Final Tune Up

[experienced1]

Last Tune Up Before The World’s

40 racers took to the water on night seven of the 2011 Cabrinha Race Series. This was the last opportunity to fine tune equipment and hone the competitive skills before the World’s in Sylt Germany. The Cabrinha Race Series is the birthplace of Kiteboard Course Racing and is basically ground zero for R&D; both for equipment and racers. There is no better place to consistently test your equipment and skills against such a high level of competition and against mother nature.



Johnny Heineken, Adam Koch, Bryan Lake, Chip Wasson, Adam Vance and Andrew Koch are regular participants at the Cabrinha Race Series and after the first day of the World Championships in Sylt Germany, are sitting in first, second, fourth, eleventh, and twelfth respectively. Sky Solbach, Damien LeRoy, and Bruno Sroka have also participated in the past and are sitting in third, sixth and ninth respectively.



Back to the Cabrinha races…Johnny, Adam, Bryan, and Chip all took their new Mike Z 70s out for their first competition…and they all looked faster. Wind was averaging 15 (13-21) at Anita and about 2 more at TI. Riders were on 11-13s. At the windward mark it was Johnny and Adam then Chip and Lake. By the time they got to the leeward mark, Johnny had a 10second lead over Adam, 52 seconds over Chip and 103 seconds over Lake. On the two windward legs to the finish, Adam gained some ground on Johnny but fell short by 6 seconds. Chip slowed a bit falling to 59 seconds behind the leader and Lake close the gap considerably finishing 61 seconds off the pace. They were followed by Ty Reed,120 seconds behind, Pasquali, Andrew Koch, Stefaans, Due and Headington.



The second race saw Lake try a little different strategy. Basically, the fleet started on starboard and kited inside past the yacht club and buoys before tacking over. Lake decided to tack early onto port and weave thru the fleet who were still on port. At the windward mark however, it was still Adam, Johnny, Chip and then Lake. Adam and Johnny took the outside line on the downwind leg. They were basically racing neck and neck when Johnny exploded about half way to the lee mark…and Adam took a 50 yard lead. At the lee mark it was it was Adam over Johnny by 21 seconds, and over Lake by 29 seconds, with Chip about 40 yards behind Lake. Adam breezed to the win, but Johnny and Lake battled it out the entire two windward legs to the finish. Lake had overtaken Johnny and then Johnny recaptured the lead about 100 yards from the finish. However, both fell short of the lay line to the finish and had to take an extra tack and finish on port with Johnny nipping Lake with Chip fourth. Followed by Stefaans, Headington, Andrew Koch, Pasquali, Kevin Richards, and Chris Brown.



The last race of the evening saw Lake get a terrible start as he was down low in the line up and ended up 6th at the windward mark. At the windward mark it was Adam, Johnny, Chip, Stefaans and Reed. At the lee mark, Heineken had overtaken Adam by 5 seconds and Lake had overtaken Reed, Stefaans and Chip. Johnny cruised on home with Adam second. On the last windward leg to the finish, it was Lake, followed by Reed, Chip and Stefaans who were behind but all upwind of Lake. As they progressed on the lay line, Lake’s upwind angle worsened, and he got hit by a bad header. Lake had to tack over to port in order to finish while Reed and Wasson took advantage of the situation finishing ahead of Lake, while Lake nipped Stefaans. They were followed by Due, Richards and von Tesmar. Joey and Andrew Koch tangled and did not finish, and I think Brown may have also filed a protest.



For the evening it was Heineken on top with 4 points (1,2,1), Adam Koch with 5 points (2,1,2), Wasson with 11 points (3,4,4), Lake with 12 (4,3,5) and Stefaans with 19 points( 8,5,6). They were followed by Headington, Due, Richards, Cameron Biehl and Jonh von Tesmar.

For the women, again it was a battle between Boriana Viljoen and Ericka Heineken with Boriana on top with 4 points (1,2,1) followed by Erica with 5 points (2,1,2) and third to Marcela Ley with 9 points (3,3,3)

In the production fleet it was Eric Due on top with 5 points (2,2,1) followed by Joey Pasquali with 8 points (1,1,6/DNF), and John von Tesmar with 9 points (4,3,2)



A couple of notes: Ty Reed had his best night of his career with a fifth in the first race and a fourth in the third race…unfortunately he had a 51/DNF in the second race to spoil his evening…nice racing.

Also, we want to say Good Luck/Good Sailing to Joey Pasquali who has taken a job with the America’s Cup and will be traveling the world for the next two years as the “advance man” for the mark boats. Hopefully his schedule will allow him to return for a race or two.

And lastly, I want to make a special thanks to the women who are participating and to encourage them to keep coming out and encourage their friends to join them in the fun.

Oh yeah, one more thing…this Thursday will be the 8th night of the season. So, after I see the results, the Silver Fleet will be established and be scored for the last five nights of racing with one throw out.

The next race is Thursday June 30. The results should be considerably different as many of the ‘hot shots” are at the World’s. So, in celebration, let’s do a free raffle for the participants THIS Thursday after the races.

The Cabrinha Race Series is sponsored by Cabrinha, Ozone Travel, and Captain Kirk’s, and hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club.