MCAC Navigation Evening 1/2/96

1. What is a Scatter?

Run on Saturday Evenings between approx. 20.00 and 02.00 Navigational Scatters have no fixed route but competitors usually cover about 100 miles. "Scattered" around the event's area the organizers have put out a number of small codeboards and at the start each competitor is given a set of cryptic clues (navigation) to help them determine where the codeboards are. The aim of the competition is to visit as many of them as you can. You can do this in any order, but within the time allowed and in this way you build up your score. The codeboards are usually easy to find (assuming you are in the right place) and often the organizers will tell you where to look. They are usually located on styles, gateposts, fence posts, footpath signs or other prominent features.

In addition to the codeboards you may have the option of gaining extra points by visiting a series of marshal points, some involving a timed task, see below.

The equipment you need for a scatter consists of the specified map(s), a romer, soft pencils, long ruler, drawing and magnetic compasses, good torches, protractor and tracing paper. It is also advisable to have clothing and footwear suitable for a run through the woods on wet night as this often happens.

Competitors are split into three classes, Experts, Semi-Experts and Novices and each event presents an award for the winner of each class. See event or championship regulations for your class.

2. The 5-Maps Scatter Championship

The 5-Maps Scatter Championship consists of  ? events organised and run on O.S. Landranger maps 174, 175, 185, 186 & 187. These events are open to all members of the 8 invited clubs and the scope of each event is limited to any 2 of the 5 maps. Once registered for the championship your performance on each of the 14 events you enter is used to calculate your championship points and your final championship score is made up of your highest 7 event scores. Throughout the year registered competitors receive a newsletter and up to date championship tables along with regs. for future events when available and the championship ends with an awards night. See the 1997 5-Maps Championship Regulations for further details.

3. Marshal Points

there are two types;

Control Marshal

once at the control you will need to get the marshal's signature to prove you were there, in addition you may be asked to perform a timed task in order to gain extra points. The points you get will reflect the time you took to successfully complete the task. The task is usually one of a couple of types;
  1. answering a question using your map,
  2. searching on foot for a hidden codeboard (or other information) using some given instructions.
In either case once you have an answer you must give it to the marshal who will record the time you took and whether you got the answer correct. Quite often the cause of a problem at a marshal is not READING THE QUESTION PROPERLY so make sure you do before running off.

Travelling Marshal

the only requirement here is to get the marshal's signature during one of the specified times. There are often time restrictions for visiting these two types of marshals and they get tighter as you progress up the classes. In addition to the marshals, on some events you may get one or more:

Unmanned Search Point

USPs are usually found at a picnic area, car park or similar site, you will already have instructions to guide you to one or more codeboards. As the name suggests there is no marshal present so no restrictions on the time you arrive or the time you take to complete the task.

4. Types of Navigation and How to Solve Them

See separate sheet.

5. Tactics and Tips

Paired solving of navigation

Some of the types of navigation, such as herringbones and those with long lists of instructions can be solved more easily with 2 people. In this case one person should read out each instruction and tick it off as the other applies it to the map, this avoids the frustration of getting half way through the list and losing your place. In order to make best use of your plotting time however, you should avoid the temptation to do this with all the navigation, instead each person should tackle what he/she feels most comfortable with. There is no firm rule but most of the expert crews have the driver solving straightforward clues leaving the navigator to concentrate on the tricky stuff.

Time Allocation

You need to make a decision as to how long to spend solving navigation and when it is time to leave the start and actually visit the points. The factors that might influence your decision are
  1. what time restrictions you have throughout the night (if any),
  2. how large the search area is likely to be,
  3. how many points you want to visit,
  4. how well your solving/plotting has been going.
If you seem to be getting stuck after solving a few then maybe it is time to get going and have another look at the navigation later, if you have time. As a rough guide, you shouldn't spend much more than an hour plotting your navigation.

One of the mistakes often made by novice crews (and other more experienced ones) is to spend too long trying to solve all or most of the navigation, leaving not enough time to drive round the search area. In many cases novices could have won their class by not trying to do too much. For example, on many events plotting all the grid reference clues, the marshal(s) and one or two of the more simple clues will gain you a very respectable score providing you manage to visit all the points plotted. Once you have a few class wins and some event experience then you can try solving the more tricky navigation.

Route Choice

Once you have solved some navigation and decided to leave you need to choose a route. Initially you need to select the order in which you will visit the points and in doing this you should bear in mind the marshal points, particularly if you have to be there at certain times. Quite often you can find a roughly circular route that finishes at finish venue, quite handy really! The actual choice of roads is best done while you are on the move or at each codeboard location. Use A or B roads where you can, these are going to be faster than the more narrow 'yellow' roads although most of the time the latter will be more direct. Only experience will tell you which will take less time. When choosing your route, at all times avoid black spots, the areas that the oranizers have told you not to pass through. These areas are very sensitive to motorsport and the last thing anybody wants is for you to wake up the local magistrate or chief constable as you drive passed his house for the fifth time at 1 am.

Maximising Your Score

It is important to ensure that you visit the locations that will net you the most points. Think carefully about the value of each codebord and marshal, it may be worth 'dropping' ie. not visiting, one or more codeboards if it enables you to visit a marshal and get more points. Also remember the event limits on codeboards and marshals. Usually you can only count 75% of the total number of codeboards towards your score so for example if there are 32 codeboards in total then you can only score points 24 of them. This may not sound very applicable to you at the moment but it will become important as you improve. The event organizers will usually count the lowest scoring 75% so this means if you have too many answers you will have to cross out the lower scoring ones before you get back to the finish.

Helping the Driver

When at a codeboard location it is most effecient for the navigator to stay in the car while the driver gets out to look for the codeboard. This may seem a bit unfair but the navigator can spend the time in a useful manner by checking various things like the route to the next codeboard, that the previous answers have been entered in the right place, etc.

In order to make life a bit easier for the poor driver the navigator can help him/her when approaching a location by stating what the codeboard will be on (this helps the driver know exactly where to stop) and also state if the driver will need to turn round (your average driver likes plenty of warning about turning round and even then still manages to reverse into a ditch/wall). While on the road it is a good idea to describe the road from the map if you can, as well as keeping concentration up this warns the driver of impending junctions, bends and other obstacles.

Finally, we hope this has been of interest to you and has wet your appetite for this type of competition. If so, we look forward to seeing you on the opening event of the 1996 championship, the Valentine Scatter on Feb. 17th.

If you require any further information on Navigational Scatters, The Five Maps Championship or any of the navigation solving techniques covered then do not hesitate to contact me, Simon Gudgeon (Simon.Gudgeon@bbc.co.uk) (0181-841-7461). Thank you for your interest.

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Last updated: Sat Nov 29 2003 by email webmaster@ukmotorsport.com