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, me hearties, but it wasn't really long enough. Begad! Blimey! So I decided t' built a rocket reminiscent o' t' MkIV, arrr, with a transition, me hearties, and forward fins. Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! With t' extra weight o' t' engines, matey, t' plywood fins and centerin' rings, matey, this design turned out nay t' be stable ( Usin' RockSim). Aye aye! Blimey! Well, blow me down! Blimey! I increased t' length o' t' upper tube ( forward o' t' transition) and removed the forward fins. Well, blow me down! Blimey! 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. Aye aye! So I went for a removable cartridge system. T' Fins were mounted through t' body wall and formed runners onto which t' engine cartridge would slide. Well, blow me down! T' cartridge be made up from two discs o' plywood drilled with holes for t' engine mounts. Avast! T' cartridge slid in t' t' body on t' runners and be then locked into position by rotatin' the whole thing. Well, blow me down! In t' end I just went with six engines. Thrust rings were made from sawn up spent D engines and epoxied in t' place. Avast! Blimey! A stuffer tube be placed inside t' main body, me bucko, mounted on two centerin' rings. At ignition t' upper body was t' separate, each half with its own parachute. Aye aye! Karen made a red and white hemispherical 'chute for t' lower half, shiver me timbers, and I was goin' t' use t' pink circular 'chute for t' upper half. Aye aye! We intended t' fly it at t' International Rocket Weekend, 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. Ya scallywag! Avast! Blimey! '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. Aye aye! Begad! Blimey! In t' end I bought some big shock cord and tied both halves together on t' red & white 'chute. Ya scallywag! Another hitch, me hearties, I had planned to add another set o' clips t' me ignition system, matey, but had forgotten ( that last week was hectic as I me work had taken me away from home for several days), shiver me timbers, and I didn't have a large enough launch pad... Avast! Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey!

Luckily I learned o' a new technique for clustering. Well, blow me down! This involves usin' a single igniter t' ignite 'quick match' fuses that are fed into t' individual engines. One o' t' organizers, John Bonsor, showed me how t' do this. Avast! I managed t' borrow a launcher and after a wait for t' wind t' die down, we were ready. Begad! Ya scallywag! T' ignition and initial flight were perfect, arrr, except, ya bilge rat, what was that? A small object appeared t' fly from the back at ejection, arrr, and where was t' 'chute. T' rocket came in ballistically. What had happened was exactly what t' 'doom sayers' were predicting. Ahoy! Even though I had staggered t' ejection by usin' a mixture o' D12 delays, me bucko, the ejection gases pushed t' engine cartridge out o' t' rear, instead of deployin' t' chute. Avast! Begad! T' rocket be a write off. Begad! 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, me hearties, so mercifully thar are no pictures o' t' rocket as we found it. Arrr! T' realization of t' hours we had all spent on this rocket, me bucko, which was now trash, didn't sink in until later, and it be a long drive home from Largs t' Leeds.