BCN Challenge 2023

[tree monkey]

25 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

By judicious use of the Peril Sensitive Spotlight.

 

MP.

Maybe peril sensitive but also rat tracking, even when the rat was on the bank!

[Francis Herne]

CRT have just been up at Titford. They reckon they've (finally) sorted the sluice out and stopped dumping all the water through to Icknield Port via the reservoir. Levels rising at about 1mm/hour supposedly. Still very low and likely to remain so; doing the Pools for the challenge may not be a winning move.

[tree monkey]

3 minutes ago, Francis Herne said:

CRT have just been up at Titford. They reckon they've (finally) sorted the sluice out and stopped dumping all the water through to Icknield Port via the reservoir. Levels rising at about 1mm/hour supposedly. Still very low and likely to remain so; doing the Pools for the challenge may not be a winning move.

Which now means all the challengers are debating whether your announcement will mean no one will do the pools, so the pools might be empty of boats so it just might be worth the chance, cue the massive queue of challengers who took the chance in a long haul up the locks

 

[bizzard]

My dad did the Pools on Saturday night.

[Captain Pegg]

13 minutes ago, Francis Herne said:

CRT have just been up at Titford. They reckon they've (finally) sorted the sluice out and stopped dumping all the water through to Icknield Port via the reservoir. Levels rising at about 1mm/hour supposedly. Still very low and likely to remain so; doing the Pools for the challenge may not be a winning move.

 

I thought water went from Icknield Port/Rotton Park to Titford, or at least it used to when the feeder was in use. Is there another connection that feeds from Titford to Icknield Port? That seems quite a convoluted way to get water from Titford to the Birmingham level.

 

Do you think I'll be able to get out by Friday (2' 0" draft) and Atlas & Malus on Saturday morning?

 

 

3 minutes ago, bizzard said:

My dad did the Pools on Saturday night.

 

Did he put the Villa down for a score draw at Liverpool?

Edited May 24, 2023 by Captain Pegg

[Francis Herne]

The feeder from Titford (sluice at Rood End) runs downhill *into* Rotton Park reservoir. When there's excess water from the Pools catchment it goes down there, or when there's excess water on the Wolverhampton level they pump up at Titford and run it down to the reservoir.

 

The reservoir sluice and overflow both feed the Birmingham level at Icknield Port. There used to be a gravity feeder from the reservoir to the Wolverhampton level at the Engine Arm (the raised channel that runs on the embankment parallel to the New Line, over the Cape & GKN tunnels) but that's been abandoned since the '80s. There's no feed from any reservoir to Titford, just the pumps from the Wolverhampton level.

 

Colin from CRT says contractors had replaced a sluice valve at Rood End and incorrectly left it open. Water thus flowing down to Rotton Park which is full and so overflowing to Icknield Port. Only CRT could spend days pumping water up 38 feet only to have it arrive 20ft below where it started!

47 minutes ago, bizzard said:

My dad did the Pools on Saturday night.

About half the boats at the Titford rally did the Pools on Saturday, me included. The level was quite low then, but is down another few inches since. If CRT have really solved the problem now it might have improved by the weekend;

[Captain Pegg]

Didn't realise that was a feeder to the Engine Arm, I thought it was just one between Rotton Park and Titford and some pumping was required as it's obviously lower than both ends. Makes sense that it's at or just above the Wolverhampton level and feeds directly.

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Captain Pegg

[Rob-M]

If everyone can avoid going up and down the locks it would help a deep drafted old working boat if they were to attempt heading that way 😀

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

I thought that was the ploy?

Lark putting us off going up to the Pools so Atlas and Malus can go up unhindered?

 

👍😃

[Captain Pegg]

Just now, Goliath said:

I thought that was the ploy?

Lark putting us off going up to the Pools so Atlas and Malus can go up unhindered?

 

👍😃

Atlas and Malus are already there. The problem they have is escaping.

[Rob-M]

3 minutes ago, Goliath said:

I thought that was the ploy?

Lark putting us off going up to the Pools so Atlas and Malus can go up unhindered?

 

👍😃

I was thinking of a different working boat.  I think the last time I did the pools Atlas ploughed a channel ahead of us.

[Victor Vectis]

4 hours ago, agg221 said:

So what you're saying is that we can start at the bottom of the 21, come straight to the finish and get going on the beer, and still not come last!

 

Alec

Oi!

 

That's our plan.

😃

(ish)

4 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

No. Licence doesn’t permit the sale of alcohol until 1200 on Sunday so you may as well go boating to pass the time.

 

Atlas and Joanna may yet score zero. As will I if the levels at Titford aren’t sorted.

You could always give it away.

(For a charitable donation, of course)

🤔

 

[Francis Herne]

Whatever CRT did this morning seems to have worked, it's about a inch up from earlier and I'm no longer on the bottom. The others still are currently.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

But you have the beer!

you must escape

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Francis Herne said:

 Colin from CRT says contractors had replaced a sluice valve at Rood End and incorrectly left it open. Water thus flowing down to Rotton Park which is full and so overflowing to Icknield Port. Only CRT could spend days pumping water up 38 feet only to have it arrive 20ft below where it started!

 

A bit like filling your water tank with a hose from the galley tap or plugging the battery charger into the output of the inverter to recharge your batteries

[Captain Pegg]

5 hours ago, Francis Herne said:

Whatever CRT did this morning seems to have worked, it's about a inch up from earlier and I'm no longer on the bottom. The others still are currently.

 
Thanks for the update Francis. Should be OK for me in 40 odd hours time.

 

5 hours ago, Goliath said:

But you have the beer!

you must escape

 

I don’t yet have the beer. In any case that can get there by other means. I can too, but then I’d have to go back to Titford - or more likely home - to sleep.

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Captain Pegg

[David Mack]

8 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

Didn't realise that was a feeder to the Engine Arm, I thought it was just one between Rotton Park and Titford and some pumping was required as it's obviously lower than both ends. Makes sense that it's at or just above the Wolverhampton level and feeds directly.

 

And I believe it came in part way up the dam at Rotten Park. So when the feeder channel was in use water could be run directly from Rotton Park to the Wolverhampton Level, but in the reverse direction it had to be pumped up into the reservoir.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

How low did the water up there get then?

Ive always imagined it’s reasonably deep around the Pumphouse. 
 

[Captain Pegg]

24 minutes ago, Goliath said:

How low did the water up there get then?

Ive always imagined it’s reasonably deep around the Pumphouse. 
 

 

Francis is best placed to answer on what happened but the Titford Canal has never been very deep in my experience. The pool at the top of the locks is probably OK because it's wide and lots of boats manoeuvre there but other than that it is very shallow heading up to the pools even when the water is on weir.

 

The level was a few inches down last Saturday as the BCNS tried to take a boat load of CRT dignataries and guests to the pools but they ran aground in mid channel not very into the journey and eventually the guests aborted and were put ashore after little more than 100 metres in over an hour.

 

Thats the first time I've ever seen it really low on water and I must have boated there more than 10 times. Normally the combination of the pools and pumps keeps the water level up. Hopefully now the leakage is fixed the pools are refilling from natural sources as well as the pumping. There's a lot of water up there. 

 

The pools themselves are deep but have of course been recently cleared/dredged.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Captain Pegg

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

I think I’ve misunderstood then. 
I thought the gathering was at the Pumphouse. 
And boats were stuck there. 
But your saying boats are stuck at the Pools?
 

Sorry for being dim. 

I do know it can be shallow from Pumphouse and onwards. 

[Victor Vectis]

For information.

 

The Prince of Wales, the pub not too far away from the ICC (or whatever its called these days) and Old Turn has reopened and is now a Black Country pub.

I was in there a while back and asked if they were 'dog friendly'.

The Man from Del Monte, the youth behind the bar, said 'yes'.

 

Team 'Red Wharf' may, or may not, be there Saturday evening.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Ah!
Im several days ahead of you. 
 

They are not child friendly though, 

Yhey turned away a large family (large in number not weight) from an empty pub because they had a little kiddie. 
 

Id guess if 2 boats worth of crew turned up they’d dominate the pub. 
 

Was it quite when you were there?

 

Good cobs and ok pasties. 

[Victor Vectis]

Yes. The pub wasn't busy.

Unlike where I was this afternoon. A bus ride from where RW is currently moored.

Excellent Bathams and a Holdens beer, '101' a dark pale ale from what it said on their promo blurb.

 

Go on, I bet you can't guess where I was.

😃

 

ETA Phoned the comradepartnerperson and she got it in one!

Edited May 24, 2023 by Victor Vectis

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

1 minute ago, Victor Vectis said:

Yes. The pub wasn't busy.

Unlike where I was this afternoon. A bus ride from where RW is currently moored.

Excellent Bathams and a Holdens beer, '101' a dark pale ale from what it said on their promo blurb.

 

Go on, I bet you can't guess where I was.

😃

Im certainly thinking

thw little cogs are a whirling

[Captain Pegg]

1 minute ago, Victor Vectis said:

Yes. The pub wasn't busy.

Unlike where I was this afternoon. A bus ride from where RW is currently moored.

Excellent Bathams and a Holdens beer, '101' a dark pale ale from what it said on their promo blurb.

 

Go on, I bet you can't guess where I was.

😃

 

Great Western, Wolverhampton?

 

BTW - with regard to car parking have you read the mail I sent to participants earlier?