January.
Began dismantling/taking lamps out on the 9th. Finished stripping tractor on the 23rd and it was sold and gone by the 27th, motiv8 CC of Yeovil bought it for £3800. Timmer and Spraggsie looked at a replacement tractor in Bridport on the 25th but it was decided it was not the right one too buy. "Dave" was voted in on the 27th.
February.
Took a trip to Gremlins shed on the 2nd to look at their skeketon models and moulds and Tony agreed that it would be a good idea to hire/buy them on the 4th. Darren and Timmer visited Griffens on the 6th to ask them if they would consider converting our tractor when and if we managed to buy a David Brown/ Case 1694. They agreed in principle and it would cost us £1500 + materials. On the 8th Trev and Darren found the ideal tractor up for sale for £4500. The following day Darren and Timmer popped over to Midsomer Norton to look at Prattens CC converted tractor following the bad news that they had sadly folded. Their tractor apparently had had brakes problems so it was decided it was not worth considering. At the meeting on the 10th the club decided to purchase the case that Trev and Darren had found and that Griffens would convert it, everyone agreed that this would be our main outlay/project for the year. On the 16th Spraggsie and Timmer picked up two van loads of skeketon parts from Gremlins and off-loaded to our shed. The new tractor was picked up on the 24th and was driven back to the farm at Street where it would stay for the next few months.
March.
Most of the major cart decision were made at the cart meeting on Sunday the 9th. During the rest of the month the dismantling was coming to an end with the tractor already gone and the cart down to the bare metal. We finished the month with an 'all dayer' at the shed on the 30th which meant we were now ready to start building.
April.
Building was begun on the 2nd with the engineering for the skeletons and the banners that they would hold. THE 9TH OF APRIL! We held a urgent meeting as we had been approached by the surviving members of the Evolution CC. They had also decided to fold which meant that it was two big clubs within months that had folded. But to our benefit the remaining members had decided to join us and bring everything with them. So starting that Saturday on the 12th we started to work alongside our new members and move the contents of their shed lock stock and barrel to Westonzoyland. On the 23rd the genny trailer went to Spraggsies father in law's to make space for Evo's cart to come into our shed. By the 30th Evo's shed had been cleared and their lorry and genny trailer had been parked up at John Fisher's.
May.
The first two weeks in May were used to sort out some of Evo's equipment and start stripping the cart (the 2nd cart of the year), the 20th saw Cavaliers CC look at buying the lorry. The cart was nearly stripped by the end of the months with just a bit of metal left.
June.
We continued stripping and we were down to a bare chassis by the 11th and the following week on the 18th the chassis was cut up and sent off for scrap money. On Sunday the 22nd the lorry was pulled into the shed and 90% was gone within hours and another 10% on the 25th made it possible for Cavaliers CC to pick it up for £1500 on the 29th.
July.
This month finally saw us start building. The first metal delivery was taken on the 17th and this is was when the building of "Dave" really began, and all the initial problems were sorted as we began to do more and more building. Spoke to Tony on the 29th as we had our first delivery of fibre-glass.
August.
On the 2nd Tony showed 'Hamish', and Roy the basics for fibre-glassing, Phil started cutting out the rigging, Simon started drilling and Skippy and Timmer continued the skeleton engineering. The 13th saw 14 blokes at the shed on a Wednesday night which was really good for this time of year. Darren, Timmer, Heardy and Skippy took a trip to Griffens CC to see how the tractor conversion was taking shape and were pleased with the standard at which the work was being done. The remainder of the month saw a gradual progress with building which included the mounting of the large bass bins that had come from Evo underneath the chassis.
September.
The 13th saw Budgie start building the boats, Roger take away a pair of waves to begin on the flashing lights and the first set of skeleton legs were tried and tested. Casey the tractor arrived on the 17th to the great excitement of most of the blokes (congratulations to Darren for all the time and effort he spent in the purchase and organising the conversion of our new front drive tractor). Darren started building the genny on the 27th.
October.
The main framework for the tractor was started on the 1st. The whole club really started to work hard during the next few weeks leading up to the first carnival. We were all there and know how hard we had to work. CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE THAT HELPED GET DAVE OUT ON THE ROAD!!!!!!!! SOME GREAT RESULTS SHOULD GIVE US GREAT MOTIVATION HEADING TOWARDS 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
