Harvester - Penhale

[distracted]

Will just add my thanks to everyone involved - great event, am glad I only had the first part of my course in darkness otherwise no idea how slow I'd have been... and Helen still beat my time! She did ask to run first leg and who was I to disagree with her Congrats also to all the teams who won trophies and to SYO, FVO and NOC who just pulled away from us over the last three legs

I think the butterfly system worked fine given the small number of teams and how spread out they were, if there had been more then perhaps more gaffling would have been necessary. The only people I saw out there while on Leg 4 were around the central butterfly control and the radio control

[Rich R]

I've always liked night orienteering but I've never enjoyed a course as much as this one on Penhale, though having a good run helps. It doesn't get much more challenging in Britain than Penhale at night.

[stodge]

Many thanks to Roger and his team for a great event.
Penhale at night was a real challenge.....

Also thanks to Nopesport for helping me put together a team

I had to use my backup torch for the whole run as I was meant to be using my incoming runners torch that had withered.

It was an Energizer® LED Head Beam I managed to borrow before the event.
Although I struggled a bit at the start it got me round and I was well impressed.

http://www.energizer.com/products/flashlights/flashlight.asp?cat=4&id=3

Would reccomend it as a backup for all serious night orienteers to carry, it was very light (44gms).

[Scott]

Indeed, thanks to all involved for a hugely entertaining weekend. All things considered, I'm not sure whether to be sorry or glad that I didn't get to run a night leg - I find Penhale in the light to be quite hard enough...

One thing that I think should be commented on is that hoary old chesnut: the durability of the printing on waterproof maps. Speaking to people afterwards it sounds like those on night legs had no problems, but, by the time it came to the later legs, the maps had stood out in the rain (on map trees) for seven or more hours, and this seems to have drastically increased the ease with which the print came off. (If, like me, you were daft enough to fold your map through a control circle, it made things a little more interesting - not that I can blame that for my mistakes.) Still, I'd guess that the convenience of the map tree system, reduced workload on volunteers and general non-shinyness at night still make them preferable to the alternatives. I suppose one possibility would be to erect some sort of awning over the map trees, though given the driving mizzle that we had on Sunday morning I'm not sure even that would have helped.

[jkjuggler]

I'll add one more voice thanking all those involved for a great event. I really enjoyed my run despite the mistakes I made. It was a tremendous challenge out there at night, but I wouldn't have missed it. I thought it was very well planned for night orienteering - no use of features that were hard to spot at night but still plenty of technical challenge.

[King Penguin]

Indeed, thanks to all involved for a hugely entertaining weekend. All things considered, I'm not sure whether to be sorry or glad that I didn't get to run a night leg - I find Penhale in the light to be quite hard enough...

My thoughts precisely. I had anticipated running in the dark, but was not altogether disappointed when I only needed my light for the map and not the ground. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was delighted to be far better and more accurate than at the British 2 years ago.
Thanks to all those involved in organising and planning. It's a pity it wasn't better attended, but I guess Cornwall is just too difficult for some. They missed a great event.

[Rich R]

[quote="Scott"]One thing that I think should be commented on is that hoary old chesnut: the durability of the printing on waterproof maps. Speaking to people afterwards it sounds like those on night legs had no problems [quote]

Not quite true, my No.14 was on a crease from earlier and I had to run into the control fairly blind, luckily there wasn't enough going on in that circle for it to be a problem and barely lost any time.

[Forest Gump]

Interesting comments about the map. When i picked up the map to start leg 7 (all 13.2km of it) the map already felt soaked and as if it would fall apart before I got to the start triangle. I thought that it would never stand up to 90+ mins wear and tear. Admitidly on the folds it did start to come off by the end (luckly for me I didn't fold it over any controls (on either side) or I would have been scuppered!!). Not sure the technology is there yet for a map to be left out in the rain all night and then used in earnest for 90+ mins and still survive....maybe bags should still be available to those who want them??? I usually take one for CC or 21L in case I fall in a bog, but forgot this time...!!!

Great weekend though.....

[HOCOLITE]

Firstly I did enjoy the harvester even if it did not quite go to plan. My 4K night / dawn leg was at 7:40. I managed to screw up by missing out the last but one control. However I'd very much like to try some slightly more technical night O. I've done 3 harvesters and the only one where I was really out at night was last year. In hindsight I should have tried the 6 km leg although I think this was in daylight for our team.

I still feel there is a market for a 4k technical night leg. We have some very good senior night orienteers who find 6 K too far but would rather do something technical, also we could possibly field two junior teams next year if the unis don't pinch our older ones! But 6 and 9 k are a long way for inexperienced juniors at night when these distances are more than their usual day courses. I spoke to several B course competitors who although thoroghly enjoying the harvester would have preferred slightly shorter distances.