Jeff Carroll, chairman of the Ruskin Museum which owns Bluebird and displays it in a dedicated wing, said it marked the “next chapter” in the machine’s story.
“All this started for me as a kid brought up in Coniston, reading books on rainy Sunday afternoons about Campbell and this mythical boat that was in the lake somewhere.
“Then she came out and was no longer a myth. She was rebuilt by Bill and co, and you have to pay tribute to him because without his bloody mindedness it wouldn’t be here.”
Recent months have seen a different team of engineers install a replacement engine as well as carry out checks on electrical and hydraulic systems.
Bluebird last ran almost eight years ago, on Scotland’s Isle of Bute, when it was in the hands of Smith and a team of volunteers known as the Bluebird Project who had been enlisted to restore it in 2006.
