Noble Marine Lightning 368 Inland Championship 2024 at Oxford Sailing Club

Noble Marine Lightning 368 Inlands at Oxford © Margaret Humphries

John Claridge wins the Noble Marine Lightning 368 Inlands at Oxford © Margaret Humphries

Simon Hopkins finishes 2nd in the Noble Marine Lightning 368 Inlands at Oxford © Margaret Humphries

On Saturday 17th August a fantastic turnout of 21 boats arrived at Oxford Sailing Club for the Inland Championship to be greeted by a glass like lake surface without a breath of wind. It was decided to postpone for at least 30 minutes to allow the rumoured building wind to arrive, so everyone got another sup of tea.

Eventually after about 45 minutes the fleet launched in hope as small patches of breeze appeared on the lake. It was another 30 minutes of following the start boat around the lake as the wind flipped and flopped before a decision was made to start a race and go with whatever wind was there at the time.

As the gun went it was impossible to cross the line on Starboard and first on to port was Andrew Yuille closely followed by Simon Hopkins in what became a fetch to the first mark. After this the race became very confusing and places changed depending on where you were at the time. Jeremy Cooper and Caroline Hollier came though Simon briefly before John Claridge sailed through the pack and disappeared off to challenge Andrew for the lead. On the penultimate leg Simon was back to third when taking the middle found the edges were the places to be and saw Jeremy, Ian Ranson come in from the right and Huw Hopkins, Caroline and Bryan Westley come in from the left. Up front John managed to get passed Andrew for the win and Huw led Jeremy and Caroline home in the chasing pack. The fleet then retired to the club house for a much needed break.

After Lunch there was wind on the water, but don't be fooled this was coming from every direction and it was going to prove to be a very challenging afternoon!

Race two got away and the wind was again flicking left and right as the gun went. Most boats got onto port quickly, but it was the ones on the far right that got the big shift and stormed into the mark with Caroline rounding first followed by Simon, Paul Beven, Martin Evans and Clayton Parker. On the run Paul attempted a spectacular wipe out, but just managed to save the capsize but dropped back several places and Clayton nearly got by Simon before the gybe mark. Meanwhile Caroline extended her lead over Simon who was coming under pressure from Martin and Margaret Humphries. On the next 'beat' both these two got through Simon with Margaret picking the shifts perfectly to arrive on Caroline's transom to challenge for the win. This she did on the line relegating Caroline to second. Then in the battle for third Simon following Martin into the line decided to tack onto port and go for the committee boat end and just beat him to the line.

Race three got away under the best wind of the day and on a very biased line Jeremy started on port and got clean away as the rest of the fleet struggled to cross the line on starboard or find room to tack onto port. Simon was second best away and these two rounded the first mark well clear of the chasing pack of John Claridge, Andrew, Martin and Caroline. These positions stayed the same until lap three when Jeremy caught the back on the British Moth fleet at the mark 3. Forced to go wide around four boats he was in the wrong place when the wind shifted making it a port close hauled tack to the bottom mark. Simon rounded tight and was laying the mark in one tack whilst Jeremy had to tack back dropping him to second. Then to make it even more painful John C. got inside at the bottom mark relegated him to third. This left Simon slightly ahead of John with only a very starboard biased beat to the line when it was time for the Moths to intervene again. They were between Simon and the line pointing very high and Simon decided to do a short tack to windward to clear them. Unfortunately, they tacked with him and left John a route below everyone to try to make the pin end. With a last minute 'shoot' for the line he beat Simon by an inch to take his second win of the day.

As the fleet came ashore the results were so varied that no one was actually sure who had finished where! One thing was clear that with two wins John Claridge was the 2024 Inland Champion, stopping Simon getting his hat-trick and having to settle for second. Andrew Yuille with his fourth in the last race came in third overall ahead of Caroline, Jeremy and Margaret. Caroline therefore won the inaugural presentation of the trophy for first lady helm at the Inlands and Clayton Parker finishing 11th retained the Junior title.

The Noble Marine Travellers Trophy now moves onto the National Championships to be held at Chase SC over the weekend of 14-15th September. With 24 boats at the Northerns and 21 at the Inlands let hope for a record turnout in 2024!

Overall Results: