Blokart sailors from across the world blow into Sanson and Ōhakea for the Blokart World Championships

Blokart racers from across the world will be sailing into Sanson in October for the blokart world championships. Photo / Supplied

Sailors from around the world will take to the tarmac of the Ōhakea Air Base and Sanson for the 2022 Blokart New Zealand and World Championships.

Blokarting is a New Zealand invention, created in 1999 by New Zealand hang glider and sailor Paul Becket, in which sailors drive small, three-wheeled karts powered by the wind in the same way yachts are.

The event had been scheduled to take place in 2020 and last year, but had to be postponed both years due to Covid-19.

The two competitions will be held from October 17 to October 25, with the first two days dedicated to the New Zealand championships.

Manawatū Blokart Club publicity officer Richard Gower said the national championships will take place at the Manawatū Blokart Club's dedicated blokart sailing facility in the Sanson Domain on State Highway 1 just south of Sanson.

The other five days will be for the world championships, with the event split across two days of short-course racing at the Domain, and three days of high-speed racing at Ōhakea Air Force Base, with competitors having been given special permission to race on the tarmac.

"We're pretty lucky, as far as I understand, to even get in there, it's quite difficult to get in there because of security," Gower said.

At Ōhakea, Gower said the competitors will have the opportunity to reach up to 90km/h if the wind is strong enough.

"And when you're sitting with your bum only three inches off the ground, it must feel terrifically fast."

Gower said 118 people had entered for the events, as of August 29.

He said those entries came from Australia, the United Kingdom, Honduras and the Caribbean islands of Bonaire and Sint Eustatius, as well as local club members and competitors from throughout New Zealand.

He expected a couple of local sailors to be in with a chance at scoring high in the national and world championships.

"There's two or three in our club that had previous placings in the New Zealand races, and I believe there's two or three that may have sailed overseas in the worlds before."