Browns runners up at 2016 Cannes Régates Royal 24 Sep 2016
Jono, David and Lyn Brown plus fourth crew member Fred Brown were racing their Dragon Storm in the 38th Régates Royal in Cannes last week which this year incorporated the French National Championships. Fifty Dragons raced over five days with ten races completed and just one discard.
The event was won by RUS 27 Annapurna helmed by Anatoly Loginov, the current European Champion, with Vadim Statsenko and Alexander Shalagin but they were pushed all the way by GBR 770 Storm helmed by Jono, who was in fine form over the week. The Browns went into the final day in second place with only seven points separating them from the leader RUS 27 and being pursued by several teams with only a handful of points between them all.
There followed two nerve wracking races with places changing on every leg and at one point, following a huge wind shift, Jono found himself in fifteenth place but, holding his nerve even if his crew were emotional wrecks by this point, pulled off a brilliant beat taking eight boats in the process.
So in the end Jono, David, Lyn and Fred secured second place overall holding off the pursuing Dragons leaving Gunter helmed by Javier Scherk, with Gustavo Lima & Paulo Manso in third place and current German National Champion Nicola Friesen in Smaug crewed by Vincent Hoesch and Michi Lip in fourth.
This was a special result for the Brown Family at the end of the season and their team tactic using four crew is starting to pay dividends and has also kept chocolate, chips and beer at bay to achieve the allocated 285 kg crew weight!
Full results can be found on the Yacht Club de Cannes website.