Lightning368 Rum & Mince Pie Open at West Oxfordshire Sailing Club

The Lightning368 Grand Prix Series 2013 ended in some style last weekend, when the biggest fleet of the year turned out for the final event at West Oxfordshire Sailing Club.

No fewer than twenty nine boats turned out - though we'll claim another 'half' as Bryan Westley actually made it half way before alternator belt issues curtailed his progress to the venue and, with no supply of ladies tights in the glove box to afford a temporary repair, he had to limp home, missing only his second event of the season.

With a near windless lake and nary a ripple on the water, the 'Guru forecast of "10mph gusting 17mph" wasn't looking especially accurate, but undeterred - and with several places still up for grabs in the series, the day's floatathon got underway... slowly.

Race one needed a brave mind off the start line - go to the favoured end, but risk losing whatever breeze existed, or do a 'Lenny Kravitz' and go your own way - which was a long way off the obvious route but at least kept clear air and momentum. Matt Hopkins and a couple of others did just that as the bulk of the fleet drifted in to each other on the hooter.

It was a long... long way to that first mark - that didn't look all that far at first - but Matt rounded in style to put an already unassailable distance between himself and the fleet.

The first four or five boats did stretch out a small gap - Lee Bratley coaxing momentum from the infamous pink 409 'All the Gear' to ease his way into the top ten by mark two. However, a wind hole at this mark saw the fleet concertina up, leaving four or five boats ahead to stretch out as twenty five others covered whatever breeze there was and slowed the remaining boats ahead. Patience was required and it was Bratley that popped out of the melee first after taking another unconventional route to extracate himself.

Continuing slowly on, Matt continued to serenely lead the way for the win - a long way ahead of Simon Hopkins, Simon Claridge and Caroline Key. A small battle was developing on the approach to the line as Matthew Cooper, Lee Bratley and Simon Styles all headed to the finish - Lee benefiting by a lower approach just as a shift came through, forcing Simon to tack (slowly) and lose sixth place about ten metres from the finish.

A magnificent lunch was then taken - featuring the traditional 'Rum and Mince Pies' which lends this event it's name - and it was all smiles through the fleet.

Emma Dodd decided that hypothermia wasn't preferable to battling with Tony, so lent her boat out to WOSC member Sue - so bringing the days total number of helms to thirty.

The breeze actually picked up over lunch - but everyone was to engrossed in the fine food and liqeur to notice so, by the time the fleet headed back out, a repeat of the earlier driftathon seemed on the cards.

A change of course, however, did change things around with, again, a premium being on simply finding clear air wherever that may be coming from.

This became obvious when the trio of Caroline, Matt and Robbie Claridge headed into the distance, chased down by Rupert Whelan and Chris Abela.

A small gust briefly saw Lee and Adam Styles get a little excited about halfway through when a little leaning out was required on the approach to a mark, but this vanished and saw the race finish with Caroline, Robbie and Matt H as the top three.

Such was the mix of results, however, that going in to the final race the win was still up for grabs - as was second place in both the event and the 2013 Grand Prix series as a whole - a battle between Robbie and Matt.

So, once more unto the breach my friends, once more and away we went for the third and final race of the event. Now, this is where a certain helm (for anonymity let's just call him 'Lee') discovered the need to develop a certain confidence and conviction... Series debutant Matthew Cooper made a cracking start to lead the entire fleet - the wrong way! On the approach to mark number two, Lee - lying some way back in around tenth / eleventh thought: "I'm sure that's the wrong mark they're going to..." and then proceeded to discuss this with those around him. Quite loudly. Much to the (far too polite) Adam Styles' chagrin as he too had spotted this and was eyeing up the chance to leapfrog the fleet when they were all about to follow the wrong course. Naturally, Lee's 'inquisitive' questioning filtered up the fleet and they all suddenly realised the error of their ways... Oh dear. It did, however, guarantee a fantastic mark rounding melee that, to be honest, Lee was well advised to stay quite clear of!

This one drifted on in a tactical manner but maintaining positioning and momentum was pretty tricky to be honest and Matt Hopkins managed to stave off the chasers to take a second win of the day from Rupert Whelan and Matthew Cooper.

So an event win for Matt who also managed to do enough to take second in this season's series from Robbie.

Despite the lack of breeze, it was a superb day at WOSC with a superb turnout and a lovely 'end-of-term' atmosphere in proceedings.

Extra special thanks must go to Jenny and Trevor for an incredible galley offering - catering for so many was no mean feat and deserves the award for 'Galley of the Year' - thank-you so very much from everyone, your efforts were supremely appreciated.

Of course, the very patient race team who faced a near-impossible task, also deserve thanks as does West Oxfordshire Sailing Club as a whole for being such a fantastic host club.

That's it, then, another season completed and another season of progress for the class as more helms than ever committed to and qualified in the series, more compacted fleets to really stir up results, more new people to the class taking part and wonderful signs of improvement from individual helms to really start mixing up the 'natural order' of things. Races are now far less 'processional' than ever, keeping everyone right on their toes from head of the fleet to the tail end.

A great series, a great season and a great class to be involved with.

From all of us in the Lightning368 fleet, have a superb 'off' season, a Happy Christmas/New Year and we'll see you at the Dinghy Show next March.

Overall Results: