delighted to see that it still survives.
Happy thoughts!