WOW...Cabrinha Race Series-A GREAT Night

[experienced1]

WOW…Cabrinha Race Series…A GREAT Night



WOW, what a great second night of the 2011 Cabrinha Race Series. Thirty-Six riders showed up to strut their stuff, learn, and have fun. All the previous Cabrinha Race Series Champions were in action including the current World Champion, the current Canadian Champion, and in my opinion, the racer that is currently THE guy to beat. And let’s not forget the four women; Boriana, Erica, Eugenia and Lydia…Thanks for racing, hope you had fun and you’ll be back.



Winds were a bit light; averaged 12-13 all night at Anita with puffs to 16. Yep, there was also some light spots on the course as well… at the windward and leeward marks…race committee sure knows where to place them buoys :=). Racers were for the most part on 13m+ kites. Looked to me that Bryan Lake was on too big a kite and his upwind angle was way less than his competition… then later I found out he didn’t have his board…sold it.



The stars of the evening were Johnny Heineken and Adam Koch. Johnny, off impressive wins in Los Barriles, Baja, and the PKRA in Playa Del Carmen; and as a result has developed a large target on his head as THE current guy to beat. And of course, Adam Koch is the reigning World Champion. Both Johnny and Adam raced away from the rest of the fleet in all three races. They were followed by a pack which included, Wasson. Pasquali, Vance, Andrew Koch, Headington, Stefaans and Lake, race night #1 overall winner. Also back on the water for the first time was Eric Due who had ACL surgery in January and was reluctantly cleared by his doctor the day before…welcome back.

Race #1 saw all the usual suspects mentioned above get a good start and get to the windward buoy in basically the order mentioned above with a few changes in position. Heineken won the race with a 36 second margin over Adam K who had a 70 second margin over third place Vance.



Race two was a great race…again the usual suspects were at the top at the windward mark with Heineken in the lead. Johnny took an inside line while Adam K took the outside. They jibbed four times on the way down wind crossing each other in the middle of the course with Adam taking the advantage around the leeward mark. About half way back to the finish on the upwind leg Heineken seemed to have caught Adam and nosed him out at the finish by a second. They finished 45 seconds ahead of third place Wasson.



The third race was basically a repeat of the first race with Heineken running away from the fleet winning over Adam K by 57 seconds who bested Pasquali by another 90 seconds.

Although Heineken and Koch seemed to be in a league of their own, there was great racing all over the course, with close finishes among the next group of six and then the second group of six. One mystery for the evening; Stefaans finished 7th in the first race and 5th in the third race, but the official results showed he didn’t start in the second Race?



For the women, Boriana in her first night of racing toppled the rest of the field by scoring 1,2,1. She was followed by Erika who captured a 1st in the second race. Guess what, Boriana is now hooked on racing!

Joey Pasquali captured the production fleet for the evening by scoring 3 firsts followed by Eric Due with three seconds.

Overall for the evening:
Heineken 1,1,1
Adam K 2,2,2
Wasson 4,3,4
Pasquali 5,4,3
Vance 3,6,6
A. Koch 6,5,8
Headington 8,7,7
Lake 11,8,10
Biehl 10,9,13
Due 12,11,12

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

[ricki]

Great write up and images as always Steve. Thanks for putting us there!