Kitebuggy race news from the Parakart Association…

British Kitesports affiliated club, the Parakart Association (PKA) weigh in with their Spring news update…

Following the winter storms the Parakart Association’s season got off to a slightly later start than originally planned.  The annual Icicles fun event held at Westward Ho! in recent years, had to be postponed as the beach had suffered extensive sand loss, with rock and clay exposure, in the repeated high winds and heavy seas, meaning it was unsafe to hold a race event there in February as planned.  It is however now recovering and we hope to be able to run an event there at some point in the next year.

Fortunately this was not the case at Pendine when Round 2 of the National Series was held in April.  The beach there was in good condition if a little wet when the event kicked off on Sat April 12^th.  The Carmenthenshire Land Sailing Club (CLSC) had arranged for vehicle access to the beach for everyone with the local Rangers.  A core of 20 enthusiastic racers came to support the event and four good races were run on the Saturday on the expansive beach, made famous by those setting land speed records.  No speed records were broken but some good racing was seen with Open and Masters pilots running the course together.  Chris Croft the PKA Chairman and Race Officer set a course with some good downwind sections.  Despite some confusion on the first race of the day (even from some seasoned racers!) as to which way round some marks the course was running, it was good to see people relatively new to racing able to master the challenge of heading downwind for a significant period.   Racing finished mid afternoon leaving folk free until an enjoyable meal out at a Chinese restaurant that many chose to attend.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and a completely different set of conditions from the cloudy, grey day before.  The wind however was not as consistent and racing proved challenging as the wind reached the required minimum 4m/s wind speed to race, only to drop to nothing midway through a race and then pick up again.  Another three races were run giving 7 in total towards the National Series.  Prizes for the weekend were awarded to the following:

Open Class

1^st  Paul Woodmansey;   2^nd Andy Read;   3^rd Paul O’Rourke;

Master Class

1^st Adrian Lavelle;    2^nd James Martin;     3^rd Ryan McGavin

Ladies

1^st Alison Summersfield;   2^nd Karen Cutbush

The next weekend of PKA racing will be held at Hoylake on The Wirral on May 10^th & 11^th where we will be hosted by the Wirral Sandyacht Club (WSYC).  The club has a clubhouse next to the beach and also has a sandyacht regatta on that weekend so there will be plenty to see.  All are welcome whether or not you have raced before.  The beach at Hoylake is a very large sand bank and stays dry for days at a time.  It can accommodate all wind directions and should provide us with a great weekend of buggying.  Come along and join in the fun.  Further information available at www.parakartassociation.co.uk or on Facebook at The PKA

or if you have any specific queries drop an email to [email protected]