Noble Marine Insurance Lightning 368 Travellers Trophy Series at Bartley Sailing Club

Simon Hopkins wins the 2022 Noble Marine Lightning 368 Travellers event at Bartley © Bryan Westley

Tony Jacks finishes 2nd in the 2022 Noble Marine Lightning 368 Travellers event at Bartley © Bryan Westley

The Lightning 368's latest event in the Noble Marine Lightning 368 travellers series took us to a new venue on Sunday 9 October, the home of Lightning 444, Tony Jack's club, Bartley Sailing Club.

Six visitors joined Tony, an event held jointly with the Streaker Fleet. The southerly wind direction was a good one for the water, but with the strengthening winds, made launching and retrieval of boats tricky. Three races were scheduled, two back to back, in for lunch then a further race.

With a total of 12 fixed marks on the lake, our race officer was able to provide a good course. At the start of race one, Bryan Westley stuffed Simon Hopkins out at the start and he had to tack off and take the right hand side up the beat to the first mark.

Simon rounded first, closely followed by Tony Jacks and Ian Ranson, Caroline Hollier was trailing the back of the fleet with Steve Hodgson, in the ever increasing wind conditions.

Simon and Tony pulled away from the fleet, whilst Ian was being caught by Jason Gallagher. Caroline was gradually catching them up, passing Bryan, but a 360 penalty was required after hitting a mark, dropping her back again.

The order remained the same until the final leg to the finish, where first Ian, then almost immediately Jason did a death roll. Jason managed to get up and going again just in front of Caroline, whilst Ian took a little longer, as his centreboard slipped into the hull, when turtled.

With a change of course, adding a further beat and a gybe in the further strengthening wind conditions, the second race started very soon after the last boat, Ian, finished.

Simon again took the lead to be first to the windward mark, followed by Tony, Bryan and Caroline. On the first downwind leg, Caroline passed Bryan for third, closely followed by Ian, who then did another spectacular capsize on the gybe mark.

Simon was gradually pulling away again, when he started to head to the wrong mark, with Tony following him. They both realised their mistake and headed for the right mark, but it gave a chance for Caroline to catch up again. Ian in the meantime, took another dip, along with Jason a short while later, with them both eventually retiring.

During the third lap of the race, the wind got up even further, with helms hanging on for dear life to stay upright, but the remainder of the fleet succeeded in finishing without any further incidents.

During the lunch break, with the wind reaching gusts of more than 25 knots, one by one helms decided not to go out again.

So with two wins, Simon was first, Tony second and Caroline third overall. A big thanks to the race team for their excellent courses, and safety teams who were kept busy. Also thanks to Tillys Galley for keeping us all fed and watered. We look forward to returning again in the future.

Our penultimate event in the Noble Marine Travellers Trophy Series sees a return trip to Haversham next Saturday 15 October, and our season finale, the Rum and Mince Pie at West Oxfordshire on 12 November.

Overall Results: