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Hairy Hog heaven
After our first attempt on Scrapheap, it was a joy to come back and see all the production team again.
The Hairy Hogs come from different places and have different backgrounds. Darrell is a mechanic, Alastair is a plumber and I'm a sparkie. What we have in common is we all enjoy a few jars, our bikes (Harley Davidsons, of course) and each other's company. That has been the basis of our team.
As we took the last flight out of Belfast as fully-fledged Scrapheap builders, I could feel in my waters that this visit was going to be a classic.
Build day
Breakfast consisted of a full plate of whatever you wanted. There's nothing like black pudding to help you make a good start to the day.
This time we all were a bit apprehensive and we could see the other team were as well. We could also tell that neither of us wanted to finish up as losers.
Once we were at the heap and had a plan for what to do for our build, we knew we didn't have any time to spare. We needed something to float on which we could drive on to, a prop shaft, a car, floats, a steering system and ramps.
I won't bore you with all the grinding, welding, drilling, welding, cutting, welding and more grinding, welding, cutting, welding and welding but if you put it all together, you get a floating landing craft thing.
Test day
The sun had got its hat on and there was me without my sunblock.
We didn't have much to do to test our build to make sure it was ready. The only test we carried out was to see if it stayed on top of the water with 10 hefty lads jumping up and down on it. It did.
The Thirsty Knights seemed certain they were going to win. I was the driver and I don't mind admitting I had a touch of the nerves.
But the race went okay for us. We were the first to get around the circular course and the rest is history. It's well worth the watch.
The Hairy Hogs have met some great people on Scrapheap: the production team (very patient), the crew (had everything we needed to hand), the experts (what can I say?) and the other competitors (they were good until they met the best).
Conn Kelly