Exmoor Beastie 2025, sponsored by Exmoor Ales

Exmoor Beastie 2025 © John Culshaw

Exmoor Beastie 2025 © John Culshaw

The 2025 Exmoor Beastie took place on Sunday 23rd March at Wimbleball Sailing Club, in the beautiful surroundings of the Exmoor National Park. Awaiting the competitors from 10 visiting clubs was the traditional 3-hour pursuit starting at noon.

We are grateful, once again, to our long-term sponsor, the award-winning Exmoor Ale brewery in nearby Wiveliscombe for providing an excellent selection of beer as prizes to keep our competitors highly motivated!

While we missed out on the unseasonably warm weather from earlier in the week, the forecast was close to ideal, with a northerly wind ranging from 9-20 knots, sunny intervals and just occasional light rain.

The entry list included many Sailing SW series regulars and previous Beastie winners, but we were delighted to be joined by several Beastie debutants and relative newcomers to competitive sailing; three were sailing ILCA 6s and another in a Wayfarer. The youngest being Lewis Ryles, 14, new to the ILCA class. One of our objectives at club level is to encourage newcomers and an event like the Exmoor Beastie is a significant personal challenge.

The wind funnelled down the lake creating some quite gusty conditions for our starters. The Firefly of Angus Cook and Leila Farmer got us under way, closely followed by the Challenger of Val Millward from Rutland. Other early starters included Andy Wadsworth and Anna Carton in the GP14, and the Wayfarer sailed by club members Kevin Ogilvie-White and James Russell. A new class for Wimbleball water was the Melges 15 from Lymington which drew a lot of attention from onlookers. Designed in 2020, it was Sailing World magazine's 2022 Boat of the Year.

The starting sequence lasted 42 minutes with 18 different classes getting under way. Terry Curtis and Peter Greig from Castle Cove SC, were last away in the Osprey, facing a long chase ahead as they raced towards Bessom Bridge, into the Cowmoor spur and onward towards the dam.

Both the Firefly and Challenger made very good progress in the early stages but the ILCAs struggled initially with the strength of the breeze. Also doing well in the conditions were a group of four RS Aero 7s including Luca and Zak Mitchell from Paignton, Dave Stockton from Wimbleball and Chris Jones from Sutton Bingham. They were closely pursued in K1s by multiple Beastie winner Simon Hawkes and Paul Birbeck, a former K1 inland national champion.

Into the 2nd hour, it was clear the Blaze of Chris Dyer was performing extremely well, up to 8th place, and thriving in stronger wind conditions. The Osprey, with the biggest gap of all to bridge, was up to 15th and closing fast.

Into the last hour the race broke into two larger groups with a few sailors somewhat marooned between them. In the lead group, the Challenger and Firefly were eventually caught. Chris Dyer's Blaze threatened to overhaul the lead at Bessom Bridge but as the wind started to get lighter the conditions favoured him less. Paul Birbeck remained locked in a tight duel with the Aero 7s. The Osprey continued to move up, reeling in another 9 boats. Ben Hawkes, a previous winner, was beginning to threaten the top 10 in the Phantom.

Exmoor Beastie 2025 - photo © John Culshaw

In the second big group the race was still very close with lots of boats within close range of each other, including the 2000, Lark, RS200, Scorpion and Aero 9. Still going well despite some early setbacks were all three ILCA 6s and the Fireball, which had suffered some early technical issues. The ILCAs showed tremendous resilience to complete the race having each had their fair share of capsizes.

At 3pm Simon Hawkes had opened a comfortable lead to win the 2025 Exmoor Beastie. Chris Dyer, who had also rigged his K1 in the morning before a late decision to switch class, finished clear in 2nd place - it must have felt like the right call. There was a tight cluster of boats behind, but by a whisker it was Luca Mitchell, last year's winner in 3rd place and Paul Birbeck in 4th. Angus Cook and Leila Farmer finished in 5th place, to cap another good event and the overall crown in the SailingSW winter series. The Osprey finished 6th overall. The Under 21 award went to Leo Muggeridge in the Supernova.

Exmoor Beastie 2025 - photo © John Culshaw

Afterwards competitors enjoyed some superb hot food in the galley and were acquainted with their prizes including the very popular Exmoor Ale. All that remains is to say thank you very much to everyone for making the effort to join us. Finally, but by no means least, enormous thanks to a wonderful group of volunteers, on and off the water. Our attendance was up again this year, and the warm welcome from the volunteer team is no doubt a factor. We look forward to welcoming you next year for another Exmoor Beastie.

Overall Results:

Exmoor Beastie 2025 - photo © David Mather