Safe in the sun at Racing Board's "Interislander Summer Festival"

The Racing Board’s 2010/2011 Interislander Summer Festival events attract approximately 180,000 people, including many families with children. With 36 events held nationally during the height of summer, Janice Hill of the New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB) was keen to increase shade awareness and availability at events and encourage sun safe activities.

In addition to providing sunscreen and making regular public sun safety announcements, Janice explored ways to improve shade in areas such as queues for toilets and food, children’s play areas, ground entrances, and food and entertainment areas. Race goers are able to bring their own shade structures, and many bring umbrellas and gazebos, but there are many areas where sun exposure is unavoidable eg, while queuing.

Two main types of shade were sought:

1. Large umbrellas that could be transported by the four mobile teams servicing operational areas.
2. Shade awnings that could be shared by the different clubs, using a standardised permanent system built at each club.

Considerations

• Mobility – size and weight for transporting (particularly of umbrella bases)
• Wind resistance – stable and robust umbrellas and bases
• Self-stable – must be able to be free-standing (ie, without a table for support)
• Able to act as rain protection when needed
• Able to be set up on either concrete or grass (but predominantly grass)
• Positioning may change from year to year
• View of race track needs to be kept clear – sight lines very important
• Cost-effective
• Durability and longevity
• Ease of set up and storage
• Theft-proof

Of all the considerations, wind resistance was the most important since many race courses are exposed to occasional high winds, with the potential to damage a weak umbrella or become a safety hazard if it came free from its base.

The NZRB already had four regional teams transporting mini-marquees to the race meetings over summer, so the umbrellas and bases were simply added to these pools.

Process

Customer feedback highlighted the need for more shade to be provided. NZRB consulted shade expert John Greenwood of WebShade who developed a range of concepts and recommendations on how to meet their shade needs. Janice did further exploratory work, resulting in the purchase of the following for the 2009/10 season:

• 120 wind-resistant 2m² umbrellas that can be placed side-by-side to provide continuous shade if required. The umbrellas selected were constructed with fibreglass struts and an alloy pole for optimal wind resistance.
• 120 ground-spike and peg bases, suitable for positioning on grass only, but that will withstand strong winds.

What worked well

The umbrellas proved to be very reliable, highly wind resistant and easy to use. Customer feedback has been excellent – so much so that the theft-proof feature (padlocking umbrella into base) has proved valuable!

What could have worked better

In stony ground and ground hardened over summer, it has become increasingly difficult to insert the ground-spike without bending its connection to the riser. Even with the further development of a pre-drill spike, this is still a cause for concern in hard ground. NZRB are currently in talks with the manufacturer about the strength of the second batch of bases, as this may be contributing to the increased level of difficulty.

What next?

1. Resolve the base issue!
2. Plans were developed (but not completed due to time and budgetary restraints) to develop custom-made shade awnings (shade-cloth and poles) and construction of in-ground holding systems for shade awnings at the clubs. The cloth and poles would be added to the mobile pools, and transported from meeting to meeting.