Done !
Make sure you Stock up on Nuromol and Co-Codamol max strength, you might need them…….
Make sure you Stock up on Nuromol and Co-Codamol max strength, you might need them…….
Air ambulance - Devizes to Westminster kayak race
- Thread starter The Other PaulG
- Start date
why not put your schedule up for all to see.
I do see groups of kayak and canoe bods, out on the Thames by Tower Bridge at dusk and / or early dark, all with lights and head torches. I have always thought it looked quite fun and social. A sort of biker’s jaunt but on water.
Even in central London, where it’s never really truly blackout, there is a lot of ‘stuff’ in the water, either fixed or floating, along with a reasonable amount of ‘traffic’ after dark. Mix in the ripping tides and it’s not a picnic. They have the torches and bright, often reflective life jackets for a reason. You’d be a real mug not to.
Even in central London, where it’s never really truly blackout, there is a lot of ‘stuff’ in the water, either fixed or floating, along with a reasonable amount of ‘traffic’ after dark. Mix in the ripping tides and it’s not a picnic. They have the torches and bright, often reflective life jackets for a reason. You’d be a real mug not to.
Yes that's a good point. To be 'legal' you need a small white light front and back. I was surprised the rear one should not be red, but there you are.
In order to see where you're going - and we'll be doing pretty much the whole Reading to Teddington stretch in darkness - yes you need a good headtorch. Sometimes you can come across a lock quite suddenly (round a bend for instance) and typically you're faced with a weir running across maybe 60% of the river's width, and a lock cut at one side occupying maybe 10%. VERY important to get into the cut, and when the river's up, you close ground on the weir very quickly. We'll also be pretty tired and stupid at this point, which won't help.
Our head torches are decent - my only concern is if there is very light rain. I have run at night in light rain with a headtorch, and I know that all you see is the light bouncing back at you.. no more than about 6 feet of viz. During training paddles we've logged the distances between the locks pretty carefully, and we'll figure out our pace on the day, so we will know roughly when they're coming. Plus, our 'portage diagrams' indicate which side of the river to be. (Look at the one for Hurley below, you wouldn't want to get that wrong)!
At least, that's the plan...!
Yes that's a good point. To be 'legal' you need a small white light front and back. I was surprised the rear one should not be red, but there you are.
In order to see where you're going - and we'll be doing pretty much the whole Reading to Teddington stretch in darkness - yes you need a good headtorch. Sometimes you can come across a lock quite suddenly (round a bend for instance) and typically you're faced with a weir running across maybe 60% of the river's width, and a lock cut at one side occupying maybe 10%. VERY important to get into the cut, and when the river's up, you close ground on the weir very quickly. We'll also be pretty tired and stupid at this point, which won't help.
Our head torches are decent - my only concern is if there is very light rain. I have run at night in light rain with a headtorch, and I know that all you see is the light bouncing back at you.. no more than about 6 feet of viz. During training paddles we've logged the distances between the locks pretty carefully, and we'll figure out our pace on the day, so we will know roughly when they're coming. Plus, our 'portage diagrams' indicate which side of the river to be. (Look at the one for Hurley below, you wouldn't want to get that wrong)!
At least, that's the plan...!
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Crikey there seems to be a hell of a lot more to it than just paddling downstream in the dark, but then again you are a bit bonkers!
And it’s a good job you know what you’re doing as I’m not sure how a complete novice would cope.
You’re right about Hurley - I walk past that weir regularly and it’s massive and very well up at the moment so you wouldn’t want to get too close to it. Definitely a stay right approach to that one!
Sure, here we are. I removed most lines, just to leave a skeleton rather than every single lock.
The red times are what we anticipate, but the further into the race we get, the less accurate those will be.
NB a complication is that the race starts in GMT and ends in BST. To avoid confusion, the race is run entirely on GMT, so the times shown for Sunday morning have NOT been adjusted for BST.
supported.... and copied the link to my FB feed.... best of luck if you get a chance to take pictures 
Donated - good luck
Red light on the back sort of makes sense but as nav buoys are red there's the danger of a small moving object being confused with a heavy stationary metal object - or avoiding the latter and running aground
(I thought the same thing but my rowing club put me right!)
I've rowed the Staines (below Bell Weir) -Hammersmith section and that took most of the day (we had to navigate not port locks ) - but was 42km
Red light on the back sort of makes sense but as nav buoys are red there's the danger of a small moving object being confused with a heavy stationary metal object - or avoiding the latter and running aground
(I thought the same thing but my rowing club put me right!)
I've rowed the Staines (below Bell Weir) -Hammersmith section and that took most of the day (we had to navigate not port locks ) - but was 42km
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you're gonna be hungry , by the time you get to Newbury , or are you gonna carry drinks/food with you ...... you know , stop and have a picnic somewhere !
Out of interest, how many kayaks are in this paddling extravaganza ?
Do you all start individually at your own set start time ?
Although a mass start would be tremendous fun to watch.
How long are the winners likely to take ?
Are there prizes for the winners ?
Or possibly an Easter egg or two as it finishes on Easter Sunday.
Do you all start individually at your own set start time ?
Although a mass start would be tremendous fun to watch.
How long are the winners likely to take ?
Are there prizes for the winners ?
Or possibly an Easter egg or two as it finishes on Easter Sunday.
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Paid, a colleague of mine once did it in 15h 42m I knew he was an athlete and won it several times in his class. I think completing it would be good enough for me.
Just £40 more for the five hundred…. It’s a tidy sum.
To put it into perspective, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service apparently costs £12,000 a day to operate. A donation of £500 will fund about an hour out of the 24 hours in a full day, a pretty worthwhile achievement. Let’s see if UKGSer can do it.
To put it into perspective, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service apparently costs £12,000 a day to operate. A donation of £500 will fund about an hour out of the 24 hours in a full day, a pretty worthwhile achievement. Let’s see if UKGSer can do it.
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You've hit the £500.00
Well done.
Well done.
We've created a map with all the fish and chip shops....
How many? There's a 4-day option, which includes more boats, but those of us doing it all-in-one-hit, there will be about 80 double kayaks.
Start? There is a window during which you can start and your timing starts then. The trick is, you can only pass Teddinton (where the river becomes tidal and a bit tricky) during another narrow window early on Sunday morning, so you have to do your best calculations, and predict when you have to leave Devizes, in order to get to Teddington when the window just opens. That's pretty hard. If you miss the window at Teddington, you're out of the race.
Winners -it varies each year according to the conditions but last year the winners did it in an amazing 15hrs 19mins.
Prizes - yes but barely. Your name on a trophy and a warm feeling.
For us, a finish would be an incredible result.
A lot of crews are army or Royal Marines - if we could beat just one of those boats, I'd be elated!
Daft bugger! That'll teach you to get pissed!
Richmond went to green flag yesterday which means fluvial flow on the ebb tide is back to normal-just! By the time you go through Richmond on Sunday the weir gates should be up so you won’t have to portage Richmond.
Up river they have started to move onto yellow boards decreasing so hopefully over the next few days this will domino down river.
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