John - I really don't want to get into a debate about this. Let me answer your questions.
Plus, whats the point in having the gun restored to a working order if your just going to lock it down?
The point is to have it like it looked during the war (as much as possible). I'm all for leaving it unlocked, but until your can trust people to use it and NOT damage it, then it gets locked down. And as soon as I can get Vaughn out, it will be.
Sure every once in a while something messes up but all in all it's just routine maintenance.
Restoring the gun wasn't routine maintenance. It was a lot of work by my wife and myself, and mostly by Vaughn and he built the support and the flooring and then got the gun up there.
The gun gets scratched, it sucks, but it's no different then a knob missing on the Morse Code, someone gets a touch up brush and coats the area super fast.
So, can I count on you to come out EVERY day to make sure it has paint on it from people working the gun? The last two times I was out I have had to repaint it. It works down to metal and then rust starts. I'm involved w/ the deck now and would rather not have to paint the barrel and railing EVERY time I come out.
We have to remember this boat (and gun) survived World War 2 and 60+ years. Letting people have a once in a life time chance is not going to do irreparable damage.
No, what we have to remember is that the submarine is a MUSEUM and people and volunteers need to treat it as such. If we are going to restore stuff just so some person can have a "once in a lifetime experience" and then damage it...then I'm all for locking it down. Why should one person get to damage it for all others?
And as long as we keep a eye on it nothing bad will happen.
Well, I'm open on how to do that? Rick can't sit out there all day. Can you? No, bascially it's me keeping an eye on it when I'm out every other weekend.
I don't want to be a stick in the mud here, I do want people to come and enjoy their visit. However I don't want work that is done by anyone to be ruined because of some person wanting to get their "experience". The problem is that only my wife, me and Vaughn put anytime into restoring this...so no one else seems to think it's a problem to go play on it.
Mark A.