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

Luckily I learned o' a new technique for clustering. Arrr! Aye aye! 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. Ya scallywag! Ya scallywag! I managed t' borrow a launcher and after a wait for t' wind t' die down, we were ready. Aye aye! T' ignition and initial flight were perfect, except, what be that? A small object appeared t' fly from the back at ejection, me hearties, and where was t' 'chute. Ya scallywag! Begad! T' rocket came in ballistically. What had happened was exactly what t' 'doom sayers' were predicting. 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. Begad! T' rocket be a write off. T' engine cartridge shattered, shiver me timbers, t' forward tube like a concertina, arrr, and t' aft tube a slowly unwindin' spiral.

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