The raising of the Bluebird speedboat after 34 years was a poignant moment for two Sussex brothers.

Donald Campbell lost his life when the boat crashed into the depths of Lake Coniston, Cumbria, as he tried to break the 300mph barrier in 1967.

Last week the Bluebird was finally raised - and Ken Norris was among the onlookers.

He and brother Lew were key members of Campbell's design team. Lew still remembers putting a model of the boat through its paces at Hove Lagoon 50 years ago.

The back wheel of an upturned bicycle served as a makeshift winch. Lew and his brother Ken turned the pedals furiously to pull the scale model through the water, creating the exact conditions Campbell would experience when it came to the real thing.

"You have to get the centre of gravity exactly right," Lew said. "It's all a question of aerodynamics.

"If the boat tilts too far as the boat speeds through the water then it is going to flip over."

Precisely such a disaster killed Campbell on January 4, 1967. Bluebird suddenly took off and almost completed a loop before plunging into the waters, breaking up on impact.

Campbell, whose body has never been recovered, was attempting to break his own 276mph water speed record.

Last week his widow Tonia Bern-Campbell watched as a diving team led by underwater explorer Bill Smith recovered the main hull of Bluebird at the culmination of a salvage operation lasting four years.

The Norris brothers of Sussex were his designers. Ken, now 79, was among the small crowd of onlookers. To the great disappointment of Lew, 76, Shoreham airport was fogbound and he couldn't get to the Lake District in time.

Norris Brothers, an engineering design company, was set up at Haywards Heath after the Second World War. At one time the brothers employed 300 workers.

Campbell met Lew in 1948 on the day his father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, died.

Malcolm had smashed the world land speed record nine times and Donald was eager to follow in his footsteps.

Donald quickly established a close rapport with the Norris family. Ken and Lew were the youngest of a family of six brothers and two sisters in Burgess Hill, where their father was gasworks manager. Sister Bertha married Malcolm Campbell's best friend, Reg Whiteman.

"Donald was larger than life," Lew said: "A generous, friendly man who loved a laugh and was game for anything - the more adventurous the better.

"I remember once driving with him in an old A70 and he said, 'You move over and steer and I'll work the pedals.' I wasn't having that for long.

"He was deeply superstitious with all kind of strange beliefs. There's a story that before his death he dealt himself the ace of spades playing patience. He certainly believed he saw his father before he set off on a speed attempt."

Aerodynamics specialist Ken and marine engineer Lew designed both Bluebirds. The boat came first, planned in an office at Haywards Heath, and the car followed - designed in offices at Burgess Hill.

In those early days the brothers were closely involved in Campbell's trials, adapting his Bluebirds when necessary to meet the challenge of making them the fastest on earth. It could take a year of tests in a wind tunnel to get the boat's aerodynamics balance right.

Lew remembers once roaring over the water at 150mph in the earlier prop Bluebird, crouched alongside a huge Rolls Royce engine. Leo Villa, Campbell's legendary chief mechanic, took it in his stride, but Lew remembered ruefully: "I felt I was looking death in the face."

In 1960 Campbell fractured his skull in a crash while attempting the land speed record. Bluebird fell to pieces and had to be completely rebuilt. This time the brothers put a fin on it to create greater stability.

By 1964 Campbell was the fastest man on land at 403.1mph and the fastest on water, reaching 276.33. Determined to beat the 300mph barrier on water before the Americans, by January 1967 he was fast running out of time, patience and money. Lew recalled: "Donald was desperate to succeed and we judge from film records he exceeded the speed laid down in the original design specification in that final dawn run on the lake.

"Bluebird was comfortably safe on calm water at 250mph, not tilting more than 3 1/2 degrees. In the event, we reckon he was doing 315 to 317mph and lifting some seven degrees.

"There was some turbulence on the water and on top of that he ran into the backwash from an earlier run. The dreadful outcome, of course, was that the boat overturned."

Lew had returned home to carry on the family business when the disaster occurred. Ken called him at 6.30 in the morning.

He recalled: "It came as a terrible shock. We had become great friends over the years."

He left immediately to join his brother in the Lake District and together they comforted the grieving Tonia. Years later the Belgian singer married Heartbeat actor Bill Maynard.

Like many others associated with Campbell, Lew at first baulked at the idea of raising the boat from the deep. Everyone feared the speed king's remains would be found with the boat.

In the event there was no trace of the body and the brothers would now like to see a Campbell museum established at Lake Coniston.

Lew has a house on Hove seafront. He is still active as an engineer and businessman and runs a factory making pumps for the food industry at Bolney.

His success in life is the direct result of the Norris family's reputation as engineers and designers working with Campbell.

It has made Lew a rich man - well deserved because in those early days Campbell often ran short of money and the family continued to support him regardless.

Lew said: "It was all down to the spirit of adventure. Money never came into it."

Words by Derek Jameson