Kiteboarding News

Kafka Dominates in Light Air

Cabrinha’s Jeff Kafka kited to three bullets against 21 racers in 14-15mph winds and a pretty decent flood by the middle of the second race. Anthony Chavez, last years winner did not race as he was fulfilling his race committee responsibilities. Geoff Headington, the 2006 runner up was out of town and also did not race.

Jeff Kafka rode his Cabrinha 14 Contra and his 5’6” Prisoner of Wind Race Quad to three firsts and 3 points for the overall win. The surprise of the evening were the much improved Marcelo Segura (RRD) and Mark Bosta (Naish). Marcello was second with 7 points (3,2,2) and Bosta third with 12 points (4,5,3) Both rode their 14m kites.

Marcello and Mark were 8th and 7th respectively in the first night of racing. Jeff Ruoss unveiled his “secret race board” with not a lot of fanfare. He finished tied for 4th with 13 points (5,4,4). About the same as he did in the 2006 series. His new board is a twin tip with two 2 1/2” fins, (one on each end in the center) and with a retractable centerboard. Chip continued to dial in his foil board and tied for 4th with 13 points (2,3,. To this observer, both of these boards seem to go to weather at a steeper angle than the other racers.

Watch out for both of these guys. In the first race, Chip was sailing at a much steeper angle than the other racers, and was first to the weather mark. However, Kafka was much faster off the wind and was first to the leeward mark and finish by a substantial distance. In the second race, Kafka, Chip and Bosta all started on a port tack at the pin end of the start line while the rest of the fleet started on starboard at the committee boat end of the line. Kafka was able to maintain his tack staying clear of the fleet and with a commanding lead. Chip needed to yield way and went into the water while Bosta needed to weave his way thru the fleet loosing some valuable ground.

Both recovered nicely to finish 2nd and fifth respectively.. In the third race, both Marcelo and Bosta were first to the weather mark, but Kafka caught them on the downwind leg in front of the Yacht Club and continued to pull away to the finish. Photo by Paul Buelow The 2007 Cabrinha Race Series thru 2 nights of racing has seen a very competitive fleet with the usual suspects near the top ( Anthony, Kafka, Chip, Jeff R, Geoff H, Steve G) joined by some newer faces near the top (Stefaans, Marcelo, Bosta, Chris B). When writing up the results of race night #1, I had an oversight that I would like to correct. Chris Brown(SS) finished 4th overall with 22 points (8,3,4,7). This was significant as two Pro guests, Cabrinha’s Richman brothers finished 2, and 3rd, and the fact that this was Chris’ “rookie” race night. As Chris has been a regular on the local kiteboarding scene,

I did not equate Chris with being a “rookie. Job well done! How did I realize this oversight? Well, Chris pointed it out to me at the bar :-). Join us for the next race on June 14. The Cabrinha Race Series is sponsored by Ozone Travel, Adventure Sports Miami, Adventure sports Inc., and hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club.