BCN Challenge 2018

[Dave_P]

11 hours ago, Odana said:

Splendid to see there was a walker this year after all that effort we went to getting footwork included ?

After 2 years off it'll be good to rejoin the Challenge next year

Do you know how the walking points are awarded?  I may go for that option next year.

[nicknorman]

2 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

I think that would have meant disqualification. Although they did leave us way behind below Factory locks. 

 

What I do know is they didn't have their cruising log because they took photos of mine at the start. So they may not have supplied all the information necessary to get all the weighting factors or even all the route scored. Their basic route should have scored 327 points with a two person crew.

 

They ran out of fuel because the helmsman - who was not the captain - had the engine at full throttle against lock gates while waiting for locks to be prepared and whilst in the chamber. All we could hear was engine noise interspersed with thumps of boat against gate.

 

JP

Well hopefully they were disqualified for abusing the infrastructure.

[Laurie Booth]

9 hours ago, Kustomcut said:

Hi all

firstly let me say congrats to indigo and thank you for the donation, we are currently at just over £400 for the BCN Society and it’s

great to see the scores I reckon if I hadn’t of sank and finished my route I would of had it this year by about 10 points?

 

however a lot has happened since then.

Carpe Vinum is currently sat at a hard standing in notts deemed a write off not so

much down to the damage although it was a good sized hole but more down to the things I had added such as smev cooker,warm air heater , invertor , new outboard etc.

So end of an era.

I owned her for 6 years and put a lot of effort in to kit her out as I wanted somit is sad ? 

 

However I have just purchased a 25ft tidy looking Springer full survey last year and all

is good, it is outboard rather than inboard but I now along with my girlfriend own a steel

boat called

Mary Beth 

she will hopefully be transported from Hilperton on k&a to Alvechurch next week and we will Be getting used to her in anticipation for next year ,yes we will be back and you will I promise all get to sample

the floating bar at the end.

thank you all so much for the messages and support you gave me over he weekend and congratulations to all and how well they did.

I feel i made more friends this year than ever before and all Things considered am

happy with how we did,mainly we were all safe.

Fantastic news, welcome to the "Springer" club.

My Springer was purchased on the K&A

[Kustomcut]

Thanks Laurie i Managed to see you guys on the way into town by bournville but not since

new boat should be back at lady lane next week ?

[Captain Pegg]

1 hour ago, RLWP said:

That is an awful lot of points, significantly above our points for our planned route (excluding clues). With their hold up at Walsall, I doubt they achieved their target

 

Richard

They were also held up on the Wolverhampton 21 by at least 90 minutes. It is possible that although they arrived at Oldbury by 1400 they had actually cruised for more than 24 hours and hence they didn't score the full route.

 

Our core route would have beaten them but we would have struggled to complete it in 24 hours even if we hadn't had to turn back at Walsall. But that's the challenge isn't it; it's harder to boat the BCN in practice than it appears in theory.

 

JP

[john6767]

10 hours ago, Kustomcut said:

Hi all

firstly let me say congrats to indigo and thank you for the donation, we are currently at just over £400 for the BCN Society and it’s

great to see the scores I reckon if I hadn’t of sank and finished my route I would of had it this year by about 10 points?

 

however a lot has happened since then.

Carpe Vinum is currently sat at a hard standing in notts deemed a write off not so

much down to the damage although it was a good sized hole but more down to the things I had added such as smev cooker,warm air heater , invertor , new outboard etc.

So end of an era.

I owned her for 6 years and put a lot of effort in to kit her out as I wanted somit is sad ? 

 

However I have just purchased a 25ft tidy looking Springer full survey last year and all

is good, it is outboard rather than inboard but I now along with my girlfriend own a steel

boat called

Mary Beth 

she will hopefully be transported from Hilperton on k&a to Alvechurch next week and we will Be getting used to her in anticipation for next year ,yes we will be back and you will I promise all get to sample

the floating bar at the end.

thank you all so much for the messages and support you gave me over he weekend and congratulations to all and how well they did.

I feel i made more friends this year than ever before and all Things considered am

happy with how we did,mainly we were all safe.

Great to hear from you, and glad that you have been able to move on so quickly.  Considering that you did not finish, you score was very good, and I suspect you will be very competitive again next year!

7 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

They were also held up on the Wolverhampton 21 by at least 90 minutes. It is possible that although they arrived at Oldbury by 1400 they had actually cruised for more than 24 hours and hence they didn't score the full route.

 

Our core route would have beaten them but we would have struggled to complete it in 24 hours even if we hadn't had to turn back at Walsall. But that's the challenge isn't it; it's harder to boat the BCN in practice than it appears in theory.

 

JP

Yes, it is easy to get a good score, but getting one that you can achieve in 24 hours is the difficulty.

[RLWP]

2 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

They were also held up on the Wolverhampton 21 by at least 90 minutes. It is possible that although they arrived at Oldbury by 1400 they had actually cruised for more than 24 hours and hence they didn't score the full route.

 

Our core route would have beaten them but we would have struggled to complete it in 24 hours even if we hadn't had to turn back at Walsall. But that's the challenge isn't it; it's harder to boat the BCN in practice than it appears in theory.

 

JP

You may be interested to know we plan a 23 hour route each year. That hour in hand comes in very handy

 

Richard

[Rob-M]

23 minutes ago, RLWP said:

You may be interested to know we plan a 23 hour route each year. That hour in hand comes in very handy

 

Richard

We plan about 36 hours and hope to do it quicker ?

[RLWP]

17 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

We plan about 36 hours and hope to do it quicker ?

You're not alone

[Captain Pegg]

2 hours ago, RLWP said:

You may be interested to know we plan a 23 hour route each year. That hour in hand comes in very handy

 

Richard

 

1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

We plan about 36 hours and hope to do it quicker ?

Our core route was 22.5 hours with options for if we were on schedule or even ahead,

 

We lost an hour on the Wolverhampton 21 and then another one with the general slowness of the Walsall. We would have lost another hour going back down the Walsall although we thought it possible we might recover some time up Aston and Farmer's Bridge.

 

The key is probably having accurate knowledge of what is a realistic speed for each section and that comes from experience.

 

JP

[Dave_P]

41 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

 

Our core route was 22.5 hours with options for if we were on schedule or even ahead,

 

We lost an hour on the Wolverhampton 21 and then another one with the general slowness of the Walsall. We would have lost another hour going back down the Walsall although we thought it possible we might recover some time up Aston and Farmer's Bridge.

 

The key is probably having accurate knowledge of what is a realistic speed for each section and that comes from experience.

 

JP

I'm interested to know your route.  It seemed to have an unfeasible number of locks.

[Captain Pegg]

1 hour ago, Dave_P said:

I'm interested to know your route.  It seemed to have an unfeasible number of locks.

It had 100 locks exactly. That was the point of it but getting stuck in number 53 ended our competitive challenge. We spent about 4 hours re-tracing our steps and not scoring any points and only cruised 23 hours in total.

 

In order the lock flights should have been Wolverhampton - Factory - Brades - Spon Lane - Ryders Green - Walsall (Up) - Walsall (Down) - Perry Barr - Aston - Farmers Bridge - Smethwick - Oldbury.

 

The basic plan needed to average 3.1 mph and do each lock in 5 minutes and if we had kept to that in theory we could have added Walsall Town Arm, Icknield Port and Soho loops and Engine Arm. Doing the locks wasn't a problem. Other than up Wolverhampton 21 where we were ninth in a line of ten boats we were achieving the 5 minutes per lock. Unfortunately we struggled to even average 2 mph going up the Walsall. Next time I shall plan with bespoke timings for each section now we have built some knowledge over three events.

 

Northstar cruised 49 miles and did 95 locks. They clearly didn't legitimately score for all of that though otherwise they would have won by some distance.

 

JP

[RLWP]

3 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

 

The key is probably having accurate knowledge of what is a realistic speed for each section and that comes from experience.

 

JP

What, like recording the times that different sections took on previous challenges? That would be madness, who would do a thing like that...

 

For the possibly interested, Norton Junction, Salford Junction, Aston flight, Farmers Bridge, Smethwick locks, Spon locks, Ryders Green, Tame Valley to Norton Junction (!), Rushall, W&E to Birchills, Down and up the Walsall flight (including a merry time unsticking a boat, taking a battery from behind a gate and shutting a paddle from inside a lock by percussive methods), W&E to Horseley fields, main line to Titford, Titford locks

 

If we hadn't lost time on the Walsall locks, we would have done Factory and Brades

Edited June 7, 2018 by RLWP

[tree monkey]

2 minutes ago, RLWP said:

What, like recording the times that different sections took on previous challenges? That would be madness, who would do a thing like that...

I dunno, but I tell you what if that happened it would be a level of geekery and obsession that would constantly impress me

[RLWP]

Just now, tree monkey said:

I dunno, but I tell you what if that happened it would be a level of geekery and obsession that would constantly impress me

It's damn scary in that cabin at times

[Graham and Jo]

The bow camera on Dotterel records everything so I have accurate records of all the bits we have done and can determine how long I spent down the weed hatch. you 

 

We just need to compete next year!

 

We are quite jealous of all your accounts of this year's event but life happens sometimes.

 

Cheers Graham

[Captain Pegg]

38 minutes ago, RLWP said:

What, like recording the times that different sections took on previous challenges? That would be madness, who would do a thing like that...

 

For the possibly interested, Norton Junction, Salford Junction, Aston flight, Farmers Bridge, Smethwick locks, Spon locks, Ryders Green, Tame Valley to Norton Junction (!), Rushall, W&E to Birchills, Down and up the Walsall flight (including a merry time unsticking a boat, taking a battery from behind a gate and shutting a paddle from inside a lock by percussive methods), W&E to Horseley fields, main line to Titford, Titford locks

 

If we hadn't lost time on the Walsall locks, we would have done Factory and Brades

Is Norton Junction an alternative name for Rushall Junction?

[MoominPapa]

10 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Is Norton Junction an alternative name for Rushall Junction?

It is.

 

MP.

 

ETA. The most important member of the guidance and navigation team points out the it's Newton Junction, not Norton Junction.

Newton Junction AKA Rushall junction is where the Rushall meets the Tame valley.

Norton junction is where the Leicester line meets the GU mainline.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by MoominPapa

[Captain Pegg]

2 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

It is.

 

MP.

 

I was about to concede you had jogged my memory on something and were correct but actually is it not Newton Junction?

 

JP

[MoominPapa]

Just now, Captain Pegg said:

I was about to concede you had jogged my memory on something and were correct but actually is it not Newton Junction?

 

JP

It is. I just edited my post above. Richard is causing chaos here.

 

MP.

 

[tree monkey]

1 minute ago, MoominPapa said:

It is. I just edited my post above. Richard is causing chaos here.

 

MP.

 

Theres a pattern emerging

[RLWP]

8 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

It is. I just edited my post above. Richard is causing chaos here.

 

MP.

 

Damn, that's Smudges job

[RichardN]

Congratulations to Kustomcut on the new boat, very well done. Muskrat in his springer has won the challenge how many times? We expect to see you winning next year!

 

Some amazing routes this year.

 

Norton Junction as a start point for Tawny Owl? Do you mean you started at Newton Junction @ 8am?

[RLWP]

Just now, RichardN said:

Congratulations to Kustomcut on the new boat, very well done. Muskrat in his springer has won the challenge how many times? We expect to see you winning next year!

 

Some amazing routes this year.

 

Norton Junction as a start point for Tawny Owl? Do you mean you started at Newton Junction @ 8am?

Muskrat took the first three. I think Clover won three as well

 

I have no idea where we started, might have been Little Venice

[MoominPapa]

7 minutes ago, RLWP said:

 

I have no idea where we started, might have been Little Venice

Well you started down the engine 'ole.

 

MP.