Navigational Rally idea

[markh72]

would the rallye register consider setting up a navigation rallye scheme if enough 106 rallye's were interested, nowt dangerous, just say 6-10 cars following map co-ordinates round a course late at night, who does it quickest wins, sort of thing. could be a championship too if the cost was low enough. have looked into this proper but you need to be a member of a club or have a rally "b" licence which i dont have, does this interest anyone out there ????

[graeme]

you can do it as a novice with out a licence, in any event i dont think the licence is difficult to get...
i have competed a number of time in the ni championship you need msa permit and permission from the police, you also need to pr the route to let all the residents know.
the average speed is generally set at 30 mph, and you get penalties for being both late and early at the check points... so its not a race to the finish although if the organisers have done it right then you will be going as hard as you dare all night... you also need a navigator who can read a map with out being sick...

[Matt P]

I made my nav sick twice!!! very happy

Was really good fun, did it with uni, called it 'navigational scatters'.. had to get insured seperatley and police were informed.. but was on public roads and pretty darn MENTAL!! tongue out

http://www.swrt.com/cpimages/620486.jpg

[markh72]

yep thats the thing i want to try, with my mate (navigator), but dont know where to
start looking, have tried google searches and the msa website, but got nowhere.cry

i live in the midlands, and my mate lives in selby, yorkshire, so either of those areas

again, any ideas guys/gals ???

cheers

mark

[mdfowle]

Mark

Look at www.ukmotorsport.com there is a lot on there about road/navigatioal rallies.

Also try www.merciamotorsports.org.uk this is a group of motor clubs in your area that are involved in running varous navigational events.

Hope that helps.

Matt

[markh72]

cheers mate, will try the mercia sports one first, see what joy i have there

[Paul R]

To run a (or compete in) a proper navigation al rally (scatter) you need to be in a motorclub (quite possibly with MSA approval) for a scatter you dont need to have the route approved as there is not set route. Anything with timng or clocks involved starts getting complicated with comp licences etc. even for a scatter you still need a permit to run, AND insurance. All clubs use Alexander Forbes as far as i know. BUT you can get away with using ure own.

Best bet is to join a active local motor club and have a go

[paul monis]

To run a nav-scatter in the official sense you do need MSA approval. That means the organising club must be registered withthe MSA, the route or intended check points need to be with them about a month prior to the event and a permit should be issued from the MSA, permits are about £18 these days. Most clubs will have arranged for insurance to be available to competitors for the event should their policies not cover an event lieka nav-scatter, and it usually doesnt!!! Bristol Motor Club use Alexander Forbes Insurance policies, which competitors can sign up to and take out if they choose too. It is NOT mandatory. It is usually £15 per team or thereabouts. All in all a bit of a ball ache and you need a dedicated person to run it all, usually starting 4 months or so before the event. You do not need a competiton licence however as membership of the organising club (or invited club) is enough because almost every nav-scatter is a "clubsport" event and not a National B event.

www.bristolmc.org.uk/reference/reference.htm and click on the "what is a navigational scatter" bit should tell you most of what you need to know.

There is a way of getting round the MSA issue though and we used it when I ran them at uni, the motor club there was not affiliated to the MSA and we did not have the time or want the hassle of doing it "by the book" so we had to do them a little different. So here is our cheating way of doing it perfected by the University of the West of England.

We gave out about thirty, six figure Grid references and competitors had to find each one and solve the clue at the GR. Usually something simple like "what time is the last post" if it were a post box. They could usually guess where what they were looking for from the clue as we also used public telephone boxes and they had to write down the number.

The winner was the team who found all thirty GRs, with the correct answers but in the shortest distance hence putting the improtance of good navigation and not speed. We would check their mileage on the speedo before and after they finished. Its not perfect but it was the best we could do. However, if we were ever stopped by the boys in blue we had an easy answer to any tricky questions.

Of course that didnt stop us putting the clues down country lanes and ensuring the competitors had a bit of fun! We usually started them at around 8pm and got people back for last orders. People will either plot the shortest route at the start or try to save time and do it en route so cars leave at different times and you do not end up with a convoy.

I did pop into the police station once and explain what we were doing prior to the event but they didnt have any concerns as we made it clear it was a navigational exercise and not judged on speed. We used 1:25000 scale (Landranger) and it only takes an evening in the pub to find 40 or so potential clues (telephone boxes, post boxes) you do need to visit them first to get the answers but thats all the preperation work done, you find loads more whilst out on the road as there are low bridges with the heightsigns etc everywhere. Generally we tried to make sure they were visable from the car though we did encourage people to take torches. Then you just sit back and wait for the competitors to come back. we always used a public car park as the start and finish but made sure it was near a pub (for the navigators!).

Any questions?!??!?! the easy option using distance as the deciding factor is fun, people who are not used to driving on narrow "b" roads usually make mistakes with navigation and the roads are good fun, especially in cars like rallyes!