Ms. Barbados making her way up the West Coast just after clearing the Bridgetown Port on Errol Barrow Day.
Lawson has hopes for Round Barbados
Tue, 01/24/2017 - 12:00am
Although his crew was unable to take away the skipper’s weight in rum as they did last year after breaking the Multihull Absolute Record, Team Concise Owner Tony Lawson’s Ms. Barbados was still able to clock the fastest time around the island this
past Saturday in the 2017 Mount Gay Round Barbados Race.
Putting up a staggering 3:16.12 hours as compared to last year’s breathtaking 2:37.38 hours, Lawson spoke to The Barbados Advocate just after making it back to shore.
Noting that he was intimately familiar with the island as he was first here in 1966, Lawson said that he thought his crew had made good time around the island, calling the trip “outrageously fast”. “It’s always great to come back to Barbados, this is like a second home for me. This time the weather was a bit more kind for an old man like me, so I decided to do the race myself. Basically, it was just over three hours and last year was two hours, 37 minutes. All I can say is they must have really pulled out all the stops last year because I thought this year was quick for me.”
With last year’s record coming out of a head-to-head race with Phaedo, another MOD70 trimaran, Lawson said it would be quite some time before any other vessels got close to that time. “I think it will last for a while. It’s going to take somebody really special. Because it is not just the boat. It’s the boat, it’s the crew, the weather and the wind direction. Today the wind was a bit light compared to last year. I don’t think we did more that 35 knots in the boat. I think last year we hit like 42, 43 knots and that tells us a lot.” he said.
With this year’s roster short of a few other international entries as unusual weather hindered the Atlantic crossing for some vessels, Lawson said that he had full faith in the event and saw it being one of the premier races in the world. “There will be more boats next year and it will just grow and grow. BTMI, Mount Gay Rum, Peter Gilkes – guys like that are doing a great job and you just have to go with it. Great location, great race. It’s going to get really big.” he said. (MP)