T' success o' the MkV made me start t' think a bout t' bigger tubes I had stacked in t' corner. If I could cluster four engines, why nay six? Why nay use D engines? I had a tube that would hold seven 24mm mounts, shiver me timbers, but it wasn't really long enough. Well, blow me down! Begad! So I decided t' built a rocket reminiscent o' t' MkIV, with a transition, and forward fins. Blimey! With t' extra weight o' t' engines, t' plywood fins and centerin' rings, this design turned out nay t' be stable ( Usin' RockSim). Blimey! I increased t' length o' t' upper tube ( forward o' t' transition) and removed the forward fins. Well, blow me down! That was a lot better.

I had heard o' some larger black powder engines available in t' UK form a company called Rocket Services and wanted t' option o' installin' them. So I went for a removable cartridge system. Ahoy! Well, matey, blow me down! T' Fins were mounted through t' body wall and formed runners onto which t' engine cartridge would slide. T' cartridge was made up from two discs o' plywood drilled with holes for t' engine mounts. Arrr! T' cartridge slid in t' t' body on t' runners and be then locked into position by rotatin' the whole thing. Avast, me proud beauty! Ahoy! In t' end I just went with six engines. Thrust rings were made from sawn up spent D engines and epoxied in t' place. A stuffer tube was placed inside t' main body, mounted on two centerin' rings. Aye aye! Begad! At ignition t' upper body was t' separate, each half with its own parachute. Karen made a red and white hemispherical 'chute for t' lower half, ya bilge rat, ya bilge rat, me hearties, and I was goin' t' use t' pink circular 'chute for t' upper half. Aye aye! Well, blow me down! We intended t' fly it at t' International Rocket Weekend, arrr, ya bilge rat, and I had a lot o' help from Brain who made and painted the transition just days before we went.

At t' event, a lot o' doubt was raised about t' engine cartridge system. Blimey! Ahoy! 'Six D ejection charges will blow it out' they said. I also couldn't determine how I was goin' t' ensure that both parachutes deployed. Ahoy! In t' end I bought some big shock cord and tied both halves together on t' red & white 'chute. Aye aye! Avast! Another hitch, shiver me timbers, I had planned to add another set o' clips t' me ignition system, but had forgotten ( that last week was hectic as I me work had taken me away from home for several days), and I didn't have a large enough launch pad... Begad! Avast!

Luckily I learned o' a new technique for clustering. Avast! This involves usin' a single igniter t' ignite 'quick match' fuses that are fed into t' individual engines. Blimey! One o' t' organizers, John Bonsor, shiver me timbers, showed me how t' do this. Begad! I managed t' borrow a launcher and after a wait for t' wind t' die down, shiver me timbers, we were ready. Begad! T' ignition and initial flight were perfect, except, matey, what was that? A small object appeared t' fly from the back at ejection, me bucko, and where was t' 'chute. T' rocket came in ballistically. What had happened was exactly what t' 'doom sayers' were predicting. Begad! Well, blow me down! Even though I had staggered t' ejection by usin' a mixture o' D12 delays, the ejection gases pushed t' engine cartridge out o' t' rear, instead of deployin' t' chute. Arrr! T' rocket be a write off. T' engine cartridge shattered, t' forward tube like a concertina, and t' aft tube a slowly unwindin' spiral.

T' pic o' lift off was t' last shout from me last roll o' film, so mercifully thar are no pictures o' t' rocket as we found it. Arrr! Aye aye! T' realization of t' hours we had all spent on this rocket, shiver me timbers, which was now trash, didn't sink in until later, and it was a long drive home from Largs t' Leeds.