BCN Challenge details released.

[john6767]

2 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

The winding hole at the end, not the junction

From the planning sheet you were to go on foot and take the picture, but from the actual scoring sheet it was different and wanted a photo of the boat, so I don't see how it can be the winding hole at the end

3 minutes ago, RLWP said:

The far end. My team went off into a huddle, dissected the two sheets then came back declaring the answer to be the far end. I can ask John Carrington if you want

There were six pipes on the bridge, Matty

I have sent a mail to John to ask.

[Captain Pegg]

It looks like this.

[Rob-M]

25 minutes ago, Kustomcut said:

 

Majorly Concerned no one commented on the beer????

All fighting talk and disqualification talk.....

 

Sorry for a huge post couldn't figure out how to quote just the top paragraph  

 

The beer was very good but a bit strong when faced with boating through the night on only a couple of hours sleep.

Shame you didn't stay longer at the end as we could have drunk all your beer when the bar ran dry.

[john6767]

6 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

It looks like this.

But where is your boat?

The sheet says "A photograph is required of your boat at the winding hole at the navigable end of the Wednesbury Old Canal..."

BTW, it looks very clear there!

[Mrs Tawny Owl]

12 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

It looks like this.

Or this

 

[matty40s]

19 minutes ago, RLWP said:

 

There were six pipes on the bridge, Matty

5 one side and a big black water supply one coming out of the canal side of the bridge - not seen on google earth. just as well the ladies got off to correct me!!

Edited June 7, 2017 by matty40s

[matty40s]

16 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

The beer was very good but a bit strong when faced with boating through the night on only a couple of hours sleep.

Shame you didn't stay longer at the end as we could have drunk all your beer when the bar ran dry.

Bit strong?? - thats why some of Tawnys key workers stayed up until 1am seeing off the Highland Park to make sure we got up at 4.

[Captain Pegg]

18 minutes ago, john6767 said:

But where is your boat?

The sheet says "A photograph is required of your boat at the winding hole at the navigable end of the Wednesbury Old Canal..."

BTW, it looks very clear there!

Having read the narrative in the rules/score sheet I took it to be an error on the sheet. It wasn't the only one.

I am not sure I have confidence in their ability to calculate the scores to a lower percentage of error than actually separated the top boats.

 

10 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Bit strong?? - thats why some of Tawnys key workers stayed up until 1am seeing off the Highland Park to make sure we got up at 4.

If you had stayed up 10 minutes longer you could have passed some out the hatch to us. We would have stopped alongside if there had still been lights on.

JP

Edited June 7, 2017 by Captain Pegg

[RLWP]

14 minutes ago, john6767 said:

But where is your boat?

The sheet says "A photograph is required of your boat at the winding hole at the navigable end of the Wednesbury Old Canal..."

BTW, it looks very clear there!

 

Which winding hole did you photograph Firefly in then, John?

[john6767]

1 minute ago, Captain Pegg said:

Having read the narrative in the rules/score sheet I took it to be an error on the sheet. It wasn't the only one.

I am not sure I have confidence on their ability to calculate the scores to a lower percentage of error than actually separated the top boats.

JP

Possibly it was an error, but talking to one guy at the end he had not even seen this years planing sheet, so all had had was the sealed envelope scoring sheet, so not sure it can really work off anything but what the sheet says.

 

1 minute ago, RLWP said:

 

Which winding hole did you photograph Firefly in then, John?

At the "navigable end" so the junction, as you were not allowed to navigate the Wednesbury Old Canal.

[Captain Pegg]

16 minutes ago, Mrs Tawny Owl said:

Or this

 

FISH MURDERER!!!!!!

[RLWP]

3 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Possibly it was an error, but talking to one guy at the end he had not even seen this years planing sheet, so all had had was the sealed envelope scoring sheet, so not sure it can really work off anything but what the sheet says.

 

At the "navigable end" so the junction, as you were not allowed to navigate the Wednesbury Old Canal.

 

So, not in a winding hole then. There is a lovely winding hole at the other end, we have even winded Tawny in it. Not since 2009 though

I'm waiting to hear from John too.

Most crews seemed to put a runner off at the top of the locks

2 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

FISH MURDERER!!!!!!

Edited June 7, 2017 by RLWP

[john6767]

1 minute ago, RLWP said:

 

So, not in a winding hole then. There is a lovely winding hole at the other end, we have even winded Tawny in it. Not since 2009 though

I'm waiting to hear from John too.

Most crews seemed to put a runner off at the top of the locks

Define winding hole, you can wind there :-)  If you did it to the planing sheet then that is what we were going to do, but we took the score sheet to override that, I suspect we were wrong on that.  

[tree monkey]

30 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Bit strong?? - thats why some of Tawnys key workers stayed up until 1am seeing off the Highland Park to make sure we got up at 4.

Like little kids gigging because the grown ups had gone to bed and we were shushing each other

[RLWP]

The Captain's Cabin meant we heard none of that. I see I shall have to improve discipline in the crew's quarters

On the other hand, it didn't make a scrap of difference to the teamwork, so what the hell

Richard

[john6767]

1 hour ago, john6767 said:

Define winding hole, you can wind there :-)  If you did it to the planing sheet then that is what we were going to do, but we took the score sheet to override that, I suspect we were wrong on that.  

So Sally has put our actuals into the spreadsheet and added on the clues and believes that we must have got the points for the Wednesbury Old Canal photo to get the total that we got.

[RLWP]

6 minutes ago, john6767 said:

So Sally has put our actuals into the spreadsheet and added on the clues and believes that we must have got the points for the Wednesbury Old Canal photo to get the total that we got.

This is attention to detail

So, John, do you record your transit times so you can use them in planning in the future?

Richard

[john6767]

3 minutes ago, RLWP said:

This is attention to detail

So, John, do you record your transit times so you can use them in planning in the future?

Richard

Yes, the spreadsheet has the average time for each section based on all the times we have done a section on the challenge.  It is very accurate I believe now we have done most sections quite a few times under challenge conditions.  Sally just plugged your route in and it would have taken us 23 hour 8 mins to do it, so we would probably have gone for Cannock as well!

[RLWP]

Just now, john6767 said:

Yes, the spreadsheet has the average time for each section based on all the times we have done a section on the challenge.  It is very accurate I believe now we have done most sections quite a few times under challenge conditions.  Sally just plugged your route in and it would have taken us 23 hour 8 mins to do it, so we would probably have gone for Cannock as well!

And have you checked the BCN miles against the Ordnance survey data?

I'm asking because our on board geek has. It amazes me the lengths he will go to.

I understand he intends to send the corrected data to John and Roy

Richard

[john6767]

3 minutes ago, RLWP said:

And have you checked the BCN miles against the Ordnance survey data?

I'm asking because our on board geek has. It amazes me the lengths he will go to.

I understand he intends to send the corrected data to John and Roy

Richard

I have the actual distance for each section measured off Google Earth, and that gives a time based on a set speed, so we I have a figure based on that as well, but in reality the actuals are are better to use I find.  The figures used for the points scoring are not all that accurate that is true. 

[Dave_P]

I'm flabbergasted. I think I shall resign myself to bimbling around with Clarrie. Spreadsheets? Google Earth? Blimey!

[RLWP]

2 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

I'm flabbergasted. I think I shall resign myself to bimbling around with Clarrie. Spreadsheets? Google Earth? Blimey!

Yes. This year we managed to plan a successful route without using optimisation software too

And to comfort you, check out our results for 2015 and 2016

Richard

[Tom and Bex]

Very very pleased with our result of 4th this year. Really didn't think we'd done that well this year as we planned a route with very few locks and were 2 crew members down. I say "planned" in the loosest sense of the word - our planning was all done at 1am Saturday morning after picking a start point that would not earn us any points until 9am! Next year I'll be more organised and read the rules in advance even though I should have remembered from pervious years.  

We started from engine arm as we needed a mooring the crew could join us late Friday and leave a car somewhere safe within easy cycle ride of the finish. 

Our route was engine arm (no points earned), Spon Lane locks, Pudding Green Jn, crew walked to winding hole at end of Wednesbury old canal stub, down Ryders Green locks, Tame Valley Jn, Walsall Jn, Walsall Town Arm and return, Tame Valley Jn, Rushall Jn, Catshill Jn, Pelsall Jn, Cannock extension to Grove Colliery basin and return, Birchills Jn, Walsall Jn and return to Birchills Jn, Horseley Fields Jn via Holly Bank Basin, Oldbury Jn via Old Main Line and Tividale Quays, both Titford pools and finally back to the Pumphouse. 

Cruised right through with no breaks. Surprised by lack of queues at the locks on Sunday morning but think several others cruised right through the night as well. Got the question at Pudding Green Jn wrong, but got all the others. Also got all the points for the photo opportunities. 

Already looking forward to next year and have some useful timings from our new boat to use in next year's planning! Looking at the closeness of the points, even amongst teams that took quite different approaches and routes, I hope they don't change it too much for next year. 

Tom & all the crew on Tatty Lucy 

[john6767]

9 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

I'm flabbergasted. I think I shall resign myself to bimbling around with Clarrie. Spreadsheets? Google Earth? Blimey!

It is not manatory!  The planning is a fun part of the whole thing for us.

[cereal tiller]

2 minutes ago, john6767 said:

It is not manatory!  The planning is a fun part of the whole thing for us.

Not all Men are Tories,your Philosophy is sound though

CT