there’s a magic that stirs when like-minded people come together to embrace a common passion—whatever, wherever and whenever that might be. For the disciples of team racing, the wherever is a small suburb of Liverpool, in northwestern England, specifically the West Kirby Sailing Club. The whenever is that meandering time between the first warning signal and the Sunday-night debrief, with nothing to do but talk, sing, dance and laugh until we cry, before doing it again a bit too early the next day. The whatever, of course, is the Wilson Trophy, justly hailed as “the world’s best team-racing event,” which offers refuge for one long and spectacular weekend where sailing is the most important thing in the world.
In conversing, reminiscing, hypothesizing about this sport we love, we fill the space with past, present and future. Sitting at the West Kirby Sailing Club’s windows as the sun sets over the reservoir, dubbed “The Theatre of Dreams,” we can sit next to Colin Merrick, who has been making the pilgrimage to West Kirby since 2003 and who is perhaps the best to ever do it. In the same space, we can turn around to talk shop and compare the different styles of different teams from different countries with the kids who are absolutely dominating the team-racing scene today, the ones who have yet to graduate from their universities.
I’m talking about the likes of brothers Mitchell and Justin Callahan, Lachlain McGranahan, Sara Schumann, Libby Redmond and Marbella Marlo—representing Biscayne Bay YC this particular weekend, but stateside they are known as “Los Huevos.” Together, they are the best team-race squad on the planet today.
I have been at this team-race thing for more than two decades, counting six Wilson Trophy appearances, a dozen Hinman Trophies, countless Team Race Midwinters and everything between. Or at least what I can remember at this point. I have coached 29 ICSA National Championship events and sailed in a few as well. I’m sure most tenured historians of the sport, such as the late Ken Legler, would find the examples I’m searching for, but here on the shores of West Kirby, I have certainly never seen a team like this year’s champion. The Biscayne powerhouse is all that, and then some.
To unspool the significance of this team’s current prowess, the next best living time capsule of past and present team-race lore is Amanda Callahan (not related to Justin and Mitchell)—coach at Roger Williams University and multi Wilson, Hinman and Team Race World Champion, who, long ago, sailed with the team called Silver Panda. The Pandas held a piece of team-racing history as the first/only team to win the “Triple Crown” of team racing: winning the Wilson, the Hinman, and the Worlds in the same calendar year, 2007. Take it away, Madame Callahan.
Team Racing Through and For the Ages
I skipped my college graduation to attend my first ever Wilson Trophy in 2003. When we arrived in West Kirby, an idyllic town on the shore of the River Dee, with its classic English gardens and horrible British food, we were transfixed. It was love at first sight: a man-made marine lake created in 1899 to allow sailing and windsurfing when the river runs completely dry at low tide. It’s the perfect playground for team racing, with flat water and reliable breeze, and a walkway around the perimeter that allows for up-close spectating and heckling. Back then, regatta organizers erected grandstands on the promenade, making sailing a real spectator sport. Commentary by Legler and others blared from speakers lining the south end of the lake, enticing any passersby to check out the racing and help make sense of the colored sails whipping around. The marine lake is magic.
At that time, the regatta had been run for more than a half-century, and we had never seen anything like it—an entire fleet of boats used exclusively for the regatta, and there was a dedicated trailer with TVs displaying the upcoming race schedule, the leaderboard, and recent race results. A digital display on the committee boat showed the race number and countdown time into the next start. Umpires wore black-and-white-striped jerseys. All this was very cutting-edge at the time. Fifty years of institutional knowledge in running the event meant that the racecourse length was set with scientific precision. We had enough time to sail the course, rotate at the change dock, and arrive at the start line with about four minutes until their next start.
And that was just the racing.
The Lore and Allure of West Kirby
The traditional Wilson Trophy dinner on Saturday night was a next-level social event, with guest speakers and wine waves, and people dropping coins in your drink so that you may heroically down your beverage and save the queen from drowning. After the Brits headed home, the American contingent spent Sunday night at the local Ring O’ Bells pub cementing hazy weekend memories into Wilson lore.
The West Kirby Sailing Club has now been hosting the Wilson for more than 75 years. This year, 34 teams arrived from across England, Ireland and the US. These teams span the ages—a few high school teams and a lot of university teams, and then at the other end of the spectrum, there are teams like the West Kirby Hawks, with members who have sailed every Wilson for the past 25 years. You can do the math on that. Sailors love this event so much that they write it into their work contracts; Wilson Trophy weekend off is nonnegotiable. And, by the way, there are plenty of pets named Wilson.
The Silver Pandas can now be easily considered old-school, and while the American teams have won the past five editions of the Wilson Trophy, which speaks to the strength of the state of team racing in the US, it’s Los Huevos who are not just dominating team racing, but redefining greatness as well. The Callahan brothers and their Biscayne Bay posse are not only athletes, but they are also inheritors and innovators of a legacy driven by a love of the game.
The Callahan twins have been winning team-racing world championships since 2017—back in their Optimist days. They won the CJ Buckley Team Race, the C420 Team Racing National Championship in back to back years. In 2022, they won the High School Team Racing Championship for the Baker Trophy in their senior year. And at the end of their freshmen year of college, they won the College Sailing Team Racing National Championship. Months later, they won the Hinman and the US Team Racing Nationals—on their first try. In 2024, they repeated as Hinman champions, and in 2025, they reclaimed their ICSA Team Racing title. It should come as no surprise, then, that at their first appearance at the Wilson Trophy—the British Team Racing Nationals—they smashed it.
Where will they go next with their team racing? How will they continue to etch their names in the team-racing history books? Will they try to take down Colin’s six wins at the Hinman? No matter what, the enchantment of West Kirby will be calling them back.
