El Toro Summer 2025: Tom Terrific
by Tom Burden
Tom Tillotson doesn’t use a compass, Windex, telltales or even a stopwatch. His most common motto when racing his El Toro is, “Don’t do anything stupid.” He keeps it simple and also puts in lots and lots of tiller time at his home club in West Sacramento. Tillotson won an El Toro National Championship, in the Intermediate fleet, in 1962. Back then he sailed El Toro 2525, Two Bits, a classic wood Toro he still owns and races, when he’s not sailing his 1990’s Moore.
Nobody including Tillotson expected the nicest and most chill guy in the El Toro fleet to suddenly become nearly unstoppable, but after he won the Iron Butt Race on Saturday, August 2nd, the results are clear; it’s the year of Tom Terrific.
He defeated Toro wizards Vaughn Siefers and Gordie Nash in an insane ten-mile marathon sponsored by the Lake Washington Sailing Club. This five-mile-upwind and return race included three divisions, staggered starts, and a mix of craft including sailboards, a Lido 14 and several Thistles.
Mayor’s Cup: June 29th saw an excellent turnout of 12 El Toros travel to Lake Merritt for the final Mayor’s Cup, and the final regatta at Lake Merritt, ever. Vickie Gilmour and her crew ran one last, excellent regatta before the LMSC furled its burgee for the very last time. It was a four-race, no-throwout series, run off the end of the dock.
Tom Burden won the first race, continuing a pattern this year of early-regatta domination followed by late-regatta fade. Gordie Nash started with a sixth; looked like the yellow boat was finished, maybe.
Or maybe not, as he then reeled off three straight bullets in classic Lake Merritt conditions. But Tom Terrific had started with a third, and then notched three straight second place scores. Nash won the tie-breaker, becoming the last-ever one-design champ on Lake Merritt.
El Toro Nationals: Lake Washington Sailing Club hosted an excellent event under extreme conditions, as the fleet endured day after day of being blown off the water. Only a few brave sailors among the 14 competitors made a try at sailing in top-of-the-range conditions on the Thursday evening practice day. Friday and Saturday were both blown out by howling Northerly gales. The whole three-day regatta thus was compressed into a one-day, five-race series.
Tom Burden won the first and third races, but a pair of sixths knocked last year’s champ down to third place. Vaughn Siefers was steady with finishes of 2, 4, 3, 1, 3, but that left the two-time Nationals winner in second place, two points behind.
In the end, regatta organizer Tillotson scored 5, 1, 2, 2, 2 to become the 2025 El Toro National Champion. The finishes were: Tom Tillotson, 7 points; Vaughn Siefers, 9; Tom Burden, 11; Nick Nash, 16; Gordie Nash, 16; Packy Davis, 24; Chris Boome, 27; Stefan Lorenzato, 30; Paul Zander, 31; Chris Nash, 34; Brendan Choi, 39; Mike Gillum, 44; Brandon Lee, 49; Mackensie Millan, 54.
Next year’s El Toro National Regatta is scheduled to be held at a new venue that features ten-knot breezes and warm water. Imagine conditions similar to Mission Bay in San Diego. This sailing spot includes an offshore course, a sheltered lagoon course, SailDrones and an aircraft carrier nearby. It started as a sailing school, and has become THE go-to practice location for Laser, 505 and Vanguard 15 fleets. It’s the Alameda Community Sailing Center. The El Toros will race in the fall of 2026, and an invitational regatta will be scheduled earlier in the year.
