Lightning368 Grand Prix Series at Hunstanton Sailing Club

Lightning sailors at Hunstanton (l to r) Paul White, Penny Yarwood, Matt Hopkins, Simon Hopkins & Lee Bratley © Emma Dodd

The Lightning368's went back out to sea recently when the latest event in the class Grand Prix Series 2013 took place at Hunstanton SC over the first weekend of this year's North West Norfolk Week series.

Sailing as part of the 'Allcomers 2' fleet, the Lightnings actually made up half of the fleet, so a great showing by the class for this quite special event.

With four races scheduled over the two days (3rd and 4th of August) we were looking forward to some big courses, long races and close racing.

Saturday dawned pretty windy and some nervous faces in the Dinghy park showed a high degree of trepidation - not least Lee Bratley who, unlike his usual jovial persona, appeared completely terrified at one point....though perhaps the previous evening spent at 'Castle Hopkins', where a weeks supply of red wine was consumed in just one evening could, perhaps, have had something to do with his demeanour!

Race 1 got under way and it was full hiking, toestrap testing conditions. Starting with the 'Allcomers 2' fleet made the start line crowded, but up on the front rank was the family team of Simon and Matt Hopkins making the best start. A tricky decision of inshore and small bumpy bits or offshore and bigger bumpy bits - but favourable tide- was the decision to be made. Up the middle was the preference of most of the Lightning fleet and first to arrive at the windward mark was Simon followed by Paul White and Matt Hopkins.

The wind had eased just a little, still challenging but less scary, making the first reach one of those you only get once a year; flat out planing and lots of waves to surf down. Splashage and big smiles were the order of the day as the spray flew - with Lee powering past Penny in a clever move down this leg. Everyone had a great time until they realised they had a gybe to make! Lee simply went for it - but screamed like a baby whilst doing so, Simon, who was up the inside of a Wayfarer, also had no option to go for it, pulled it off and was away like a rocket. Paul on the outside, however, had a more tricky time gybing in the wash created by the Supertanker Wayfarer and binned it for his annual swim. However this only allowed Simon a laps reprieve before Paul pulled through on the next reaches to take the win ahead of Simon and Matt, with Penny re passing Lee for fourth.

Between races the wind dropped to nothing and the tide had also turned. So, at the start of race 2, the challenge was to actually get across the line and try to get inshore. Simon was the first to manage this followed by Matt and Penny (who would have been away clear except for a Streaker drifting back into her on the line) and they sniggled up the shore like true river sailors. However the wind turned this on its head when it filled very suddenly and pretty lively from directly offshore. This allowed Paul and Lee to charge in from back by the line at full plane whilst Simon, Matt and Penny were victims of their own success and had to beat a long way to the mark. Lee had, in fact, been caught out by his massive timing mistake (thinking there was still six minutes to go as the start gun went!) and actually rounded the top mark in fourth place. By the end of the first lap positions were as the first race and stayed like this to the last leg when the wind died off again. Paul just crossed the line before it vanished completely, but the rest of us gradually got washed out to sea before were timed out and towed home.

A late end to day one - but we'd still enjoyed ourselves and were at least still smiling.

Sunday was another bright sunny day with slightly less wind than Saturday and the challenge today was to try to stop Paul getting the clean sweep. However this was not to be as he lead round the first mark closely followed by Penny Simon and Matt. The ensuing battle between the 3 Up River YC boats ensured Paul got clean away and his third win, but it was far from clear behind. Matt soon got through Simon down wind, who then had a grandstand view of the match race between Penny and Matt. The language was interesting at times and on the last reach they had luffed so far to windward Simon nearly got through to second with Lee making rapid and stealthy progress not too far behind, but it was not the be and Matt crossed inches ahead of Penny, Simon and Lee.

The wind freshened a bit for the last race of the weekend and allowed the fleet a good race sitting out rather than in the boat. This allowed Simon to briefly lead round the windward mark but Paul soon used his downwind dominance to sail through and away. Matt followed Simon round with Lee, who had been getting some sail setting coaching from Paul between races, right on their heels. It stayed like this until the last beat when Matt found the extra gear and pulled through Simon and sailed away for a clear second (despite getting hooked up on a non-course buoy at one point!) to leave Simon looking over his shoulder as Lee got way too close for comfort by the finish following some seriously dogged (and much much improved) sailing. Penny limped round this one with a shredding Halyard to finish off a great and varied weekends sailing.

Hunstanton SC put on a fantastic event - and the newly extended and refurbished clubhouse looked amazing - thanks to HSC for allowing us to be the first users of the clubhouse.

A massive thanks also has to go to everyone that made this event possible - it's not often we put to sea as a class, but this is one place that makes the wobbly stuff hugely enjoyable!

So, Paul White took another overall event win to really cement his position at the top of the series table, ahead of Matt Hopkins and, in third, Simon Hopkins.

The 2013 series takes a short break now - and time to breath following a reasonably hectic schedule lately - with the next event taking place at Fishers Green on Saturday August 31st.

Overall Results: