  We study the hybrid inflationary potential in a regime where the defect field
is light, and more than 60 e-folds of accelerated expansion occur after the
symmetry breaking transition. Using analytic and numerical techniques, we then
identify parameter values within this regime for which the statistics of the
primordial curvature perturbation are significantly non-Gaussian. Focusing on
this range of parameters, we provide a specific example which leads to an
observationally consistent power spectrum, and a level of non-Gaussianity
within current WMAP bounds and in reach of the Planck satellite. An interesting
feature of this example is that the initial conditions at horizon crossing
appear quite natural.
