'Organised chaos': A look into blokart sailing at the World Championships in Sanson

Colourful sails and three-wheeled machines will be seen in Sanson and the Ohakea Airforce Base during the World Blokart Championships.

The event is being put on by the Manawatū Blokart Club and World Blokart Association, and Manawatū Blokart Club publicity officer Richard Gower said around 125 competitors were taking part, including 15 internationals.

The event is running from yesterday until Tuesday, with the competition split between the Manawatū Blokart Club's facility at the Sanson Domain yesterday and Tuesday, and Ohakea Air Force Base from Saturday to Monday.

Gower said as long as there was wind at the track it would be the perfect conditions for the sailors.

The World Blokart Championships got under way at the Sanson Domain on Friday. Photo / Bevan Conley

"They're loving it, as long as it's not too gusty it's easy sailing," he said.

Sailors were split across multiple weight categories, from lightweights to super-heavyweights, and two different categories of karts, performance and production, with multiple races taking place each day for each category.

Gower called the racing "organised chaos".

The races are conducted in two phases, similar to the America's Cup.

Before the start of the race, there is a two-minute "dial-up" phase where sailors get a feel for the wind and jostle for position to be as close to the start line as possible at the end of those two minutes.

Then there is a five-minute race, with the winner being the first to cross the start-finish line. All karts have transponders onboard to monitor their positions on the track.

Gower expected racers to get up to 30-40km/h on the domain's short track and up to 90km/h at Ohakea if the winds were strong enough.

The creator of the blokart, Kiwi Paul Beckett, was taking part in the competition and said he came up with the idea after growing up sailing and hang gliding.

"Then I started land-yachting and I wanted to make something more portable."

Creator of the blokart Paul Beckett. Photo / Bevan Conley

He described sailing a blokart as a cross between go karting, speedway racing and low flying.

"It can be scary at times but a lot of fun," he said.

He was mostly competing for fun, but had managed to finish third in a race in the performance super-heavyweight class, so was hoping to keep the run of good form going.

Sailors with varying backgrounds and levels of experience are taking part in the competition.

Santi Oliver Fontanet from Spain is a former multiple-time world champion across the heavyweight production and heavyweight performance categories.

He said he had been sailing since 2006 and was introduced to blokarting by a friend.

"I have an aerodrome, and I loved the toy, so I built my own," he said.

Former blokart world champion Santi Oliver Fontanent. Photo / Bevan Conley

Fontanet loved the experience and, after almost dying while undergoing chemotherapy, decided to pursue the sport.

"I started to do blokarting because I'd prefer to die in the middle of the track than on a sofa or in a bed."

He said the sensation of piloting a blokart was similar to a Formula One racecar or MotoGP race bike in the sense of freedom and speed.

A wheelchair-bound fellow sailor, who went by the nickname of Yak, said he'd been blokarting for the last three years.

"The great thing about it for me is when I'm in my blokart I'm level-eyed with everyone else."

Yak and fellow wheelchair-bound sailor Celine Dalrymple said piloting the karts was not for the faint of heart, as the karts often rode up on two of their three wheels.

"It's not for chickens," Dalrymple said.

"It can be pretty damn scary sometimes," Yak said.

They said often the biggest challenge was not crashing and remembering where to go on the track.

Dalrymple hoped to survive the event and have fun, while Yak was looking to go as fast as he could at the Ohakea track.

Manawatū sailor Rudi Dekker, who has been blokarting for around six years, previously sailed on water and got put on to blokarting after moving to Manawatū 16 years ago.

"He said come out and have a go, so I had a go and another go, and I bought my own kart," he said.

Sailing the karts was a similar experience to sailing a catamaran, he said, and it was exhilarating with some good winds.

"You're never at ease, you're always hard on it."