Surfury's future

[THUNDERBOLT]

Just in case it has slipped from everybody's mind, The
future of Surfury ,the worlds most famous powerboat is still hanging in the balance but Chris Grayer not being one to give up will be in discussion on September the 22nd with the director of the Classic Boat Museum in the Isle of Wight. After a lot of door bashing by various persons to awaken the powers that be to her predicament ,plans seem to be taking shape for her return to Cowes late Autumn, fingers crossed everybody! please do not let the momentum slip and I am sure once things fall into place she will be back where she belongs and when it does we want a massive turnout at Southampton and Cowes to welcome her back!

Mike James

[Ace]

There was quite a big article on the back of this weeks Isle of Wight county press about Surfury and its planned return to east cowes.

[littlenige]

Will try and post that County Press article tomorrow.

[OOD]

Littlenige it will be great if you could post the county press article
thank you

[OOD]

any new on the county press article. If any one has access to it it would be nice to see it

[littlenige]

PC at the repair shop so will try to remember to bring it in to work tomorrow morning unless somebody beats me to it!!

[littlenige]

[kipstone]

Thanks Mike

The very good news on Surfury is that her future and display is now permanently assured as both The Motor Boat Museum at Basildon and now the Classic Boat Museum at Cowes are both able to offer her a permanent home. The recent article and photo in the Isle of Wight County Press generated a large amount of interest and responses to the website www.surfury.co.uk offered support for her long term relocation to the Island. Naturaly I reccomended that if they wished to then to contact the NMM direct. Last Friday I received a phone call from Simon Stevens at the NMM to ask as to whether I knew why he was getting so many EMails about "Surfury"!

It is understood the the Gardner family as well as stakeholders from her past such as Ivor Verlander and Ian Dunford (her race mechanics) have also expressed a wish to see her returned to the Island.

The overall result is that Surfury now has two potential homes for her to be displayed and that there is no threat to her being put into a long term storage facility where she would end up decaying and forgotten. No matter of the outcome, we must respect Basildon and Julie Graham who has always wanted Surfury to remain in their display.

The case of Surfury was one of the reasons that helped to form the Classic Offshore Powerboat Owners Association and she will become one of a number of principle projects of COPOA to support the management to restore her and then hopefully, one day, return her to running (not race) order.

One of the the other agreed objectives of COPOA is to establish as to how many (or few) of the classic racing craft remain, their current position and also the fate of the many iconic craft that are no longer with us. If anybody has information or photos that can be used please contact me on chris.grayer@btinternet.com and in my role of "Registrar" for COPOA I will capture and utilise it.

Many thanks to you all who have participated in the campaign to save Surfury, it is your perpetual enthusiasm that has made the difference. I now know she is no longer in the NMM category of "forgotten and nobody cares" to that of "loads of interest and lots of people care" category.

Once again many thanks to you all - it is you and your perpetual enthusiasm that has made the difference

Chris

PS I have a copy of the article if any body still wants it!

[littlenige]

Chris - you´re the one who really deserves the credit. Every campaign needs an organisor - you just proved you´ve got the credentials to do it! well done!!