The man who restored Donald Campbell's record-breaking Bluebird says he feels "targeted" by legal action from a museum over its ownership.
Coniston's Ruskin Museum is calling on engineer Bill Smith to return the craft, which he has been restoring in North Tyneside.
His team was enlisted to repair it in 2006 and has since claimed a stake in its ownership due to that work.
He said a planned display of Bluebird in Yorkshire may have to be cancelled.
Donald Campbell was killed in January 1967 as he attempted to break the water speed world record, with Bluebird laying at the bottom of Coniston Water until it was raised by Mr Smith in 2001.
The museum was gifted the wreckage five years later by Mr Campbell's daughter, Gina Campbell, on the understanding Mr Smith would restore it.
Mr Smith has previously said his team had restored half a boat while the other half was built "from scratch".
Museum deputy chairman Jeff Carroll said the proceedings had been issued "with regret" but with the "full support of the Campbell Family Heritage Trust".
Mr Smith wrote a statement on Thursday saying: "This morning my eldest daughter brought a fat envelope upstairs in which was a pile of paperwork from the Ruskin Museum.
"It contained nothing new, the crucial difference being that this time it not only targeted Bluebird Project but also me personally and therefore, by extension, my family."
He said he consulted a barrister and a KC and they agreed that to take K7 to Elvington, near York, for a planned drag racing and car show, "brought with it unnecessary risk of additional costly lawyerly activity that we can simply do without".
He said his thoughts were with "the ever-dedicated team who have grafted since Christmas to have the boat and all our equipment ready and to be properly drilled and rehearsed as a team to safely and professionally operate the boat for public and charitable benefit".
He also urged people to "spread the word, hit the keyboard, call your MP or whatever it takes to make your feelings known" in the hope the Elvington event could go ahead.