Granny Buttons took part in the BCN 24hr challenge in both 1999 and 2001. This annual event, which ran for ten years from 1992 to 2002, was geared to raising consciousness about the far-flung, undercruised parts of the Birmingham canals. There's little about the event on the web now, but Ben has perhaps the best online log of any contestant. Mike Stevens wrote extensively here about the 1999 event.
Anything up to sixty boats would cruise around the BCN on June's midsummer weekend, for 24 hours. They'd start at 9am on the Saturday and finish at Gas Street Basin at 3pm on Sunday, with a compulsory six-hour stop overnight. Points would be scored for cruising lock-miles on particular waters, with the most neglected ones earning you more points.
Granny Buttons entered in 1999, but it was a half-hearted effort, and I was simply glad to have taken part. That weekend I had an ulcer in my throat and felt ill as a dog, and all but one of my crew fled after the first afternoon, not realising it was an overnight trip.
I was better prepared in 2001, and my crew included Richard Smith (one of Granny's trusted nurses) and his son. We planned the route carefully, and I think we came about halfway down the list in the final score.
But I never could understand the convoluted scoring, which was as much an art as a science. In the end I simply sent a whole bunch of timings on paper to the organisers and let them sort it out.
More interestingly, I stuck a webcam on the cratch, and recorded the whole passage on my laptop on timelapse video, at 1 frame a second. Unfortunately the first couple of hours of video were corrupted, but I managed to capture the rest of it.
Today I dug up the old files from CD, and uploaded the first batch to YouTube, the online video service. And here it is - eight minutes' worth, Granny Buttons at 30mph around the BCN, if you have the patience and the broadband connection.
It's all a bit primitive, but hey, I think it could well be the first webcam recording from a narrowboat. And if you don't like it you can always have your money back.
This section, the whole lot in eight minutes: Granny rises up the 'Crow' (Titford Locks) to Titford Pools - back down again - along Brindley's Old Main Line - past Oldbury to Brades Hall Junction - down to the New Main Line - through Netherton Tunnel - and ending (for now) at Windmill End.
If the control above doesn't work, try this link.
More of this anon.
