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BCN Challenge 2022


Tom and Bex

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This stoppage will affect a lot of plans! Has this event been discussed with the planners? Could the event not have been postponed until after 2pm?

 

Notice Alert

Netherton Tunnel Branch (New ML)
Location: Netherton Tunnel
Starts At: Netherton Tunnel
Ends At: Netherton Tunnel

Saturday 4 June 2022 11:00 until Saturday 4 June 2022 14:00

Type: Navigation Closure
Reason: Information


 

Original message:

 

Netherton Tunnel will be closed Saturday 4th June between 11am – 2pm

A paddle boarding event, organised by East of England Paddlesports is planned.

Volunteers will be on site at both ends of the tunnel to make sure boats do not go through the tunnel at the same time as the paddlers. We kindly ask customers to wait for passage outside the tunnel until all paddlers have travelled through. The tunnel will re-open to boating customers after the event at around 2pm.    

You can view this notice and its map online here:
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/22414/netherton-tunnel

You can find all notices at the url below:
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices

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It would be great if the paddle boarding event could be delayed until 2pm so everyone could be on the right side of the closure before it starts!

 

But if not, I guess the best way would be to allow boats to finish at the north end of the tunnel, given that logs are now sent electronically anyway, and then we can make our way down to the actual finish as soon as the tunnel reopens.  Even that is going to require the more competitive teams (such as ourselves!) to do a replan though - if we have a bit more time we should be able to cover more ground before reaching the tunnel...

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Not helpful at all to have this happening, but fortunately for us (perhaps?) I measured Oates this morning against a tunnel gauge made to the drawings on the old leaflet for the Dudley Tunnel and found that we fit with two inches to spare, so I think we have a plan (assuming we can book a passage N-S on the Saturday morning).

 

Alec

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2 hours ago, Mrs Tawny Owl said:

I have just been told about this, and I'm not very happy after jumping through hoops to get the event licence issued.

You need an event licence for the BCN Challenge? I thought it was just a number of boats navigating the local waterways, each to their own choice of route, in accordance with the standard licence conditions.

Edited by David Mack
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1 hour ago, agg221 said:

Not helpful at all to have this happening, but fortunately for us (perhaps?) I measured Oates this morning against a tunnel gauge made to the drawings on the old leaflet for the Dudley Tunnel and found that we fit with two inches to spare, so I think we have a plan (assuming we can book a passage N-S on the Saturday morning).

 

Alec


I was planning to leg through Dudley Tunnel on Thursday ahead of the Challenge but the DC&TT - who are a genuinely really good bunch - said they couldn’t get the staff to do a tunnel escort on a bank holiday weekend.

35 minutes ago, cheshire~rose said:

We are planning to get some really long oars and stand the team on the cabin top to paddle through 

 

It will just be a big paddle board ;) 

 

 


Good plan, but I have asked the rhetorical question of a friend of mine who mailed me the stoppage notice exactly what means the wardens have to stop a boat.

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3 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:


I was planning to leg through Dudley Tunnel on Thursday ahead of the Challenge but the DC&TT - who are a genuinely really good bunch - said they couldn’t get the staff to do a tunnel escort on a bank holiday weekend.

That would be distinctly frustrating - if essentially you can't use the Dudley Tunnel, the Netherton (in the key window to reach the finish) or the Rushall as a through route it is going to get very busy in certain areas with everyone constrained to essentially the same route.

 

Equally annoyingly, I can't see how those of us who are submitting hard copy logs are then going to hand them in either?

 

Alec

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Just now, agg221 said:

That would be distinctly frustrating - if essentially you can't use the Dudley Tunnel, the Netherton (in the key window to reach the finish) or the Rushall as a through route it is going to get very busy in certain areas with everyone constrained to essentially the same route.

 

Equally annoyingly, I can't see how those of us who are submitting hard copy logs are then going to hand them in either?

 

Alec


I’m sure the organisers will come up with a pragmatic solution.

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Just now, Captain Pegg said:


I’m sure the organisers will come up with a pragmatic solution.

Likewise - it's not a reflection on the organisers in any way, just the fact that so many key parts of the BCN seem to be unavailable on this particular weekend.

 

Alec

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1 minute ago, agg221 said:

Likewise - it's not a reflection on the organisers in any way, just the fact that so many key parts of the BCN seem to be unavailable on this particular weekend.

 

Alec


Quite.

 

There are a small number of intrepid boaters who are willing to promote the little used waterways of the BCN and CRT seem to have contrived to make that difficult.

 

I’m normally quite defensive of them but in this case they have failed badly.

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1 hour ago, Captain Pegg said:


Quite.

 

There are a small number of intrepid boaters who are willing to promote the little used waterways of the BCN and CRT seem to have contrived to make that difficult.

 

I’m normally quite defensive of them but in this case they have failed badly.

Part of my frustration is that it is only the extended Bank Holiday which is allowing us to take part - there is just enough time to bring the boat down on the Thursday and get it far enough back up on the Sunday (we need to moor in Wolverhampton on the Saturday night). That means we are unlikely to be able to take part again for some years, so it is frustrating to miss out on some of the key parts on the one occasion we get.

 

I am anticipating that most people will now aim to get through the Netherton before the closure, meaning the logical final part of the time window is going to be spent with a large number of boats going down to Hawne Basin and back, but it will then become a complete lottery as to who gets through in which direction at which point.

 

Alec

Edited by agg221
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5 hours ago, cheshire~rose said:

We are planning to get some really long oars and stand the team on the cabin top to paddle through 

 

It will just be a big paddle board ;) 

 

So why do you have that paddle board/ tug deck in front of the cabin?

 

If the minions need to stand on the top of the cabin they're much better off in Netherton than they would be in Gosty Hill tunnel ...

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5 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

So why do you have that paddle board/ tug deck in front of the cabin?

 

If the minions need to stand on the top of the cabin they're much better off in Netherton than they would be in Gosty Hill tunnel ...

 That isn't a paddleboard deck. It is a campsite!

 

We don't need to be a paddle board in Gosty Hill because that isn't closed to boats (yet) but perhaps don't tell CRT there is another way they can put a spanner in the works eh? 

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This year we are not able to take part in the Challenge for personal reasons, but reading this is very depressing, I can’t understand why CRT have chosen to do this.

 

Hopefull Sue can make some progress with CRT, and this new event timing can be changed such that it does not conflict with the Challenge.   I know if we were taking part this would have a major impact on us.

 

One thing that does make the impact bigger is the new this year Challenge rule that the 6 hours of break time has to be taken as a single 6 hour long break.  In previous years we have taken 4 hours overnight, and then 2 hours at then end, ie. Getting to the finish point by 12 noon.  If this event timing can not be moved, then perhaps the Challenge 6 hour rule could be relaxed so you can choose to take less time overnight and finish earlier.  As it stands I think all you can do is go straight through and finish at 8am taking all 6 hours at the end.

 

Anyway good luck to all those taking part, hopefully a way to make this work can be found.

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1 hour ago, cheshire~rose said:

CRT communication is so poor and they seem to be set on making enemies of the very people who are trying their hardest to do things to help them. 

Quite simple really.  Boaters do not count.  We bring in more money than anyone except the gubbinsment but we are not able to cut that money off.  So we can be ignored.

N

 

 

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24 minutes ago, john6767 said:

 

One thing that does make the impact bigger is the new this year Challenge rule that the 6 hours of break time has to be taken as a single 6 hour long break.  In previous years we have taken 4 hours overnight, and then 2 hours at then end, ie. Getting to the finish point by 12 noon.  

Yes. Why the new rule? In previous years Fulbourne's crew took the 6 hours break time when the pubs were open, and kept going through the night. But I'm not sure a single 6 hour pub break would be conducive to good boating!

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26 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Yes. Why the new rule? In previous years Fulbourne's crew took the 6 hours break time when the pubs were open, and kept going through the night. But I'm not sure a single 6 hour pub break would be conducive to good boating!


I’m in favour of the new rule. It’s not easy for small crews to safely boat through the night. We’ve done that once with a crew of three and also used some of the 6 hours for pub stops on other occasions. Ultimately it’s a boating competition and on balance I think the new rule is fair.

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Yes, we've always taken the 6 hour break overnight for sleeping, which I think is best for safe navigation.  But when we saw this notice we also thought about taking a shorter sleep break in order to stick to our current plan.  I looked for the new rule as I thought I remembered it had been changed and initially couldn't find it - though I have now, it's on the entry form but not in the main rules.

 

Anyway - I totally support the rule change, and hope this situation can be sorted out quickly with CRT!

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2 minutes ago, Mrs Tawny Owl said:

Right, I have had a chat with the chap who issued our Licence.

It seems the request to close Netherton for the paddleboarders was received quote late, as the organiser didn't know they had to apply for a closure for the boarders to go through.

I think the request for the closure went to C&RT, and they issued the closure notice, not realising this would impact our event. I suspect it's different departments and they didn't have all the details to hand.

 

That notice has now been removed pending discussion with the boarders organiser.

 

I have said we are happy for the tunnel to be closed from 1.30pm, you'll need to be through by then anyway to get to Withymoor on time.. They did suggest closing it earlier instead, but as I don't know what time people were intending to come though that's not going to work.

 

The trip the boarders are doing includes going through the Dundley tunnels so the suggestion is they do that tunnel first, or only that tunnel if they can't swap the times over.

 

I'll get confirmation once I've spoken to the licencing chap again, probably early next week.

 

Because this is very late notice, I will make allowances for anyone who can't get through the tunnel in time. That will be in the final email I send out with the cruise log.

 

Should be OK I think. Not a deliberate aim to ignore boaters, but a mix up and communication failure.

Sue

 


Thank you Sue.

 

As you suggest if the worst does happen it’s ultimately not that difficult to allow people to extend their finish time beyond 1400 for the time they can demonstrate they were stopped at Netherton.

 

I’m sure you appreciate a solution that allows us to stick with our current plans is best.

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Just now, Captain Pegg said:


Thank you Sue.

 

As you suggest if the worst does happen it’s ultimately not that difficult to allow people to extend their finish time beyond 1400 for the time they can demonstrate they were stopped at Netherton.

 

I’m sure you appreciate a solution that allows us to stick with our current plans is best.

Yes my first though was that I would get boats to note their time arriving at the tunnel, and allow them to keep the points for doing the last bit to withymoor after 2pm.

If the time change can happen that will be best so no-one is late to the party.

 

In other news there will be food and drinks on sale, and they have arranged some entertainment.

 

Sue

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10 minutes ago, Mrs Tawny Owl said:

Should be OK I think. Not a deliberate aim to ignore boaters, but a mix up and communication failure.

Sue

 

I thought that might be what it was, a left hand and right hand non communication thing.

 

WELL DONE! for sorting it out.

 

See you (and Barney?) soon

 

SAM

Team 'Red Wharf'

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