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I've just sent out the final scores to the competitors. 1. Rivets 5000 - 451 pts 2. Tatty Lucy - 401 3. Misty Blue - 306 4. Dolly - 304 5. Goosander - 298 6. Rebellion - 294 7. Ferrous - 286 8= Misbourne no 3 - 281 8= Song of the Waterways – 281 10. Maxwell – 231 11. Melaleuca – 212 12. Tamar – 160 13. Thistle – 150 14. England – 143 15. Atlas and Malus – 133 16. Red Wharf – 88 17= Goliath – 82 17= Vulpes – 82

A big THANK YOU to Jon for organising things. We, that being Victor Vectis, Little Else, Sprouts Mum and Sprout herself had a lovely time. And another BIG THANK YOU to all the other entrants. Without meaning any disrespect to ‘Vulpes and ‘Goliath’ any pillock can come last but to come second last takes skill, planning and cunning. So well done us. 😀

I have been boating on ex working boats drawing 3 feet for over 30 years (and smaller boats before that). When I first got involved with Fulbourne we frequently went aground, and that would always seem to involve crew heaving on ropes and pushing on poles or rocking the boat to get free. These days it is much rarer to go hard aground, and getting free when we do seems easier. The canals haven't got deeper in the last 30 years, so I conclude it is my boat handling that has got better - an ability to read the channel to avoid the danger spots, feeling when the boat starts to ground and taking corrective action, slowing down in shallow water so you aren't sucked onto the bottom etc. There are plenty of 3 ft-ish drafted boats navigating the entire system, so if there is enough depth for them, then the 2 ft boats shouldn't really be having too many problems.

To summarise Fatty tatty no mates.

Well I went. Chatted to some traders, chatted to some boaters, met some of the boating youtubers, looked at some expensive boats, looked at some interesting old boats, bought some tat, drunk some beer, ate some overpriced food, enjoyed the live band and froze on the campsite. Overall a good day out 👍

...or have a quite NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude to it. As a Local Councillor I'm regularly approached "Can't you do something about John*" who sleeps on a bench near Tesco+. Well yes, we can. We could have him moved on. Then he'd sleep outside ASDA, then the Co-Op... I know he has deep family issues, used to be a property owner, fell on hard times. He has dignity and any 'help' has to be on his terms. But Mum's in Chelsea Tractors# "I don't think my kids should have to see this" doesn't help... [ * - Not his real name - other details also slightly 'modified' ] [ + - Tesco --> Free public toilets and WiFi ] [ # - Apologies; oversized 23 plate four x four to do the half mile shopping run because "It's so unsafe walking anywhere near a road" ]

Watch out for tearaways riding motorbikes on the towpath

At least some path improvements do prioritise trees and nature.

Regarding the original post and accident. Myself, sister and her husband were at the scene of the accident on Wednesday. We were the three people who jumped in and pulled the man out from beneath the boat. I did not witness him actually fall in as we were in the stop lock at the time but my understanding of the cause was that the rudder either grounded or hit the bank whilst reversing and the tiller swung and knocked him off. He was then dragged under the stern as the boat reversed and I believe his left arm became entangled in the propeller. I ran to the scene to see if I could be of assistance as I was aware someone had gone overboard. I shouted to his wife who said she had lost her husband overboard and could not see him. I then noticed his right hand grabbing onto the side of the boat. His wife had turned the engine off. I entered the water and swam across the river to try and free him. I was unable to do this on my own, my sister and husband also entered the water and we fought desperately to free him from his clothes. We managed this after some time then swam him to the bank and undertook CPR. He miraculously started breathing again. Many passers by and the staff at the marina were there and offered assistance. The paramedics were fantastic and the last I saw of him he was conscious and apparently even talking. His wife was lovely and coped incredible well considering the ordeal. I hope very much the gentleman is recovering well in hospital. Please all, take care out there and safe boating. Can I recommend downloading an app called "what three words" which helps give your exact location to emergency services and also looking at some youtube videos on resuscitation and basic first aid. You never know when you might need it.

So matty made his ratty fatty even more tatty. Excellent.

I do not have an issue with discussing boat safety in a general sense, it could be of value to any of us.

Arbutus helped me to get through Brum city centre and Aston locks. Thank goodness I took him up on his very generous offer. I really can't imagine how stressful, time consuming, and exhausting it would have been if I'd been on my own. He did 95% of the physical work, calmly and cheerfully, and was a massive help also in navigating around obstacles and other boats. I can't thank him enough for his time. It was a smooth journey, without any major drama, and I was able to get to Curdworth before dark.

Rivets has the advantage of being able to achieve 4mph just about anywhere, although it does suffer from problems with weed around the prop as do other boats. It's massive disadvantage is that to compete seriously it requires to spend 24 hours in the open air over water with no sleep huddled around an engine wearing ear defenders with only the food and drink that you can pre-prepare and have room to carry. If it rains you're basically stuffed. Most folks would find an hour in Rivets to be plenty. The big advantage that Rivets, Tatty Lucy, Dolly and last year's winner Vulpes employed to their benefit was the ability to work locks efficiently with a crew of two. This gives a big advantage over a boat crewed with 4 or more. Although Rivets can share it is in peril of being sunk in any lock but most definitely so when it is sharing. The rules are pretty simple, any times entered that give an average of more than 4mph for any route section carries the sanction of disqualification and it has happened. Just doing 100 lock miles won't necessarily score that well if the locks involved include Wolverhampton, Tipton, Farmers Bridge and Aston and you cruise the length of the main line. Rivets and Tatty Lucy tackled 56 and 60 locks respectively and both did the big scoring Rushall and Walsall flights. Rivets advantage was that it cruised more miles but crucially that included the quadruple bonus rated central section of the Walsall Canal. Nobody wins the Challenge easily. You don't even get near without doing some properly difficult boating. I suspect having won that Dan and David will not wish to endure again what it took to win this time. And that's a better outcome than tweaking the rules to discrimate against one particular boat. What does happen is that the weightings and bonus factors are tweaked to try and give some sort of parity between different types of boats and given Rivets had competed once before and came sixth that's not previously been an issue.

The scoring does vary to give advantage to certain boats, I think full length boats gain a points advantage rather than short boats though, the general idea is to encourage boats that could have extra complications. Have you ever heard of Mornington crescent and the famed complexity of the rule book? Well the BCN rules are in a different league which I why I prefer crewing, I will work locks and bow haul boats for 12 hrs straight, put the rules in front of me and I cry and open the booze

Hope everyone is feeling better rested! Thank you for a lovely event @Captain Pegg - excellent curry, terrible singing! See you all next year!

Good luck with your sale

I've stopped using Twitter I'm afraid. It's an Elon Musk thing...

Time for a hand with locking

Sprout is enjoying her first BCN Challenge lounging. She has single-dogged up the 21 because the humans were useless. Now enjoying a rest in her Liberace-themed domain.

There's an annual 24 hour challenge event on the BCN. I'm quite surprised you haven't heard of it before ...

Obviously if we have caught them up from far behind, they are going more slowly than us. How much slower can be assessed by the rate of closure. The effect you mention is going to slow them, but only by a very small amount. Something like a trough aqueduct is of course going to make the effect more significant, but most of us spend less than 0.1% of our time on such aqueducts so you point is an exception not normality. The obvious indications of a boat ahead at or close to tickover are virtually no sign of prop wash and virtually no discernible ripples from the bow. But surely you know this? If we are only very slowly catching them up, eg we are doing 3.5mph and they are doing 3.4 mph, then I am not fussed about overtaking and we will reduce from say 1300rpm to 1200 rpm, no big deal. It is the people who you come up behind rapidly with their boats barely making a ripple from the bow or the prop, that are the issue. Our boat does about 2 to 2.5 mph at tickover (depending on depth etc) and any slower, we have to go into neutral. I can’t help feeling that if you put more effort into thinking about how to considerately let others pass you, and less effort into thinking up reasons why they shouldn’t, the world would be a better place.

Thought I would give an update on this very under used waterway and try to encourage people to make the effort to get all the way to Sheffield. Here is a brief résumé of the steps on our journey. We started from our temporary winter mooring at Long Sandall. There are good visitor moorings here too and a little further North good CRT services at Barnby Dunn. All locks from Long Sandall to Eastwood are large and automated to accommodate the 60m long oil barge 'Exol Pride' that runs roughly twice a week between Goole and Rotherham. The locks are operated using your CRT key unless lock keepers are present. Doncaster. Well worth a visit and exploring for a few days. Good, safe 3 day visitor moorings right in the centre of town. From Doncaster you quickly go through some lovely countryside on the river Don Sprotbrough. Two day visitor mooring just after Sprotbrough lock. Some wonderful walking around the area including Sprotbrough Flash nature reserve, Conisbrough Castle, Conisbrough viaduct and Cusworth Hall. Next stop was Pastures, just after Mexborough Low Lock. Mexborough itself is a depressing town, however, where the canal passes through it is delightful and known locally as the 'Meccy Riviera'. Special mention to the Gorilla Brewery Tap room just after Station Rd Bridge. Space for two 57' NB's to moor up outside and sample the goods Apparently you can also moor overnight here if you seek permission of the owner. After Mexborough there is a CRT mooring available just before Waddington lock at Swinton. We didn't stop here, but it looks safe, gated and secure with what appears to be services that are not shown on the latest Nicholson's guide. Perhaps someone could confirm? Kilnhurst. Mooring available. No facilities. Probably ok for an overnighter. Eastwood (Rotherham). Safe gated visitor mooring here with CRT services (shower/toilets/elsan etc) and a huge retail park nearby. However, mooring space was limited due to some 'permanent' residents and an apparently abandoned craft with 'notice for removal' sticker on it. From here we booked our passage on the Tinsley flight via CRT. (24hrs notice required) Rotherham town centre (30 min walk from Eastwood) is well worth visiting. They're really making an effort to improve the town and I would encourage you to go there and see for yourselves. Leaving Eastwood, we stopped overnight on the lock landing before Holmes Bridge lock.(no problem with this as in the evening nobody will be descending the flight) It is from here the CRT assisted passage starts for the Tinsley flight and the lock keeper met us at 9am the following morning. It takes around 4hrs to do the Tinsley flight. We had four excellent and friendly CRT members in attendance and they know their stuff. It's a lovely flight. The final hour into Sheffield is very interesting and ends at Victoria Quays. A lovely terminus a short walk from the city centre. CRT seem to have handed over responsibility to CV Marine, but we never saw a single person from the company. The office was permanently closed. The showers are permanently closed. Cost is officially £50 a week to moor. Only two days visitor mooring allowed. We stayed nearly three weeks. We loved Sheffield. First impressions are bad though as the Castlegate area near to the Quays is rough. It is a fascinating city, easy to walk, full of history and culture. The beer pub and music scene is outstanding and access to the magnificent Peak District is easy via public transport. We highly recommend it. In the three weeks we were there only three boats arrived. One stayed overnight and left the following day having been put off by the Castlegate area. Such a shame as they missed a lovely city. In summary I would say this section of the system is a hidden gem and extremely under utilised. Sections of the river Don are an oasis of tree lined tranquility and most travelling days we were blissfully alone. I would encourage people to put aside any preconceived thoughts of the areas industrial reputation. Sections of the navigation are absolutely stunning. One caveat, just keep an eye out for the weather as the Don can flood rapidly. I hope this brief synopsis is helpful. Enjoy. For photos see my wife's Instagram page 'Lock and Quay'

Their big advantage is length, or lack of same. The boat can turn round on a standard width canal, no need to look for winding ‘pled. Well done to them for winning, even if none of the crew fell in this year!