Texans Win Caribbean Championship Berth at Marblehead Classic
Brad Tindall, on the helm, gets TnT around the racecourse in winning form. The J/105 team’s class win earned them the Caribbean Championship berth.
Walter Cooper
The final day of the 2025 Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series at Marblehead Race Week presented eager sailors with challenging conditions as morning rain showers gave way to lumpy seas and shifting winds. With many class leaders sitting on razor-thin margins, the day promised more intense racing as teams fought to make last-minute moves up the leaderboard.
For veteran local sailor and yacht designer Jim Taylor and his son Nat, the final day of Race Week proved to be as mentally challenging as it was physically demanding. At 76 years old, Jim Taylor found himself facing four grueling days and eleven races with no throwouts.
Nat and Jim Taylor working their magic en route to a Rhodes 19 class win.
Walter Cooper
Entering the final two races with a slim lead, the Taylors faced stiff competition from rivals Larry Ehrhardt and George Malcomson, and Adam Roberts with Dan Rabin on Peppermint, their toughest competitors from the start of Race Week. The morning’s first race nearly washed away the Taylors’ lead when they found themselves on the wrong side of a big wind shift.
“We ended up on the pin third of the line, which wasn’t bad when it got really rough and the wind was right,” Taylor says. “But as soon as the showers passed, the wind went hard left. We right, and that’s how things go. Not our finest moment.”
Finding themselves deep in the fleet, the Taylors managed to work their way back to a tenth-place finish—a save that would ultimately preserve their chance at overall victory. The second race was a nail-biter, with the Taylors finishing third by mere feet in what Taylor described as “really, really close”—a margin that earned them their 1-point win.
“One point would have flipped it because Larry would have won the tiebreaker,” Taylor says.
Bill Widnall’s Javelin, keeping pace as the wind drops on the final day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series at Marblehead Race Week.
Walter Cooper
The lumpy conditions made sailing particularly challenging for not just the Rhodes 19s but all the fleets. Several teams had tuned their rigs for the morning’s strong winds, but then found themselves struggling for power when the breeze dropped off dramatically after the first start of the day.
“It got lumpy from the rain squall when it blew hard for a while. It was probably in the high teens briefly, and it kicked up a pretty big chop and that stayed around when the wind dropped off completely. Rhodes 19s don’t really like that—that’s not their thing at all.”
Viper 640s off the start on the final race day in Marblehead.
Walter Cooper
Despite the challenges, the father-son team’s experience and adaptability paid off. Jim, however, was quick to credit his son Nat—recognizable on the course in his lucky Celtics jersey—for their success.
“I’m the old slow guy on Nat’s foredeck,” Taylor says. :”He’s really, really good. He’s really good on the starting line in a way that I never was and certainly am not anymore. Full credit to Nat, actually. He makes this happen. I’m sort of there along for the ride.”
In the Viper 640 class, skipper Henry Amthor secured another win at Marblehead. Coming into the weekend “tuned up” and ready to compete, Amthor faced a tough fleet with several boats ultimately winning races.
“The Viper class’s top five is always very tight,” Amthor says. “Even the top 10 is very tight. Despite fewer boats competing this year, the competition was intense, particularly from Mike Michael Deyett’s team on Prestige Worldwide, from Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire.
Nick Cann and Andrea Dodge, Town Class champions.
Walter Cooper
The two were tied heading into the final day, and as expected, they were keeping close tabs on each other.
“When it got really light in the first race, we managed to get a little separation on him. And the shift went our way, and we just covered him to the finish,” Amthor says. “And then, in the last race, he was ahead of us again. And the second beat, we got a little bit away from him, and the shift went our way and got around him.”
Amthor’s team used the J/70 fleet sailing ahead of them as indicators of wind patterns coming down the course. “We were looking at the J/70s a lot, and they could kind of tell us where the velocity was,” he says, demonstrating how experienced sailors use all available information on the racecourse.
The variety of conditions throughout the weekend required constant adjustments and gear shifting. For the Viper 640 that means being active with mast chocks. “We’re not allowed to touch the shrouds if the wind drops, but we can adjust the chocks, so there was a lot of that going on today.”
J/70s start their final race of the day.
Walter Cooper
For Peter Duncan’s team on the J/70 Relative Obscurity, the final day was about keeping close tabs on Bruno Pasquinell’s Stampede.
“We had to stay close with them,” says Jud Smith, the team’s ace tactician. “They ended up beating us in the first race, but we were battling it out with them all the way around the course and crossed the finish line overlapped. So, we lost a point to them there, but they were really the boat we had to pay attention to.”
In the day’s first race, positioning at the start proved critical. “They were [committee] boat side, and they got ahead. The right was good on the early part of the beat, and then the left came in at the end, and we’re kind of in the middle,” Smith says.
International 110 class winners Joe Berkeley and Linda Epstein.
Walter Cooper
Despite not having “a great first run,” they made up for it on the second upwind leg. “We had a really good second beat. We got going good and went the right way. A lot of boats went the wrong way—and that got us right back into it.”
For Smith, one of the most significant developments in his team’s performance has been their improved mental approach to the J/70 class’s high-intensity racing. Racing this weekend was the usual squad of Duncan, Smith, Willem Van Waay and Victor Diaz de Leon.
“The good thing is when it gets bad, we don’t get rattled as a team,” Smith says. “We got caught in the first race with the rig too tight and stuff like that, but we just deal with it and keep the racing close.”
Conner Godfrey, John Ring and Kim Rosell, Lightning Class winners.
Walter Cooper
This calm approach to adversity paid dividends in the final race. “We got behind a little bit, but we came out of the second beat knowing just what we wanted to do, stuck with it and kept with that, and that was good.”
The talented crew’s mutual trust proved to be their greatest asset, Smith adds. “I think the big thing we’ve probably gotten better at is just keeping our head together and trusting each other,” he says. “Everybody’s so talented on the team that we just trust each other. That’s been good.”
.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }In the J/105 class, the Texas-based team TnT, led this weekend by skipper Brad Tindall, made an impression at Marblehead. Despite the considerable journey from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Marblehead, the team showcased both dedication and skill in every race. Their participation was inspired by the late Mark Massour, who previously owned their boat and frequently participated in East Coast events.
“We brought the boat initially for Block Island [Race Week] last month, and decided to stay here and race in Marblehead,” Tindall says. “It was 2,168 miles, and we came up in June.” Their commitment was clear not only in their long journey but also in how effectively they adapted to Marblehead’s tricky sailing conditions.
Peter Shumaker’s Marianne, well out front and cruising to an Etchells class win.
Walter Cooper
The team’s tactician, Mark Foster, emphasized the unique challenges of racing in Marblehead. “It was a typical Marblehead weekend. Lots of things get thrown at you. There’s nothing standard around Marblehead,” Foster says. However, the team managed to leverage their experience and adapt their tactics accordingly. The absence of strong currents on the J/105 course allowed for a boat speed-focused regatta, which played to their strengths.
Key to their success was the team’s ability to adjust their tuning setups swiftly as conditions changed. “The biggest thing was not being afraid to get on those shrouds and get them in tune,” Tindall says, highlighting the adjustments that were crucial between races.
Their lack of familiarity with the Marblehead J/105 fleet added an extra layer of complexity to Team TnT’s weekend. “Most of the Marblehead people were kinda local, and so they were all a new experience for all of us to sail against,” Foster says.
Winning four of seven races in the J/105 fleet not only earned the TnT the class win, but also the regatta’s overall title and the coveted berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands in October where they will face top teams from the regatta series’ other stops in St. Petersburg, Florida, Annapolis, Maryland, Chicago and Detroit.
Nick Cann and Andrea Dodge, overnight leaders in the Town Class, sealed their class win with two top finishes on the final day to earn the Robert Campbell Trophy for the New England Championships. Peter Shumaker and his teammates on the Etchells Marianne (on loan to them for the regatta) posted a pair of seconds to win the class with an impressive 18-point margin after seven races.
ILCA7 winner Nicolas Regnault.
Walter Cooper
Eighteen-year-old Nicoals Regnault won 9 of 12 races to convincingly win the ILCA7 division, and the International One-Design battle between Bill Widnall’s Javelin and Carolyn Corbet’s Elektra went the way of Widnall again, earning the fleet master another engraving in the fleet’s Widnall Trophy. Conner Godfrey, John Ring and Kim Rosell were the top Lightning team, Joe Berkeley and Linda Epstein won five of 7 races to seal the International 110 class win.
Peter Duncan’s Relative Obscurity earned Marblehead Race Week’s Cressy Trophy, awarded to the regatta’s top team in what is considered to be the most competitive class.
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