Auckland Blokart Club News

Finally! With plenty of wind predicted there were expectations of a fast race. It was a 3 metre wind but the beach was still quite soft and sticky with the slime from the westerly gales over the last 2 days all over the beach. This meant most opted for the 4 metre to get through the sticky spots and to guarantee a fast north leg to the 5 km turn mark. The wind was 45 degree to the beach which meant hard on the wind, even some tacking at times, but a 60+ km/hr leg the other way. With plenty of sweepers coming in it was tricky sailing.

23 turned up, the "Belgium team" all in borrowed karts and Andrew joined us from the BoP.

With a slow leg one way we put a time limit on the race as it wasn't likely we were going to get the 100 km in especially with limited beach. The wind dropped at the start making the first down wind leg a bit painful with no great speeds until the last 2 km when the wind squared a bit and freshened. This gave the back markers a push and they caught the front bunch after being about 300 metres behind.

Graham and Barry get a good start and were fighting it out at the first mark with David H close behind. Cam, Orca and Russell had come through into the next bunch when the wind came in. Then the slow leg back to the start with some tacking at crucial times and sweepers to dodge. After the first lap Graham had the lead, Barry a close second, Russell back a bit just in front of Cam with David and Orca next. The fast northerly leg saw spectacular sailing especially when hitting the slimy bits with the karts sliding through these under limited control. Visibility was marginal as goggles quickly became covered and in the end a number resorted to no protection so they could see well. Barry hit the front with Graham next and Cam overtaking Russell on the upwind leg. The front 2 got a bit bogged down which let Cam and Russell come through with Cam slowly pulling out  bit of a lead at one stage 3-400 metres. End of lap 5, 50 km mark, a sweeper took Cam high and this let Russell through and he opened up a 200 metre lead on the next downwind leg. Half way back a huge wave took him up the beach into the soft sand and Cam retook the lead. At this stage quite a few were pulling out as the sailing became quite tough and the tide was coming in. Cam hit a soft patch which allowed Russell to come up. Both pushed out onto the hard sand as the wave receded and Cam then flipped his kart when getting back going. All this with less than 1 km to go with the flag up to finish the race as the beach was fast disappearing. Both got going but Russell had snuck in front and ended up winning by about 30 seconds. Graham had pulled out with eye problems and David had come through to pass Barry on the last lap to take out the light weight division.

Dom sailed a 3 metre to win the 50 km race about a minute ahead of Derek with Jenny getting third.

Some great sailing heading north, frustrations coming back and overall could have done without the slime but most had the grin, even if it was hard to find under the layers of green sand. Photos will tell the story.

Results:

50 km race

1st Dom

2nd Derek

3rd Jenny

Lightweights

1st David H

2nd Barry

3rd Jon

Heavyweights

1st Russell

2nd Cam

3rd Neil.

Plenty of stories to be told I'm sure.

Happy fathers day for Sunday and no sailing at Ardmore today, most recovering or cleaning.