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Brown Tops in Finale

Chris Brown (SS) was first overall in night #12, the final night of the 2007 Cabrinha Race Series. His performance came on a night when he most needed it, securing him a spot on the podium.


The final night, to say the least, was one of the most interesting. Twenty five racers showed up for the finale, with third through tenth places up for grabs. At race committee time the winds were light at about 8-18 and moving outside, while an hour earlier they were 15-25 and filled into the beach. By the third race they had strengthened to 16-25, but outside.

In the first race, Anthony, on a borrowed Cabrinha XB3 12m and Chip were neck and neck at the windward mark, with Kafka lying about 6th. After they rounded the mark, Anthony turned on the after burners and ran away from Chip and the fleet, except for Kafka who kept gaining. At the finish, it was Anthony, Kafka, and Eric Due...a sweep for Cabrinha XBs..don’t know what happened, but Chip faded to 9th.


In the second race Chip decided to start on port, just made it by the fleet and got a great start. But, at the windward mark, it was Kafka, followed by Anthony. By the time they got downwind to the committee boat Kafka had a comfortable lead with Anthony comfortably in second…and then Anthony caught the wingtip and went flying about 15’ towards the kite. By the time he figured out how to relaunch the kite and get his board (there was about a 4 1/2mph ebb) the fleet had passed him and he finished last. Kafka won, followed by Chris Brown and Chip. Marcelo was 4th for the second race in a row.


In the third race, Anthony recovered from race #2 and won easily….in fact, it looked like a repeat of race #1. Wasson finished second with Chris Brown third. But where was Kafka? Well it turned out that Kafka and Gabe Brown tangled before they got to the lay line for the windward mark with the result being Kafka had a line severed and was out, while Gabe was able to recover and finish 13th. Prior to this incident, Kafka was on his way to making it a clean sweep; winning all three Cabrinha Mini series as well as the overall 2007 crown. But, due to the incident, on a preliminary basis, he finished 3rd to go along with his two previous firsts. I say preliminary, as Gabe has filed a protest, and if successful, and depending on the redress, Kafka maybe be knocked from third, replaced by Gabe in the mini series.

After all that, overall results for the evening are Chris Brown(SS) first with 11 points (6,2,3), Eric Due (Cabrinha) second with 13 points (3,6,4) and Chip Wasson (Ozone) third with 14 points (9,3,2).


The 2007 Cabrinha Awards party will be at the St. Francis on Saturday October 13th at 8:00. Food, drink, awards, fun…and ALL are invited

The Cabrinha Race Series is sponsored by Ozone Travel, Adventure Sports Miami, and hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club.