BCN 24 Hour Marathon Challenge 2025

[BCN Challenge]

As has been mentioned in another thread the next BCN 24 Hour Marathon Challenge will take place on the 24th and 25th May 2025.

 

The finish line will be at Withymoor Island where a warm welcome and excellent hospitality will be extended to the competitors judging by the excellent job the Trust did for the 2022 event.

 

For 2025 there will be bonus factors introduced for boats of greater than 2' draught - and further enhanced for those above 3' - and also for boats of greater than than the 6' 10" modern standard width.

 

All previous entrants have been mailed with details and entry forms are now available. Price of entry is £25 including one commemorative plaque and additional plaques are available at £10 each.

 

The organiser can be contacted at bcnschallenge@gmail.com

 

Edited December 9, 2024 by BCN Challenge

[Duke of Larus]

Branta and Larus will be there! Route planning and decorations already underway 😆

[brianthesnail96]

Reading the posts on the BCN challenge is part of the reason I actually joined the forum instead of being a permanent lurker. Sounds like a fantastic event and something I'd love to be a part of someday.

I'm hoping to come up on the Sunday at least and watch some of the boats come through towards the finish. 

[brianthesnail96]

Not long now! How are the entries looking for this year Jonny? 

Since my above post I have been drafted onto a crew, so it looks like "someday" is in less than a month  Rather looking forward to it I have to say. 

Who else from CWDF land is putting in a team?

Edited April 29 by brianthesnail96

[BCN Challenge]

There’s 22 entries either submitted or promised plus another couple of maybes.

 

Similar numbers to last year so for next year there needs to be a better effort from the Society to get numbers up to about 30. The event is sustainable at current numbers but the experience is improved by the interaction with other competitors and with 20 or so you can go a long way without seeing any other competitor.

Off the top of my head from the forum there will be Branta, Dotterel, Firefly, India, Larus (Common Gull)  and Vulpes.

 

Historics will be represented by Atlas & Malus (BCNS), Scorpio (CRT), and privately owned Starling and Telford.

 

Then there’s long standing competitors such as Tatty Lucy, Ferrous, Goosander, Song of the Waterways (part CWDF crew) and Rebellion (only post on Challenge threads), but no Misbourne No 3 this year.

 

There’s a new crowd of post-Covid devotees returning for their second, third or fourth event in Getana, Misty Blue, Thistle, Tamar/Sunseeker and maybe Axolotl. 

There’s a returner from the past in Pennylock and a new boat/crew as far as I am aware in Scimitar.

 

Rivets 5000 is having a year off.

 

The plaques are cast, the trophy is being cut and the beer is on order.

 

Still time for more entries and there are a few spare plaques to accommodate late entries.

 

 

[Rob-M]

I've jumped ship this year from Scorpio back on to Vulpes as I fancied taking it easy for a year 😀

[junior]

I'm always jealous when this thread appears. One of my best boating experiences and memories to date was doing the BCN Challenge 10 years ago with a crew from this forum. 

Hopefully in the next few years I can get something sorted again to take part again in some way. 

[TheBiscuits]

9 minutes ago, junior said:

I'm always jealous when this thread appears. One of my best boating experiences and memories to date was doing the BCN Challenge 10 years ago with a crew from this forum. 

Hopefully in the next few years I can get something sorted again to take part again in some way. 

 

The latest entry I've heard of was 15 minutes after the event started, so there's still time 😁

[IanM]

2 hours ago, BCN Challenge said:

The event is sustainable at current numbers but the experience is improved by the interaction with other competitors and with 20 or so you can go a long way without seeing any other competitor.

 

 

That was our experience a few years back and it felt very lonely.

[Stroudwater1]

4 minutes ago, IanM said:

 

That was our experience a few years back and it felt very lonely.

Strangely It wasn’t ours, I think we passed almost all the other boats . The worry was they were usually going the other way to us. That is  apart from at the locks when they were usually ahead of us. 
 

Our crew is depleted as one has just run the London marathon and for a youngster one marathon is enough in just over a month apparently. 

[BCN Challenge]

26 minutes ago, IanM said:

 

That was our experience a few years back and it felt very lonely.

Obviously it’s random but there are certain places where boats tend to meet. Such as Smethwick locks and Engine Arm on Saturday morning or on the Wyrley & Essington into Saturday night. This year Oldbury will likely be busy on Sunday morning and Parkhead late morning into lunchtime.

 

Did you compete in 2022 when there were only about 17 competitors. I also recall you decided not to head for the finish line where of course you would have met all the other boats. That’s part of the point of having a ‘finish line’.

[brianthesnail96]

Thanks for the update Jon. Glad it's a reasonable turnout at least- good to see a few of the familiar names from reading the older threads on here will be out and about, and great there's some historics again as well- especially given the tweaks to the scoring this year to account for the difficulties associated with punting deep and wide boats around. 

 

I expect both main lines and the various interlinking locks will be fairly busy on the Sunday- and Parkhead might see more boats in 3 hours than it does most months! Should be good fun. 

 

I'm the final (completely inexperienced, potentially a liability, hopefully still smiling at the end) crew member on Larus by the way 

Edited April 29 by brianthesnail96

[Duke of Larus]

45 minutes ago, brianthesnail96 said:

I'm the final (completely inexperienced, potentially a liability, hopefully still smiling at the end) crew member on Larus by the way 

 

You say you're inexperienced, but you have more experience on the BCN than 2/3 of the Branta crew, plus you have your own windlass, you're happy to make bacon sarnies and you have just the right level of crazy - so welcome aboard!

[Tonka]

No @Victor Vectis this year. Where are they ?

We booked our boat in for shotblasting, welding and epoxy blacking with Norton Canes Boat Services in Nov last year. Asked for the next available slot. So on the 12th May she gets craned out for a month.

[Stroudwater1]

9 minutes ago, Tonka said:

No @Victor Vectis this year. Where are they ?

We booked our boat in for shotblasting, welding and epoxy blacking with Norton Canes Boat Services in Nov last year. Asked for the next available slot. So on the 12th May she gets craned out for a month.

Last seen heading on the GU  London way if I read correctly.
 

We are  disappointed as there seems no one to prop up the table now. Last year  they had a nice slow jaunt after their boat was painted so it might have been different anyway this time.
 

It's the taking part that matters, really looking forward to it. 

[Victor Vectis]

Yes, 'Red Wharf' is currently resting on the outskirts of that there London.

 

The plan was, and hopefully still is, to take part in the 'Fund Britain's Waterways' protest cruise on the Thames next month.

But what with Denham Deep Lock getting bu99ered (now fixed), City Road Lock ditto (not fixed) and today a pollution incident on the Regents Canal I feel the gods have different ideas.

[Alway Swilby]

27 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

Yes, 'Red Wharf' is currently resting on the outskirts of that there London.

 

The plan was, and hopefully still is, to take part in the 'Fund Britain's Waterways' protest cruise on the Thames next month.

But what with Denham Deep Lock getting bu99ered (now fixed), City Road Lock ditto (not fixed) and today a pollution incident on the Regents Canal I feel the gods have different ideas.

The organisers of the FBW cruise are trying to make it very clear that it is a "Campaign" cruise not a protest cruise.

Hope you get through ok. I understand there are backup plans to go from Brentford to Limehouse in order to bypass City Road lock. This would also bypass Maida Hill Tunnel.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Hope you’ve got your dungarees too 👍

[Victor Vectis]

OK.

Yes, I can see their point, so campaign it is.

 

And yes,the good people at the St Pancras club are working on a 'Plan B' to get to Westminster via Brentford. Coming out of Limehouse is scary enough but the prospect of turning across the river and going in there gives me the heeby jeebies! < the polite expression of my feelings about this particular procedure >

 

At least if it is to be 'Plan B' we will be in good company.

[Alway Swilby]

3 hours ago, Victor Vectis said:

OK.

Yes, I can see their point, so campaign it is.

 

And yes,the good people at the St Pancras club are working on a 'Plan B' to get to Westminster via Brentford. Coming out of Limehouse is scary enough but the prospect of turning across the river and going in there gives me the heeby jeebies! < the polite expression of my feelings about this particular procedure >

 

At least if it is to be 'Plan B' we will be in good company.

I've turned Oleanna in to Limehouse once. It was really simple! Mind you it was after the  night time flotilla through London that started off life as The Queen's Platinum Jubilee flotilla so they closed the Thames Barrier for 12 hours to stop the tide for her.  By the time of the flotilla in September she had gone and died so it turned into a celebration of her life. Good fun though!

Edited April 29 by Alway Swilby

[Mike Todd]

29 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

I've turned Oleanna in to Limehouse once. It was really simple! Mind you it was after the  night time flotilla through London that started off life as The Queen's Platinum Jubilee flotilla so they closed the Thames Barrier for 12 hours to stop the tide for her.  By the time of the flotilla in September she had gone and died so it turned into a celebration of her life. Good fun though!

The key - which we only really understood after getting it a wee bit wrong - is that the main channel flow, especially on an ebb tide, catches the downstream wall and bounces off it, thus pushing a boat that thought that it should be punching the tide, rather solidly into the upstream wall. Same at Keadby and Stockwith. Other rive exits, like Stourport, are not quite so unforgiving as the entry is at a slight upstream angle.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

Was talking to someone yesterday who is doing the 'Explorer' cruise which I think usually precedes the Challenge and the route plan for the Explorer seems to include the Walsall Canal (he thinks), I thought that was still closed, anyone know different?

[Rob-M]

Still closed, there was an update today on the dredging that has been carried out and it was looking hopeful that it may be able to be reopened.

[BCN Challenge]

The Explorer cruise is presumably using the section of the Walsall canal that is open between Tame Valley Jn (Ocker Hill) and Ryders Green Jn.

 

It just so happens that the respective organisers of the Explorer cruises and the Challenge have been comparing notes in the pub this evening.

[john6767]

1 hour ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Was talking to someone yesterday who is doing the 'Explorer' cruise which I think usually precedes the Challenge and the route plan for the Explorer seems to include the Walsall Canal (he thinks), I thought that was still closed, anyone know different?

None of the three explorer cruises this year are using the Walsall canal, with the exception of Ryders Green from Tame Valley junction to Pudding Green junction.