Wild Child unleashed

Offshore Powerboat Awards: Chris Lankshear and daughter Molly-Kaye with the trophies received at the New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Series prize-giving, for co-driver of the year and rookie team of the year. Picture by Liam Clayton

POWERBOATING

Gisborne’s Molly-Kaye Lankshear was the only woman to compete in the New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Series last year.

Her skills were recognised at the weekend with the award of co-driver of the year for all classes in her rookie season. She also won a share of the rookie team of the year award.

She races with her father and driver Chris Lankshear in the 70mph class. Last season they were second on overall points in their class as Hamilton boat Equalizer won every race.

Competing for Out East Racing in their boat Wild Child, Chris and Molly-Kaye Lankshear had difficulty keeping pace with their opponents because the boat was designed for rougher race conditions, which didn’t eventuate.

“They had a better boat, better for the conditions,” Molly-Kaye said.

“We’re faster in a straight line, but at the corners, we struggle.”

The name for the boat was Molly-Kaye’s idea. She said she wanted something with “child” in it because she was still one herself.

Her earliest memories are of travelling the North Island watching boat racing; it had been a dream of hers to compete ever since.

She had a go in several boats belonging to family friends to make sure she wanted to pursue it before her father invested in one so they could race as a duo.

With the higher classes of boats worth north of $1 million, it’s no small investment, and despite their craft being several classes lower she estimated the cost of getting it in the water was between $50,000 and $60,000.

It’s a “fun” sport, but she gets thrown around a lot because of her size . . . she’s smaller than a typical racer.

“You get bumps and bruises,” she said.

“After the season my calves are almost black (with bruising) from racing.”

While it looks “cool” when a boat takes to the air, racers want to keep their boat in the water and out of the air as much as possible, Molly-Kaye says.

Pressure has to come off the throttle completely if the boat becomes airborne, otherwise severe damage can be done to the motors, which need to be in the water to function correctly.

Next year, Gisborne will host a two-day event, Round 1 of the offshore powerboat series. The more standard style of event — boats racing around a circuit close to shore for half an hour at a time — will be held on Saturday, February 13. On Sunday, the boats will embark on a 100-nautical-mile race up the coast. They’re expected to get almost as far as Tokomaru Bay before they turn back to Gisborne.

Chris Lankshear said it was typically quite hard to get open-ocean racing on the calendar. Sponsors preferred racing close to shore that was better for spectators.

He was excited about the open-ocean race, which was closer to the origins of the sport of offshore powerboat racing.

He wanted to thank the event sponsors, some of whom had supported it for years.

“Rather than put money into our boat, our emphasis is to put it into the event,” Chris Lankshear said.

It was great to get so much local support, from the volunteers who sat out in the bay on marshal boats to those who helped organise and run the street parade for the boats.