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BCN Challenge 2019


Mrs Tawny Owl

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1 hour ago, RLWP said:

 

 

So, who is up for doing it again next year?

 

Richard

Yup, me.

Missed it this year, although I wouldn't have liked to commit and then pull out, which would have happened unfortunately.

 

Well done Richard and Sue, and team, and all the contestants,.and treemonkey(just for being there)

 

We might be on our boat, so Mrs Kathy has to come too, or we might jump aboard someone elses boat, if the best man takes the pee too much next week we might force him to get Ashdown up and down.

 

 

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We had a great time on Joy and were happy with our very average score. Well done to everyone who entered and thank you for all of the hard work by Richard and Sue and others in organising the challenge.

 

 

 

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30 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Yup, me.

Missed it this year, although I wouldn't have liked to commit and then pull out, which would have happened unfortunately.

 

Well done Richard and Sue, and team, and all the contestants,.and treemonkey(just for being there)

 

We might be on our boat, so Mrs Kathy has to come too, or we might jump aboard someone elses boat, if the best man takes the pee too much next week we might force him to get Ashdown up and down.

 

 

We need plenty of boats to repay the efforts of those who organise it. It would be good to see Old Friends return.

 

If Reginald (if that’s MtB’s most suitable) and Old Friends make it that’s three already with Vulpes. Good Times won’t be able to resist returning to defend the title; Clarrie likewise the wooden spoon. Firefly won’t give up until John wins the thing. Goosander will be there just to get in my way. Even purple boats will be welcome. And of course we might witness the return of the NBT ? 

 

Rob-M will get first refusal on crewing Vulpes. With the revelation I’ve only got 18” draught I can surely win the thing. ?

 

JP

Edited by Captain Pegg
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15 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

Good Times won’t be able to resist not returning to defend the title

Sadly not next year.  We have a very good friend's 60th birthday bash to attend a week later, and he wants to do it in Liverpool, with as many friends' boats there as we can get booked in.  We could make it and back, but it would be a gruelling few weeks boating and we think we would be too tired to enjoy either the challenge or the birthday banter. 

 

[Edit to add : 220 miles and 136 locks plus the challenge route in 3 weeks? No!]

 

We will certainly be back in future years, and we might be down by train next year if anyone needs crew.  Strangely we have already had a few offers of berths ... but we need to decide if we want to work that hard again!

 

I think the telling factor will be if Pete (3rd crew member - little Bob didn't count!) gets Achilles finished enough to do the challenge next year, but if we aim for that then Richard and Sue might not be as helpful as they have been in finding him parts for her! 

 

Maybe I need to borrow Clarrie just to utterly confuse everybody. :D

Edited by TheBiscuits
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13 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

We need plenty of boats to repay the efforts of those who organise it. It would be good to see Old Friends return.

 

If Reginald (if that’s MtB’s most suitable) and Old Friends make it that’s three already with Vulpes. Good Times won’t be able to resist returning to defend the title; Clarrie likewise the wooden spoon. Firefly won’t give up until John wins the thing. Goosander will be there just to get in my way. Even purple boats will be welcome. And of course we might witness the return of the NBT ? 

 

Rob-M will get first refusal on crewing Vulpes. With the revelation I’ve only got 18” draught I can surely win the thing. ?

 

JP

Actually, I was using a German tape measure, so it was probably only 14cm

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I'm keen to take part next year, and optimistic that it could be with the NBT. This was the third year in a row the NBT missed out, but it looks as if Nuneaton will get a new baseplate this winter and be ready to ride over shopping trolleys with ease, carving out a path for Brighton and everyone else. There was a certain amount of muttering in 2016 about the NBT holding up a queue of boats going up Ryders Green on the Sunday morning, but the reality was that as first boats up we were the ones having to let down water and use our keb to clear behind some of the gates. The crew's Saturday night out in Walsall Wetherspoons was not the problem, all eight were fully functioning by then.

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11 minutes ago, Peter X said:

There was a certain amount of muttering in 2016 about the NBT holding up a queue of boats going up Ryders Green on the Sunday morning, but the reality was that as first boats up we were the ones having to let down water and use our keb to clear behind some of the gates. The crew's Saturday night out in Walsall Wetherspoons was not the problem, all eight were fully functioning by then.

So they were probably right as NUNEATON needs 3 feet of water to get through the pounds whereas the modern boats need less, so you could have loosed them by and not really lost too much time - especially if you were eight handed on a pair of boats (eight handed !!!!!). Did you take BRIGHTON up ahead of NUNEATON whilst you were filling the pounds to reduce the holdup to the boats behind ?

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6 hours ago, pete harrison said:

So they were probably right as NUNEATON needs 3 feet of water to get through the pounds whereas the modern boats need less, so you could have loosed them by and not really lost too much time - especially if you were eight handed on a pair of boats (eight handed !!!!!). Did you take BRIGHTON up ahead of NUNEATON whilst you were filling the pounds to reduce the holdup to the boats behind ?

To be fair the ribbing that other contestants give the NBT is in jest. I’d be delighted to see them back in the Challenge.

 

As I recall - being one of the boats right behind at the time - the main problem was that Nuneaton couldn’t clear the cill on lock number 7 due to a very badly leaking bottom gate. In such circumstances the etiquette of the Challenge is to assist and not to require to pass.

 

I’ve certainly learnt a lot from entering the Challenge with experienced boaters and I don’t see why crewing ex-working boats should be confined to those with expertise in working the boats. A team works best with a mix of skills and abilities and if we want to attract new interest to the history of the canals and it’s boats groups like the NBT have a role to play.

 

JP

 

 

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10 hours ago, matty40s said:

Actually, I was using a German tape measure, so it was probably only 14cm

Shhh! You’ll give the game away. The rest of the forum doesn’t need to know that Vulpes is scaled to make me look 5’ 9” when I’m actually only 4’ 2”.

 

JP

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3 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

To be fair the ribbing that other contestants give the NBT is in jest. I’d be delighted to see them back in the Challenge.

 

As I recall - being one of the boats right behind at the time - the main problem was that Nuneaton couldn’t clear the cill on lock number 7 due to a very badly leaking bottom gate. In such circumstances the etiquette of the Challenge is to assist and not to require to pass.

 

I’ve certainly learnt a lot from entering the Challenge with experienced boaters and I don’t see why crewing ex-working boats should be confined to those with expertise in working the boats. A team works best with a mix of skills and abilities and if we want to attract new interest to the history of the canals and it’s boats groups like the NBT have a role to play.

 

JP

Fair enough, I was just pointing out time saving opportunities where delays to NUNEATON and BRIGHTON as well as other boats could have been minimised - and only because it had been introduced into this thread by an N.B.T. Ltd. member. I mentioned nothing about crew ability or the place of multi-user 'historic' pairs taking part in events such as this (or whatever else they chose to do) :captain:

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15 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

Mind you I don't think we would get the shopping trolley next year anyway - @cheshire~rose was talking about getting Python to enter next year, and they have a well practised crew and space to put stuff!

It isn't up to me whether Python does it or not next year because I won't be in charge of her after September but the team are already planning for it. 

 

As for the "space to put stuff" I am unsure where you think that is because that space is where the crew have to sleep and it can get rather smelly when you fill it with rubbish! 

 

Mind you - depending which of the Pythoneers volunteer it might get a bit smelly anyway ?

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Thank you to all the organisation and to @Postcode and @cheshire~rose for letting us play on their boat. I'm sure we should have scored at least 207 points for our route plus the extras for the photos and questions, even if 13 locks didn't qualify. @tree monkey, I thought we'd agreed to blame @dyad for any problems ? Although, I do now admit doing Netherton tunnel was a complete waste of time, we should have done Spon Lane locks and gone along the old main line into Brum instead.

Either way, I think we had a great time, the crew worked well together. I just wish I had  enough stamina to stay awake for the social bit on Sunday.

 

Rob

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There is lots of time before BCN Challenge 2020.  Perhaps there might be time to get some ideas about:

1. Providing an alternative concurrent challenge for people/boats who want to take part but cannot do the mad-dash aspect of the current scheme?

2. Changing the structure so that all participants arrive in a fit state to take part in the social side of the finish?

?

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4 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

There is lots of time before BCN Challenge 2020.  Perhaps there might be time to get some ideas about:

1. Providing an alternative concurrent challenge for people/boats who want to take part but cannot do the mad-dash aspect of the current scheme?

2. Changing the structure so that all participants arrive in a fit state to take part in the social side of the finish?

?

To satisfy the first, go on an explorer cruise, or just cruise the BCN in your own time

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