Speed, Fun, and New friends! Just another great blokart sailing event! This recap of the recent 2006 New Zealand Open Championships is well worth a look. 

I recently had the opportunity to travel to New Zealand and fully experience something that I am now certain is going to revolutionize competitive and recreational sailing in the United States as it already has throughout the World.  My interest in blokarting started a year or so back when I dropped into my local sailing store and saw a very interesting sailing machine.  It looked like a windsurfer rig on a wide airplane fuselage with tricycle gear.  When I took a closer look I saw that it had phenomenal production quality to it and looked a bunch more “sane” that the typical iceboat (which looks much like a halved log with a sail).  You actually sit reclined and belted into a cockpit.  If it rolls over…the mast base creates a roll cage.  The blokart was truly brilliant…then my retailer added that this unit would very easily break down (sail, mast, chassis and all) into a small bag and could be carried onto an airplane!  He boasted that it took about 5 minutes to rig.  I was impressed!

It was nearly a year before I stepped up and purchased one, mostly due to the enthusiasm of my friend Mike Moody who is fully infected with a love of blokarting and was determined to help me build a fleet in our area much as we had in our local laser fleet.  I bought my shiny new blokart for many reasons but in hindsight, the single best reason is that a blokart allows men, women and children of all ages to have tremendous fun sailing in any number of urban parking lots, fields, beaches and of course frozen lakes.  It takes even a child about 5 minutes to set up a blokart. From that point forward…it takes a decent sailor about 3 minutes to teach a brand new sailor how to reach back and forth between to points.  In another 30 minutes that same new sailor is able to sail a blokart anywhere in the sailing area with ease (upwind tacking, gybing, etc).  blokarts are without a doubt the easiest sailing training tools I have ever seen…and that readily exposes anyone to the amazement and freedom of sailing with none of the complications of sailing on water. blokarting has been growing like wildfire in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and all over Europe…but like most non-traditional sports in the United States…the blokart has been catching on a little slower.  Let me tell you…that is changing right now, today!

Now that I had my blokart…Mike and I were sailing together (along with a growing cast of existing sailors and other interested folks) anytime that there was wind for nothing short of the pure fun of it.  I have sailed all sorts of boats, including iceboats and very high speed racing catamarans.  blokarts, however, were amazing.  All the thrill of a perfect ice day on land, in the summer almost anywhere with a modest parking lot!   We were having a ball…so were our friends and family who came out to join us.  All this fun was great but something wasn’t quite complete.  I was told often of the amazing people in New Zealand who created this special machine…and of all the people in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Europe and the USA who led a revolution of blokarting in their respective countries.  This group gets together once a year for the “Superbowl of blokarting:” the New Zealand blokart Open!  This annual event is hosted at blokart assembly plant and headquarters in Tauranga, New Zealand. 

The thought of 100+ blokarts from all over the world racing on a closed track with transponder based timing and scoring was way too alluring for me to resist!  After some brief calculations…I decided that I needed to have this experience (…twist my arm right!). 

Shortly after arriving in New Zealand…I realized that New Zealanders are some of the friendliest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  From my amazing hosts Stu and Leslie Clark, to their friends and neighbors Theo and Pam Vondervoort (who hosted Mike Moody), Brian Kent (the US blokart importer who also wisely now lives in New Zealand) and finally the entire group of family, friends, competitors and employees at blokart International, I was absolutely in “blokart HEAVEN!”  Sure I came a long way to sail a blokart…but the friendly, easy-going nature of the New Zealanders is infectious!  From the bus driver who picked me up at the airport, to Grant (Stu’s brother who drove me and fellow American Jason Robbins from Philadelphia, PA back to Auckland) and fellow competitor and blokart marketing wizard Ross (and his soon to be wife Jo) Vickers who took me in for a couple great final sightseeing days in Auckland…I was treated like a family member for my entire stay by all.  The only thing that equals the friendliness of the people of New Zealand is their excitement and commitment to blokart!

The founder of blokart, Paul Bartlett now along with son Matt, have built and grown a great team and have refined the blokart carefully to ensure a good one-design model with extreme emphasis on quality.  In most people’s opinion, they have overdone it!  Paul doesn’t seem to care, not one bit!  He is very proud of the blokart and its success!  He and his family have risked everything on the success of blokart…and it has paid off for all of us!  They are a very close knit bunch and have now committed themselves to maintaining the blokart as a one-design (with key, minor and useful enhancements) and growing its footprint around the world. The engineering prowess of Paul and his team in New Zealand is nothing short of awesome.  Paul is a true engineer, and has tinkered and created a vast array of his ideas into amazing products.  The man has truly thought of, considered and re-considered every aspect of the blokart and holds a deep passion for it.  Paul is always happy to open a discussion on anything blokart (or other actually)…and usually has a wide range of excellent examples to back up his design reasoning.  I truly loved spending a good bit of blokart discussion time with Paul.  That experience (as described by Mike Moody) was probably one of the main reasons I came to the event.  While at the event, as promised by Mike Moody, I had the chance to study the shop in detail.  We discussed much about the history of the blokart and its overall design evolution with Paul, Matt and many of the blokart team.  These conversations were high points of the trip for me!

The experience of full on blokart track racing was truly incredible.  The goal at blokart is to truly create an exciting spectator sport atmosphere and more that I have ever seen in the world of sailing (including America’s Cup TV), blokart has created an outstanding spectator sport.  For example, lap time is between 30 and 60 seconds depending on the wind strength, weight class (light under 75 kg, mid 75 – 85 kg, heavy 85 – 95 kg, and super heavy 95+ kg) and skill level.  This allows the crowd to see the race develop, understand who is leading and who is challenging, and see who wins easily as each kart sails the track 5 – 10 laps and few karts are actually lapped.  The karts are HEAVILY sponsored and this adds to the significance of the racing and makes it look particularly professional.  Most importantly, the wireless electronic timing system gives real time race information in a synthesized voice to the crowd or in this case…to a professional commentator who covered each heat live on a large Audio System.  This added a special touch that was extraordinarily important not only the racers but also the spectators.  Crowds were large and engaged…truly enjoying each heat, cheering for the favorites and looking forward to more! Roughly 14 karts were on the track for each heat.

Racing was tight, and starts and acceleration were critical to success.  I had not yet experienced a track environment such as New Zealand’s famous “blokart Heaven” especially with such a large number of fast and aggressive competitors.   This closed course, similar to a giant American go-kart track crosses sailing with side-by-side auto racing.  It is unbelievable fun…but you have to build your nerve up slowly!  The starting is managed by an electronic scoring and timing system that takes all the guesswork out of starting and finishing.  A small transponder is attached to the blokart frame and sends a unique signal to the computer when you cross the start line strip.  If you’re over the starting line early, for example, the system tells you.  During the race, the program counts your laps automatically for the duration of the 5 – 8 minute racing heat.  The blokart that completes the most laps in the time limit is declared the winner, and so on down the line.  Competitors tune to an FM radio station and can hear there position, average speed and the same for their competitors each time the cross the start/finish line.  This is in addition to the public audio system for the spectators.  It is the way sailing should be done on the water…and makes it special for the sailors as well as unique and interesting for the spectators.

The sailing in New Zealand and the other major blokart countries is very strong…and their mastery of blokart sailing is easy to see.  New Zealand for example has many clubs with large fleets…Auckland’s blokart club alone (host of the 2007 blokart World Championship) has over 100 karts…and races every Thursday and Sunday at a local public park.  An average of 50 blokarts attend each session.  In a county of only 4 million…that is impressive any way you slice it!

The New Zealand people obviously love sailing and they love blokarting because you can do it in 5 minutes and within a very short drive of “anywhere!”…and it shows in their public and municipal support for the wildly growing sport.  The city of Auckland, for example, is completely re-designing the local sailing park to better fit their sailing course.  They are removing some key fences, some, speed-bumps and paving a gravel road to suite the needs of the sailors and increase park usage.  What a concept and I hope that we can generate the same sort of support throughout the US in coming years. 

We have had in the US some fantastic successes in securing some grand locations to host sailing events (Long Beach, CA; Ivanpah, NV; Metro Beach in Michigan, and various airports, beaches, ice sailing in the winter months with the same excitement and ease as the warm weather events, etc.)…and that will not be the challenge for the USA.  Our challenge is simply growing the sport through word of mouth and friendly invitation.  It is very common for us to gain a small crowd within 10 minutes of setting out in a local parking lot.  Most sailors, light adventurers and even the average pedestrian can’t wait to get into a machine…and then don’t want to get out in most cases, especially the kids.  This is a key point!  And once they are hooked…the rest of the family is soon to follow!  The sport of blokarting brings high speed, exciting sailing to the novice…and makes it easy to do!  In the case of the lightweight division at the NZ Open, for example, the winner of this very competitive class (including champion water sailors) was 16 years old and has never sailed on water (yet)!  Anyone can do this blokart thing, literally!  And everyone can excel because its so darn fun…and just doing it makes the blokart sailor happy.  How you finish is secondary to just having a ball with your friends on a sailing craft…and that’s the way it should be!

I encourage you to give me (or any of the US blokarting sailors) a call or email and come join us!