john6767

I believe you can take the 6 hours "off time" however you like, including at the end like the 2009 winner did. Oh and on additional awards, how about the most naff bunting award. I thought it was cheap and ebay and now I know why.

Seconded, I am using 3 sims purchased from ebay; 3GB for 3 months and chuck it when it runs out. Looks like those have gone up a bit too though I think it was around £8.50 last time I bought some. For casual infrequent use I can't see that any other deal beats these sims.

Just what you need for the engine room of a working boat!

So that is the second part of the challenge; drink the pub dry

Nice....

Remember the rules though; the crew size is the maximum number of crew that you have an any point time. I suspect you are already at 6 though. It does raise an interesting point , you are in a queue for a lock and some from another boat works one side of the lock, does that count as extra crew?

Not sure it is really that much of a spectator sport, but the "finish line" is Walsall Town Arm. Finish is at 2:00PM on Sunday 29th, but you do not absolutely have to be there at that point (there are bonus point for doing thatt hough). So it is not necessarily going to be 50 or however many boats all racing up the arm, or perhaps it will be

That is not how I am doing it with my mother of all spreadsheets, and I think "the cat" planner is agreeing with my calcs now, at least it does on my route. So for Tame Valley Junction to Newton Junction 3.5 mile = 7 points, bonus factor is 3 therefore 21 points. Remember you get a point per half mile not per mile! So similarly Newton Junction to Catshill Junction 8.0 miles, 9 locks = 25 points, ie the 8 miles gives 16 points at 1 point per half mile, plus one point per lock give 9 points, 16+9=25. You can do a lock as fast as you like, but will it fill/empty that fast! This is not real life you know Getting excited now though.......

Yes the bonus points are definitely a multiplier on the points for that section. The Cats Planner will give the correct points values.

Down the Avon is certainly easier than up. 1. You are going with the flow, so faster, 2. The locks are much more gentle going down, particularly with just 2 of you. see here. On the other hand, with just 2 at least in my mind, going down Tardibigge is easier than up. So six of one etc.......

1 bonus point per 6 locks. Have I missed something?

Yep we are definitely on. Stage 2 of pre BCN boat move completed on Saturday, and I spent yesterday afternoon doing a recce of various strategic locations by car. This will be just the 2 of us, so disappointed in the points scheme that you don't get more bonus points for a small crew, the winning strategy would certainly seem to be to go mob handed! We may be fighting it out with Nine of Hearts for the wooden spoon. Current plan is to arrive central Birmingham on the Thursday and on the Friday transfer to our top secret start location.

Not going to Crick because we are doing the BCN Challenge that weekend.

But it is not standard practice that Watford locks are closed outside hours, is it? I thought that was only at the moment due to an issue with one of the locks.

We had a similar question; "what are the locks for, the water looks so flat".

A standard "small double" is 4ft x 6ft 3in, you should be able to get that size anywhere Our boat is a bit strange I think in that the bed was built for a 3ft 9in wide x 6ft 3in mattress, so I modified the base to have a 3in overhang. The bed is still narrower (just) than the bathroom wall that it buts up to, and there is no problem in getting past it. We bought a very nice "small double" memory foam topped mattress for it, in fact it was so good that we went out and bought the same mattress in a king size for at home!

I went to a talk on the higher Avon navigation earlier in the year. The outline proposal would be a flight of 4 locks to link to the GU. Web site here which has all the details.

A few pictures from the trip. Arrival at Hatton bottom lock How many more to go..... Ah nice small locks (first lock on Stratford heading south from Kingswood Junct.) An aqueduct A Bigger aqueduct Bancroft basin, Stratford. Before anyone one points out the rope; was just leaving when I realised had not taken any pics On to the river. Not many rowing boats around now, should have seen it when we arrived back (didn't get any pics of that, was too trying to avoid them) Descending a typical upper Avon lock, not very stylish but functional Moored outside the Frog pub in Bidford And back in Stratford, moored on the river opposite the theatre

Just going through my pictures taken on this trip, here is an example. The paddles are only on a very small amount at this point, whack them up at your peril.

LOL let me pass that to you...., serves me right for trusting the spell checker. VICIOUS was what I meant of course, and they are....... Avon was great fun though.

The Locks on a Avon a viscous when you are going up. The paddle gear is French design and it is just a big paddle on each on the top gatse with no baffle and it is well above the water level. So initially you get a 2ft wide stream of water shooting out about 10ft, even it you are very careful and only open the paddle a small amount. Going down I "cheated" and did start to just use the centreline, but going up would not really recommend that. There were only 2 of us so it was a bit of a faf, wife had to adjust the front line tied off to the bollard (going up) a couple of times as the lock filled. The lock are very wide, so even sharing you will be quite a way from other boats in the lock

A few more updates. In Bidford we stopped on the mooring outside the Frog pub. From the outside it appears that the pub has been done up, but inside it is a much more a typical village pub. We had a nice meal and the beer was good, so for us it was a success. The following morning when I went to go and get a paper I found that the only exit from the mooring through the pub garden was locked, so it was necessary to climb over a wall to get out. Be aware if you are not up to scaling a wall! The trip back upriver was a lot busier than the trip down (it was Saturday I guess), and we shared sometimes with 2 other boats all the locks except the last one into Stratford. Luckily the others were sensible with the paddles; as I described above they are viscous if you open than up too quickly when ascending. The only bit of excitement was at Binton bridge. As I approached I could see a cruiser faffing about side on to the upstream side of the bridge, and when I was about 100 feet from the only navigable arch he started to come backwards across the arch. His passengers were waving and shouting at him but he just kept coming. Against the flow I was able to stop easily, and I gave the horn a test for good measure . Goodnees knows what he was trying to do, but eventually he shot off upstream only to stop again. At least he was very apologetic when I went past, and no harm done. This and a couple of discussions at locks leads me to believe that there is a lot of "borrowing" of boats going on. Arrival in Stratford was chaotic. By now it was 3PM on a Saturday, and the river was solid with rowing boats. I lost count of the number of times I had to stop as one came across my bows, it was a laugh a minute, firewood anyone. The steerer of one of the many trip boats also fighting his way through the mess called out to me "welcome to hell!". We moored up on the river opposite the theatre, cracked open a few welcome beers, and sat back at the front of the boat to watch the entertainment from the rowing boats.

Yes I did notice! Needs a wash too

Here are the links to time lapse videos from this trip.

A few retrospective updates. Locking down on to the river from Stratford was interesting, perhaps not the quietest time, just after the royal wedding when all the tourists (as well as us) surfaced from watching the telly. As soon as the boat started moving off the pontoon hundreds, and I do mean hundreds, gathered round the lock to see what was going on. As I said to my wife at the time seems a bit like I imagine a public hanging would have been! I was good and smiled nicely for the photographs! Anyway all went well, and we followed the practice that I had observed others doing and left the bottom gates open, which means the lock crew can easily get back on to the roof of the boat before leaving the lock. There is no where to stop on the lock side of the river to pick up crew. Once on the river there are all the rowing boats to negotiate. At the first river lock we followed the practice that ANT insists on and used fore and aft ropes and not just a centre line. Having now come back up the locks I can see why you absolutely have to do this coming up but going down to me honestly it seemed like a bit of a faf for nothing, and on some of the shallower locks later on I did just use a centreline going down (don't tell on me). The locks on the upper Avon were all rebuilt in the 70's (I think) and are best described as "functional", constructed out of steel piling, and are certaly not narrowboat friendly in that there are lots of opportunity to remove paint, and it you were not careful I did note that the walkway on the top gates are nicely positioned to take out a window. The French paddle gear is very easy to operate, but is the reason why when going up you need to use fore and aft ropes, as the gate paddles have no baffles and a 10ft long jet of water shoots out until they are underwater. So going up, open the paddle just a VERY small amount unless you have someone hanging on tightly to the front rope. You my want to close the front doors too, just in case. I also noted that as with the widened GU locks that I am familiar with, if you are in the lock on your own when going up if you just open the paddle on the boat side of the lock it will keep you pinned to the lock side.