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BCN Challenge 2022


Tom and Bex

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19 minutes ago, Richard T said:

@Mrs Tawny Owl Sue is the event taking place in May or June - the dates on the application form is contradictory!!

 

Definitely June - the late May Bank Holiday has been moved a week for the Jubilee

 

Well, 6 days actually - note the FRIDAY start and SATURDAY finish ....

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Participants may navigate for as long as they like during the 30 hour period up to a maximum of 24 hours. The required 6 hour break should be taken in one go, but may be taken at any time in the 30 hours. If problems prevent you taking the whole break at once please explain the reason on the cruise log. 
 

 

:cheers:

 

Drat, there goes plan A ...

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30 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

 

:cheers:

 

Drat, there goes plan A ...

 

A good change, there's a few nice little tweaks.

 

Although that one may lose the Manor Arms a little bit of trade. The ability to break the 6 hours did give the possibility of stopping for a pint or two without losing cruising time, something we have done on the Saturday evening on both the last two events.

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26 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

A good change,

 

Prevents Team Tawny Tactics (Ooh we've got a bladeful, knock another 10 minutes off the six hours ... ;))  so I'm in favour.  Last time we had the engine off for a continuous six hours and five seconds.   I will admit that the boat was untied, drifting in the middle of the canal with my hand on the ignition key for the last fifteen seconds though!

 

19 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

there's a few nice little tweaks.

 

Yeah, but as we discussed a few years ago there's still not enough incentive to do the Curly Wurly.  It needs a 3 or 3.5 multiplier on it and/or other multipliers lowering.

 

One of my alternate routes has us doing Walsall to Tame Valley junction unscored return as a (hopefully) viable route rather than going on the Wyrley & Essington which seems a shame.  And possibly masochistic ...

 

32 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

The ability to break the 6 hours did give the possibility of stopping for a pint or two without losing cruising time

 

Quite.  Plan A looked more like a pub crawl than a boating challenge.  5 minutes per lock and 20 minutes per pub - we can sleep when we're dead ... :D

 

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@Nine of Hearts

 

Pretty pretty please with beer bribery involved: Could you update your planning tool again?

 

It was so useful last time.

 

For those that don't know it, it's on his website, but it's currently set up for the 2019 rules/points so will not be correct for 2022.

 

http://www.thecatwhowalksbyhimself.co.uk/bcnChallenge.php

 

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Prevents Team Tawny Tactics (Ooh we've got a bladeful, knock another 10 minutes off the six hours ... ;))

 

Not on Tawny! That's what all the crew are taken along for - bowhauling

 

Richard

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14 minutes ago, RLWP said:

 

Not on Tawny! That's what all the crew are taken along for - bowhauling

 

Richard

Or offering a helping hand to crew members who unfortunately found themselves in the canal whilst bowhauling 🙂

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9 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

Plan A looked more like a pub crawl than a boating challenge.  5 minutes per lock and 20 minutes per pub - we can sleep when we're dead ... :D

My crew subscribes to this theory, particularly the two younger members (who will be 13 and 14 at the time of the challenge). You might think this is a bad thing but I can assure you it's not - give a them a pint of coke at each pub and their locking performance markedly increases!


Alec

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23 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Yeah, but as we discussed a few years ago there's still not enough incentive to do the Curly Wurly.  It needs a 3 or 3.5 multiplier on it and/or other multipliers lowering.

 

One of my alternate routes has us doing Walsall to Tame Valley junction unscored return as a (hopefully) viable route rather than going on the Wyrley & Essington which seems a shame.  And possibly masochistic ...

 

 

I think most boats include the W&E in their itinerary including the three winning entries preceding you. There always seems to be a procession of boats somewhere on the W&E on Saturday evening. I've always included at least part of it on all four of the Challenges I've done, albeit once it wasn't actually planned.

 

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On 12/01/2022 at 00:04, TheBiscuits said:

Yeah, but as we discussed a few years ago there's still not enough incentive to do the Curly Wurly.  It needs a 3 or 3.5 multiplier on it and/or other multipliers lowering

 

We could have exactly the same multipliers on each section every year. We don't because it is likely to favour experienced crews who know the ins and outs of the competition. We change the points per section to mix up the routes each time

 

And I don't have any evidence that the W&E is more in need of moving boats than any other part of the BCN - the Tame Valley section above Newton junction for instance. If you can have information on boat usage and maintenance need that could help with planning the competition I'd be interested to see it

 

Richard

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There's a lot more to it than just the weightings. The length of boat and number of crew determines whether a route biased toward locks or toward mileage is best for each specific entry. W&E is obviously good for mileage but it also links some high scoring lock flights.

 

Even in trying to win the thing there is also an eye on covering as much of the BCN as possible, it's not just about the maximum points. Honest.

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5 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

There's a lot more to it than just the weightings. The length of boat and number of crew determines whether a route biased toward locks or toward mileage is best for each specific entry. W&E is obviously good for mileage but it also links some high scoring lock flights.

 

Even in trying to win the thing there is also an eye on covering as much of the BCN as possible, it's not just about the maximum points. Honest.

I am not trying to win, I am trying to enjoy it (or at least, that's what I will be telling myself when I crawl out of bed at 5am somewhere near the Ryders Green flight (cue picture of Cath Fincher).

 

Alec

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13 minutes ago, agg221 said:

I am not trying to win, I am trying to enjoy it (or at least, that's what I will be telling myself when I crawl out of bed at 5am somewhere near the Ryders Green flight (cue picture of Cath Fincher).

 

Alec

 

This year we do have an eye on competing to win but I can't absolutely say the proposed route is the theoretical maximum score as I haven't computed to that level. It's an interesting route that we know will score well if executed. In any case I've never known the plan to run entirely as it was intended so it perhaps isn't that important anyway. To win you need both a plan that's competitive and events on the weekend to conspire in your favour. On half of my efforts to date we haven't had a competitive plan because we had other objectives.

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1 hour ago, RLWP said:

We could have exactly the same multipliers on each section every year. We don't because it is likely to favour experienced crews who know the ins and outs of the competition. We change the points per section to mix up the routes each time

 

And I don't have any evidence that the W&E is more in need of moving boats than any other part of the BCN - the Tame Valley section above Newton junction for instance. If you can have information on boat usage and maintenance need that could help with planning the competition I'd be interested to see it

 

Apologies - it was intended as an observation not as a criticism.  Don't forget I'm a newbie at the challenge - only done it once - so I don't know exactly how the route scores have changed in previous years.  

 

We really like the W&E and we did the full length of it twice after the last challenge.   I certainly don't claim good local knowledge of the BCN as a whole - having bimbled round it for a few weeks only gave us a taste of the network. 

 

I do fully accept that tweaking scores, sections, and finish points changes the routes taken quite a bit. That said, I find it interesting that you say Tame Valley needs more moving boats than the W&E as it scores lower on the bonuses.  My knowledge of which bits of the BCN really need more boats is based entirely on the last couple of challenge route bonuses!

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I see the challenge as an opportunity to do something I wouldn't normally do in my annual boating, in recent years this has included legging Dudley tunnel, taking a working pair to various parts of the BCN, long lining Aston and Farmers Bridge and taking Richard Parry along.  Getting stuck in Walsall always seems to be a part of the challenge as well and getting help or free beers from some of the locals.

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28 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

This year we do have an eye on competing to win but I can't absolutely say the proposed route is the theoretical maximum score as I haven't computed to that level. It's an interesting route that we know will score well if executed. In any case I've never known the plan to run entirely as it was intended so it perhaps isn't that important anyway. To win you need both a plan that's competitive and events on the weekend to conspire in your favour. On half of my efforts to date we haven't had a competitive plan because we had other objectives.

 

Like many others, we find the planning is part of the fun.  Two of my brainstorming plans for this year include the great outer ring of the BCN or just doing @Dr Bob's previous route of Old Turn to Withymoor Island and getting more points than he did because it's the finish this year! :D

 

If you're aiming for a high score you do run the risk of coming badly unstuck - it doesn't require more than a bad meeting with the notorious Tame Valley mattress or one broken lock to leave you with an non-finishing route.  We know we were very lucky last time - we heard reports of delays and breakages on bits that were either behind us or fixed by the time we got there and didn't have too many bad weedhatch dives.

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1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

I see the challenge as an opportunity to do something I wouldn't normally do in my annual boating, in recent years this has included legging Dudley tunnel, taking a working pair to various parts of the BCN, long lining Aston and Farmers Bridge and taking Richard Parry along.  Getting stuck in Walsall always seems to be a part of the challenge as well and getting help or free beers from some of the locals.

 

That's a fair point although I try and do random faffing with as many boats as possible all year.  Got to admit I haven't legged Dudley (yet! my boat doesn't fit under the gauge at BCLM) or taken a working pair round the shallows.

 

As I said earlier the Walsall delays last time were cleared by the time we got there which had a lot more to do with luck than skill.  If we had started from there we would probably have lost an hour or more and had to chop other bits off our route.

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Captain Pegg said:

There's a lot more to it than just the weightings. The length of boat and number of crew determines whether a route biased toward locks or toward mileage is best for each specific entry. W&E is obviously good for mileage but it also links some high scoring lock flights.

 

Even in trying to win the thing there is also an eye on covering as much of the BCN as possible, it's not just about the maximum points. Honest.

 

Understood, but it's the comparative weightings that I look at for initial planning. 

 

Horseley Fields to Birchills takes around four times as long and only scores about 2/3rds of the points of Walsall to Birchills.  Over five times the points per precious hour puts a section a lot further up the "must do for high score" list.

 

Admittedly if you are intending to do both the Wolverhampton flight and Walsall it would be daft to not go that way!

 

I'm not saying the scores are wrong - it all depends on where the BCNS and Richard and Sue want the boats to use more this year - but my initial planning gives a range of ~3 points per hour to ~45 points per hour for different sections.  I have no complaints that hammering Walsall Flight scores 15 times more points than bimbling up the New Mainline - it should!

 

I also understand that many people simply wouldn't enter if the whole thing was purely a race to do 100 locks in a day and that would go against the stated reasons for the challenge.  That said, if you try and do most of the locks on the BCN you will certainly have covered a large part of the system.

 

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There is an interesting dynamic in my household.

 

I can be reasonably competitive but am also pragmatic. We have a short but deep-drafted boat which is not ideal as you don’t get the speed of a shallow boat or the points of a long one; we have a crew of four as my younger daughter and wife don’t want to do it, which is the least optimal number, and two of them are 13 and 14 so may not have the strength for damaged locks. We are also tied to a particular start point for our route. So, we will do the best we can, have a good time and I will be happy with that.

 

By contrast, when my elder daughter got home from school yesterday I let her know the paperwork had arrived. She sat straight down and read it end to end (I asked her a question and got ‘shut up Daddy, I’m reading’ in response). She then said ‘right, we’re doing all of it, it gets more points’ so you could say she is somewhat competitive!

 

It will be interesting to see how that competitive streak holds up locking down Walsall at midnight in the rain!

 

Alec

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On 04/10/2021 at 12:14, Dave_P said:

Will there be points for walking/cycling/paddleboarding etc this time?

I'm still waiting for a response to this.  Having boated the challenge 3 times and cycled it once, I rather fancy walking it this time.  I'd been keener if I knew I could be a 'proper' entrant with points awarded etc.

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49 minutes ago, agg221 said:

There is an interesting dynamic in my household.

 

I can be reasonably competitive but am also pragmatic. We have a short but deep-drafted boat which is not ideal as you don’t get the speed of a shallow boat or the points of a long one; we have a crew of four as my younger daughter and wife don’t want to do it, which is the least optimal number, and two of them are 13 and 14 so may not have the strength for damaged locks.

 

A shorter boat helps in locks - you can have the gate closed and the paddles open before the boat stops if you have agile crew - but obviously scores less mileage points.  The crew decision is a tricky one - is it worth losing an extra crew or two for lock bonus points or will you do the locks faster with extra bodies.

 

I think Team Tawny have it right - if you're having four crew you might as well have a dozen!  Maybe we need crew penalties for 8+ crew ... :D

 

55 minutes ago, agg221 said:

We are also tied to a particular start point for our route.

 

Do note that the day before the challenge is also a Bank Holiday if you need to pre-position your boat for a preferred start point.  That's why it's a Friday/Saturday challenge this year - there's the Thursday to get in position and the Sunday to get back if needed.

 

Doesn't help us that much as we'll be doing something like 200 miles and 80-odd locks to get there!

 

1 hour ago, agg221 said:

By contrast, when my elder daughter got home from school yesterday I let her know the paperwork had arrived. She sat straight down and read it end to end (I asked her a question and got ‘shut up Daddy, I’m reading’ in response). She then said ‘right, we’re doing all of it, it gets more points’ so you could say she is somewhat competitive!

 

It will be interesting to see how that competitive streak holds up locking down Walsall at midnight in the rain!

 

Attagirl!  That's the spirit. 

 

I advise against planning 45 hour routes and hoping they go well though. :D

 

At least with younger teenagers you get less mutiny if you don't take your break near a good pub in opening hours! 

11 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

I'm still waiting for a response to this.  Having boated the challenge 3 times and cycled it once, I rather fancy walking it this time.  I'd been keener if I knew I could be a 'proper' entrant with points awarded etc.

 

Yes, it's in the rules Dave.

 

 

The event is open to everyone with a boat licensed for use on Canal and River Trust waterways.
Other users, e.g. anglers, bird watchers, canoeists, cyclists, naturalists and walkers etc are very
welcome to participate in any way which enhances the spirit of the event and the organisers
would be very pleased to receive constructive suggestions from such groups on how this may be
achieved.

 

Walkers will receive 1.5 points for each full mile walked.

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