Perth BloKart Club Takes Off
Feb 15th, 2009 by Jeff
If you’ve been cruising down Graham Farmer Freeway recently on Sunday afternoon, you might have noticed a gathering of brightly coloured wind powered go-karts zipping around in the car park of Belmont racecourse. This is a meeting of the newly formed Perth BloKart Club.
These nifty little New Zealand manufactured machines are the latest craze in land sailing or land yachting taking the world by storm. The newly formed Perth BloKart Club is just three weeks old and aims to promote this increasingly popular recreational sport with regular meetings and races at Belmont Race Course car park. Oh…. it’s pronounced “Blow Kart” by the way.
On my arrival there at about 1:30pm, I met up with Danny who is expert in all things BloKart and very kindly offered me a “test drive” of a BloKart.
Aye Currumba! These things are like serious fun to drive around in, I might think about trading in my Holden Commodore for one of these!
Jeff getting pre-flight instructions from Danny.
Danny explains that BloKarts are incredibly easy to “drive”, the only controls are a steering wheel and a cord that controls the sail and thus the speed of the BloKart.
With a push start from Danny, I was away. The Fremantle Doctor sea breeze was behind me and I quickly build up some speed.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!
I can tell you, even though it was just an average “wind” day here in Perth, the BloKart quickly built up some serious speed… and I was getting a little concerned and scared that this particular machine was not fitted with brakes!!! Haha. But alas, the fear was soon wiped off my face, when the wind dropped…. and soon the Blokart and I were at a dead stop. Curiously, the other BloKarters around me sailed right past…they clearly had some technique mastered for low wind situations like this and keeping their machines moving nicely along. I eventually found that I could push the rear wheels by hand to get started again and catch the wind…. and away I went again. Weeeeeee! Danny tells me, on a good day, Blokarts can reach speeds of 35-40Km/h and have been known to reach speeds of up to 66km/h!
This feels a helluva lot faster when your butt is like sitting only 3 inches above the ground!
Going around corners was equally fun due to the BloKarts relatively wide rear wheel track. These machines are good handlers and can be pushed quite fast around tight corners without coming to grief. Danny tells me that some dare devil Blokart drivers often “two wheel” it around the corners. Hmm I might leave that to another day hahaha. I did notice the more experienced Blokarters getting quite a bit of tyre scrub from rear wheels when cornering quickly, adrenaline pumping stuff indeed.
The Blokarts are manufactured in New Zealand and weight only 29kg. Transporting them is a breeze(Yes a breeze) as they simply just clip-n-click together. Assembly takes only 10 minutes.
Danny demonstrates the BloKart carry bag. The whole thing fits in here.
The whole machine including mast, sail, wheels, seat, steering wheel etc ALL fit into this bag. Idea for traveling with isn’t it?. Perhaps this could even be taken interstate or overseas by airplane?
I’m takin’ one of these BloKarts to Mexico with me!
James Bond would love using a BloKart to escape from baddies. I will email movie producers about this idea right away. I wonder what Jeremy Clarkson of TopGear would make of it?
No..I didn’t crash. Blokarts not in use are laid over to prevent them taking off.
And now for a 37 second Youtube Video…
Fellow club member Andrew Bates informs me a complete new Blokart costs around $3000 and comes in various colours and designs.
Safety stuff….
Yes.. head gear, elbow and knee pads are all essential if you come a cropper.
Where and when:
Belmont Race Course, Burswood. (take exit off Graham Farmer Freeway)
Time: 1pm – 4pm. Every 1st, 2nd and 3rd Sunday. Please note that the meeting is held at Lake Walyungup, Safety Bay on the last Sunday of each month.
Entry free to spectators
**UPDATE OCTOBER 2009**
Perth Blokart Club advises that sailing at the Belmont Park car park has stopped due to permission being withdrawn by the race track owners. However, a new venue of Lake Wallyyungup, Safety Bay will start in late November 2009 in conjunction with the Sandgropers Land Sailing Club on Saturdays for the first three weekends and the last weekend will be on a Sunday with the Sandgropers.
Contacts:
Perth BloKart Club
Andrew Bates
email: joondalupdoors@optusnet.com.au
Mobile: 0412 464335
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