Ashley Crawford Memorial Pursuit Race 2025 at Plym Yacht Club

Ashley Crawford Memorial Pursuit Race at Plym YC © PYC

Some years ago, Plym Yacht Club member Ashley Crawford conceived an idea for a winter race to encourage local sailors to leave the house over the Christmas period. Over time the event has adapted to the Plymouth sailing scene, and has always aimed to be as inclusive to all water users as possible (we now run it twice a year because of inclement weather).

Sadly, in the summer of 2025 Ashley passed away, so it was touching to see a strong turnout of 22 entries for the 2025 winter edition of the event.

With a favourable - if not cold - forecast, this year, dinghies, yachts and wingfoilers were all entered across the one fleet, with two pursuit races, each an hour, but start times for the second race decided on each boats performance in the first (naturally, our sailors need more of an opportunity to argue about handicapping)

A stiff (and freezing) North Easterly breeze left Race Officer David Rollinson with little alternative but to set a windward/leeward course of Deadman's Bay to North Drakes Island. In a wind that is famously tricky in Plymouth Sound this course proved to be excellent, and the fleet battled with very shifty and gusty conditions up the Cattewater.

Ashley Crawford Memorial Pursuit Race at Plym YC - photo © PYC

In Race 1, the smaller ILCAs found that their manoeuvrability lended itself to the shifty conditions, leaving several of them out in front for much of the race. Once the fleet were down at the leeward mark however some of the older boats were able to stretch their legs, with an impressive lap from Dave and Jonathan Burrell's Wayfarer, maintaining fourth position for much of the race.

It was the Flying Dutchman of Joe Wellerd that ultimately came through to take the lead with about 15 minutes left of the race, taking out Tom Tantam on the final upwind leg and subsequently win race 1. Unfortunately, the fleet was by now quite split, and no amount of sandbagging by the FD was going to help their second race start time, being left with just 34 minutes to catch the whole fleet!

After much calculation by way of some PhD level mathematics, race 2 got away, led initially by the Bahia of Matt Owen and Ed Warren. The front running ILCAs from race 1 finished low enough in race 1 to have acceptable start times for race 2, meaning that once again they were near the front for quite some time. With the wind dropping somewhat from race 1 some of the other boats came into play, with the two RS200s performing much more strongly; Tom Gurney ultimately going on to win the race.

Credit, though, to Dave Clewer's Amatol, which was doing very well in race 2 before blowing the spinnaker up. Consistency was key though for the overall, with Jake Brian taking the win with two thirds. The 14 year old performed excellently in the blustery and shifty conditions, and we are looking forward to seeing what 2026 will hold for him in his ILCA 4. Tom Gurney was a point behind in second, with Dave Burrell doing enough to hold third place by a point.

Ashley Crawford Memorial Pursuit Race at Plym YC - photo © PYC

Everyone that had survived headed back to the Plym for a beer and to warm up! Many thanks to all that braved the arctic conditions, especially the race management team and safety boats.

Thank you Ashley for inventing it, and we look forward to seeing you all on the water in 2026!

Ashley Crawford at Plym YC - photo © PYC

Overall Results:

Ashley Crawford Memorial Pursuit Race at Plym YC - photo © PYC