Battery specialist ECOBAT has lent its support to the restoration of a very historic boat, the Bluebird K7 which was used by Donald Campbell in his water speed record breaking attempt.

ECOBAT Battery Technologies (EBT), formally Manbat, is not only the largest automotive and commercial vehicle battery distributor Ireland and the UK, but also a company with a longstanding tradition of support for worthwhile and interesting causes. This includes offering a replacement battery service for automotive trade charity, BEN and the provision of batteries for the Extreme Everest 2 medical research expedition.

Another project supported by EBT has recently been in the news, when Donald Campbell’s speed record breaking boat Bluebird K7, fired up its engine for the first time since that fateful day in January 1967, when it crashed and sank to the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. The wreck was raised in 2001 by a team headed by Campbell enthusiast and engineer, Bill Smith who has spent the last 15 years restoring the historic vessel to the point where they have finally been able to test the jet engine, which is similar to the original Bristol Orpheus engine it used.

Originally Bluebird was fitted with two 72Ah Lucas BV11A batteries, as would have been fitted to a Jaguar, Aston Martin or similar vehicle of the 1960s, used in series to give the 24 volts the boat required. After the boat was raised from the lake and the batteries cleaned, acid replaced and given significant charge, they still possessed 35% of their original capacity.

The original batteries have now been replaced with batteries donated by EBT. These new Lucas batteries are of traditional hard rubber case construction to reflect the era of the vessel. The batteries performed well starting up the boat’s new jet engine, as it rested in its test rig. This procedure was televised on BBC television and can also be seen on YouTube.

Bluebird’s original batteries have now been decommissioned, but even here EBT continues to play an important role as the plan is to replace the original cells with modern, high-efficiency battery internals, connected to the existing terminals, to maintain the authentic look, but in a maintenance free package.