Hi Dave & everyone else,
Sailing Ohakea was amazing at the best of times and kept us all on our toes.
As a simple error can change the course of a race, as I found out in my first race, I am always amazed at the durability of the blokart and its safe design.
I think that no matter how firm the rules are in any form of rolling sport there will always be accidents, who knows when a tyre will blow if unchecked, this could alter your direction when heading toward other karts.
I prefer to gesture with hand signals & vocal warning when turning. (all gestures and vocal warnings can vary depending on the moment J) Tony Frischer and I shared a few once at the bottom of the windward lued track.
We can only do our best to avoid spills but we will never be able to eliminate them while we have people involved.
We always mess up somewhere.
I have always known the risk I take getting into my blokart, no brakes means more excitement.
Dave you had the sense to keep your eye on what was happening around you as well as sailing your race, knowing the environment is always good.
All up I am amazed at how safe the event was, apart from my crash and the odd wheel clash and bump. 50 blokarts and only one major crash and everyone walked away smiling.
Great safety record in my eyes.
Thanks to all who took part and built such an amazing event.
Sail hard
Garry
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Griffin [mailto:(Address removed)]
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 8:30 PM
To: (Address removed)
Subject: [blokart] Racing Rules
Hi Guys
I would like to open a discussion about the appropriateness of our right of way rules etc in the context of last weekends racing, particularly where we ran races with Blokarts head-on at high speeds on the apron area.
Many of you are former sailors who have learned the right of way rules at a much slower pace – and have these ingrained like most of us know the road rules. For those without that background, these are new rules and concepts. We discussed and explained some of these at the briefings.
I went through a tack upwind and found 2 karts side by side coming straight at me, about 60-80 Meters away. With my speed of about 25kph and theirs of 40+ that is a closing speed of about 25 m/second. Not a lot of time to recall the rules, I turned right to avoid as the lead kart turned left – bugger! I completed a 360 and narrowly avoided a collision – both the other kart and I narrowly avoided further collisions with other karts. Assuming guilt, I apologised, the other driver was very good about it, thought he had right of way, he asked Don… I think the answer was I had right of way and should have carried on (straight at 2 karts who would both avoid me… I hope)
The pace we race it is dangerous to run head on at each other. At BK Heaven it is simpler; there are only a few paths one can take. But on large open spaces like last weekend, there will be an accident, if someone is injured or worse, the right of way rules will be of little comfort.
We need to avoid this situation and keep the give way rules simple.
Regards
Dave Griffin
Phone (+64) 3 325 2169
Mobile (+64) 21 352 595
www.jigluhood.com – communities that think for themselves
