orma 60 trimaran defiant

In extreme quest, sailor Donald Lawson chose boat like no other: Fast but complicated

His boat defiant, an elite racing trimaran, is fast, light — but also susceptible to capsizing.

On Christmas Eve 2022, Pat Brogan and her husband, Jim Mason, were riding their bicycles near their home in Coronado, a peninsula town on California’s San Diego Bay. Avid sailors, they noticed a striking sailboat anchored in very shallow water next to the municipal golf course.

This was an unusual boat, a very large trimaran, very similar, they thought, to one called Mighty Merloe that for years had been listed for sale for as much as $1.7 million and docked next to their boat on nearby Harbor Island. With a mast 100 feet high, and a width of 60 feet to match its length, this boat stood out in any harbor. The next day they were out for another ride and saw it again tied up at Coronado’s public dock. Curious, they approached.

Now, Brogan was almost sure this was the Mighty Merloe , a high-performance racing trimaran with an impressive pedigree. In her prime, she was one of the fastest boats in the world and had been skippered by some of the world’s best sailors. Her new captain and his wife were aboard and greeted the strangers warmly. They introduced themselves as Donald and Tori Lawson.

“This looks like the Mighty Merloe,” Brogan said, fishing unsuccessfully for an answer. Donald Lawson was otherwise gregarious and happy to give a tour of the boat, now called Defiant . Once below, Brogan spotted the VHF radio labeled with the boat’s former name. She was indeed the Mighty Merloe .

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Brogan didn’t press for details about the boat’s provenance as Lawson regaled his guests with his quest to sail Defiant alone around the world in record-setting time, a Herculean feat. He talked about his nonprofit organization, the Dark Seas Project . Lawson told them they were about to set sail for Panama and transit the canal on Jan. 8, on their way to their hometown of Baltimore, where Donald would begin his attempt to sail around the world in what he hoped would be fewer than 70 days. The voyage, planned for the fall, would be one of many records he wanted to break in the years ahead. By the end of the tour, the foursome had become fast friends.

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Lawson, 41, got as far south as Acapulco, his last known port. After spending several months there adding and testing equipment and gear, and making repairs, which he recounted in detail on social media, he departed for Panama once again on July 5 — fully into cyclone season, and this time alone. Tori, whose given name is Jacqueline, flew home to Baltimore.

Four days into his journey, Lawson sent a message to his wife, telling her Defiant ’s engine had failed. Three days later, he encountered heavy weather and lost use of his wind generator. Soon he had no electrical power. He was almost 300 miles southeast of the southern coast of Mexico, the nearest land. He decided to turn back toward Acapulco, which satellite tracking confirmed on July 13.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the Mexican Navy had located a capsized trimaran that Tori Lawson identified as Defiant . The Coast Guard dispatched a cutter to assist in the search for Donald Lawson, whose fate is not yet known. He had with him a life raft, survival equipment and ample provisions.

Missing sailors are often never heard from again. Those who are rescued summon help quickly, or find a way to survive for a long time and are eventually found. Apart from miracle rescues, missing sailors generally do not make big news. Mishaps at sea are accepted as the cost of sailing offshore. The recent advances in satellite technology, however, have made rescue more likely. Defiant had satellite communications aboard but apparently lost the ability to keep it powered. The boat also had an emergency beacon, but no signal was transmitted.

The story of Defiant differs from other stories of lost boats, starting with Lawson’s profile in the sailing community. He was an inspiring promoter with a compelling story he was good at telling. He was the subject of many interviews and had a following on social media. One of very few prominent Black sailors, he was the chair of the diversity committee at U.S. Sailing, the governing body of the sport. He evangelized his trailblazing mission to bring more people of color into the sport, still dominated by white men.

His backstory was the basis for the Dark Seas Project and important to its funding, which he had to solicit. Defiant was no ordinary boat. While Lawson’s skills — for that matter, any sailor’s skills — are challenging to measure with precision and unanimity, there is no disagreement that his mile-eating trimaran was a thoroughbred.

Enormous, complex, expensive to operate, and of an age when sailboats typically need a lot of repair, Defiant would be a challenge for any one person to manage, let alone to sail. About 20 years old, she was an ORMA 60, a class of high-performance racing boats built from 1996 to 2007, akin to Formula One cars.

They were the cutting edge of sailboat design made of very stiff, lightweight carbon fiber. Defiant weighed the same as boats a fraction of her size. She could sail as fast as 40 knots (46 mph), whereas most conventional sailboats would be pressed to reach 8 knots. Defiant was equipped with a square-top mainsail (a shape that makes for a larger, more powerful sail) and three triangular foresails, or jibs, one larger than the next, each one capable of adding speed. A system of hydraulics aided control of her powerful sails and unique pivoting mast, which could be moved into and away from the wind to enhance stability and performance.

“The boat was the best ORMA 60 ever built,” said Artie Means, who served as crew for years aboard Mighty Merloe , “but not designed for the ‘average’ sailor. It was delicate.”

Means was the navigator in 2017 when Mighty Merloe competed in the storied Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, finishing in a record four days and seven hours with a crew of seven led by renowned French skipper Jacques Vincent. That is a pace of about 500 miles a day.

The French-designed trimaran was launched in 2004 and christened as Groupama 2 . She was skippered by another famous French yachtsman, Franck Cammas, who won several races with her. She was later used as a training platform for the America’s Cup team, before being sold to American owner Howard Enloe and being renamed Mighty Merloe .

Stiff and light, aided by foils on each outrigger, Defiant could almost get airborne. At her fastest, Defiant skimmed the surface of the ocean, riding the edge of one of its outriggers. But a sudden gust could cause the boat to go over. Once capsized, trimarans cannot recover.

Although ORMA 60s like Defiant are typically sailed by a large crew, they have crossed oceans steered by one person. The singlehanded, transatlantic Route du Rhum race from France to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean is held every four years at the end of the hurricane season. The 2002 race featured 18 ORMA 60s; only three finished the race, as many either capsized or lost their masts in rough weather. Skippers, drawn to the speed of ORMA 60s, continued to race them even as the design was discontinued, in part because of the fickle nature of the boats.

Scot Tempesta, the editor of a popular sailing blog and YouTube channel , toured Defiant in late 2020 when it was still Mighty Merloe . He found it to be in good condition. In the video , the boat appears to have been well maintained, its surfaces polished and shiny. Sailing lines look new, equipment is neatly stowed, and the mainsail is folded into a pristine sail bag. In one shot, he is surrounded by a spider’s web of ropes, attesting to the complexity of the boat’s rigging system. He points out an escape hatch in the hull, a reminder of the boat’s risk of capsizing.

The last available images of Defiant , some taken by Lawson and posted on sailing blogs and social media, were taken in Acapulco upon its arrival at the end of January and shortly before its departure in July. Defiant had certainly seen some hard ocean miles. One widely circulated image showed extensive damage to the port side outrigger and to its sails. Late in 2022, Defiant apparently drifted into rocks while at anchor off Anacapa Island, one of the Channel Islands off the southern coast of California.

Lawson spent most of the winter and spring in Acapulco tending to the boat, although he spent a few weeks of April in Baltimore. He returned to Acapulco May 1 to continue preparing Defiant . His social media posts go into great detail about upgrades, maintenance, repairs and the gear he added. He wrote extensively about weather and the tools he used to make decisions about his route.

In a short video posted May 23 to his YouTube channel from Acapulco, Lawson obliquely referred to some of his recent mishaps, saying he “hit some debris and damaged some stuff in some storms.” No longer polished and shiny, Defiant was in need of a paint job. The sail bag looked worn. He went on to show viewers a new mooring line, halyards (ropes used to hoist sails), a wind generator, a chartplotter and a glimpse of a weatherworn bag containing a life raft.

As Lawson’s following grew, so did the skepticism expressed in online posts. Indeed, he had set a mighty goal and had been very public about it, opening himself up to criticism.

There is no formal standard to grade or qualify a sailor. Credentials can be earned, but no certifications, licenses or titles are required to sail. The world is full of sailors with no formal training who have safely crossed oceans. The skills needed to race a modern trimaran are not necessarily the skills needed to cruise the Caribbean in an old monohull. Put another way, there are so many skills to master — seamanship, weather, rigging, sail trim, steering, docking, line handling, anchoring, plumbing, engine repair — that it’s possible to be simultaneously an expert in some things and a novice in others.

“He might be a professional sailor, but he’s not a professional racer,” Tempesta said, “and there’s a difference.”

Lawson studied engineering at Morgan State and, according to his LinkedIn profile, also attended the Annapolis School of Seamanship, where he earned a 100-ton captain’s license and a celestial navigation certificate. He said he completed a number of long, offshore passages as crew and captain, including a solo voyage across the Atlantic in a 21-foot sailboat. He has taught sailing extensively, raced, and worked as a delivery captain, transporting yachts for other owners. His sailing resume would be the envy of recreational sailors and many professionals (the definition of which is open to interpretation), but what he was setting out to do verges on superhuman.

The shortest route that qualifies as an official circumnavigation is 21,600 nautical miles (or 24,857 land miles), most of it in the Southern Ocean past Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Leeuwin. Because there is little less land in the Southern Hemisphere, waves and wind in the Southern Ocean are especially big and strong. A solo sailor can never sleep a full night, instead napping for 20 to 30 minutes at a time every few hours over a period of months. According to Yachting World, only about 200 sailors have sailed alone, nonstop around the world, most of them in slow-moving monohulls not in pursuit of speed records that are now within the reach of only modern trimarans.

Means, who raced thousands of miles aboard Mighty Merloe , was unconvinced Lawson had sufficient experience aboard Defiant under the kinds of conditions he would likely encounter sailing nonstop at a record-breaking pace.

“In my opinion Mr. Lawson had zero chance of setting any records himself, and very little chance of even completing a passage on such a complicated yacht with so little training,” said Means, who met Lawson briefly.

Those who know Lawson are unanimous about his passion, determination, and confidence, which often showed itself in his ability to settle and soothe those he sailed with. They also all expressed concern over what he set out to accomplish.

Lawson and Lynn Handy learned to sail together as teenagers at Baltimore’s Downtown Sailing Center, known as one of the most inclusive yacht clubs in the sport. They both went on to become sailing instructors at the center. Handy eventually became its executive director.

“Even when he was young, he had that drive for adventure and risk taking,” Handy said. “That was always in him. He was always looking for the next challenge. He was driven by proving himself. … this was an obvious next step for him.

She paused when asked if she thought he had taken on too much by sailing Defiant .

“This is a hard question to answer,” she said. “I feel like some people are also responsible, not just him, for putting him in the position he’s in now. … What he should have had is a really deep team of really professional people constantly coaching him and working with him.”

To her point, a Formula One driver has a team of mechanics, advisors, and a deep-pocketed owner who can pay for the expenses required to keep a race car in good running order. High-end racing yachts are similar.

Whatever his qualifications, Lawson managed to sail his vessel, a highly complex and temperamental racing machine, from San Diego to San Francisco, then back to San Diego, and on to Acapulco — an impressive accomplishment on its own.

Brogan and Mason brought the Lawsons Christmas dinner the day they met, along with some extra provisions, extra batteries and flashlights. They promised to see each other again. Brogan and Mason invited them to come sailing with them in the Bahamas in the spring. Within a few days, the Lawsons were offshore. They did not reach Acapulco, about 1,800 miles from San Diego, until the end of January. Defiant is capable of covering this distance in less than a week under the right conditions. A conventional sailboat can do it in about two weeks nonstop.

What the Lawsons did in January, where they sailed, what route they took, whether they stopped somewhere, isn’t clear. Donald Lawson’s various social media platforms are empty of any posts during this stretch. Tori Lawson has declined interviews since appearing at a press conference Monday about her husband’s disappearance.

Lawson seemed to be aware of skepticism from his online audience. In a post dated Feb. 5, he wrote:

“Our program is working towards having our vessel, the Defiant , ready for long distance and hard record runs. So I will say openly — expect more damage, more torn sails, more stories about collisions and more sea stories because these things need to happen now so we are prepared for the ultimate challenge.”

Lawson’s friend and colleague Richard Jepsen remained hopeful Lawson would be found alive and safe. He was measured when asked to assess his friend’s abilities and judgement.

“Would you need to have some willful dismissiveness of risk in order to embark on such an incredible project? You’d have to say yes,” said Jepsen, the president of the Board of Directors for U.S. Sailing. “I worried for him, but I loved that there was someone on this planet willing to do something like that.”

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Hugo Kugiya

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Hugo Kugiya is a roving, regional reporter focused on counties outside Baltimore City. He has formerly reported for the Associated Press, Newsday and the Seattle Times.

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Meet Donald Lawson, the Ambitious Sailor Who Aims to Break 15 World Records in the Next 5 Years

Lawson also plans to become the first american to solo circumnavigate the globe in 70 days aboard his fast ocean trimaran, defiant., jaclyn trop, jaclyn trop's most recent stories.

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At nine years old, Captain Donald Lawson recalls walking the marinas in Annapolis, asking anyone on the docks if he could give them a hand—cleaning boats, folding sails, or carrying gear back to the boathouse.

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“The captain of the Lady Maryland allowed me to steer the boat,” Lawson recalls. “I asked him how far I could take it, and he said, ‘Technically, you could sail it around the world.’ It was a real lightbulb, life-changing moment for me, and I started working toward that goal.”

More than three decades later, Lawson, 41, is gearing up to break from 15 to 18 world sailing records by 2028. “When you compete for a record, you are competing with the past, present and future,” he says. “For me, the only way I can show who I am and what I am is to succeed in these voyages.”

This fall, he’ll set out to become the first American—and, by extension, the first African-American—sailor to circumnavigate the globe solo in 70 days on a trimaran. He will be the fifth person to attempt such a feat—a groundbreaking goal for a sailor who had few African-American role models to look up to.

Sailing was not diverse in the 1990s. By the time Lawson set foot on his first schooner, only one African-American sailor, Teddy Seymour, had sailed the globe solo, completing a 16-month journey via the world’s canals in 1987.

“People took me in because they could see my passion and drive,” he says. “I had to learn to do everything on board just to get the opportunity to help out on the docks and sail.”

After high school, Lawson taught sailing to children at the Downtown Sailing Center in Baltimore. At the same time, he earned his racing chops crewing on raceboats in events like the Governor’s Cup in the Chesapeake Bay as well as local regattas. In the winter of 2005, Bruce Schwab, who had circumnavigated the world the previous year in his 60-foot yacht, Ocean Planet , invited Lawson out of the blue to come sailing with him in Portland, Maine.

The first night on the water, the pair were caught in a snowstorm. Ever the competitor, Schwab wanted to use the storm’s winds to increase boat speed, rather than seeking shelter in port. Lawson clearly liked that idea. “The boat could sail perfectly fine under autopilot,” Schwab told Outside Online . “But Donald was so thrilled to be there that he refused to come below, preferring to sit outside and drive the boat for hours, upwind, in the snow.”

It was that kind of mettle that is prompting Lawson to go after successive solo-speed records. But he has more than just glory in mind. Last year, he founded the Dark Seas Initiative, a non-profit organization with the aim to increase diversity in the sport by inspiring the next generation of sailors. Lawson also chairs the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for US Sailing, the sport’s national governing body.

As part of its outreach, the Dark Seas Initiative will be broadcast into hundreds of classrooms as Lawson attempts to break his records. The cameras will record the often-grueling conditions to give a sense of the reality of offshore sailing. The goal is to reach young people who might never have considered sailing as a hobby, much less a profession.

“Sailing requires a boat, and when you are struggling to live, a boat is the last thing on your mind,” Lawson says. “Yacht Clubs have historically not been very inclusive to women or minorities, so what you have is an uncomfortable scenario where individuals are afraid to ask and the clubs don’t know how to be inclusive.”

Lawson acquired his pedigreed trimaran, Defiant, in April, likening it to the Formula 1 of boats for its speed and performance. Having started life as Groupama 2 , the French-built trimaran was launched in 2004, using the most advanced materials of that time. It was the last ORMA 60 produced, but won multiple races, including three years of Grand Prix titles and the 2007 Transat Jacques Vabre. The multihull got its new name from Lawson’s commitment to “defying the odds” and his favorite show, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Lawson spent the first months along the California coast, visiting different yacht clubs and sailing centers, and even sailing into San Francisco Bay. He is now based in Acapulco, having put 6,000 nautical miles on Defiant.

“He’s an adventurer,” says Rich Jepsen, a board member of US Sailing. “Nobody does that much work without having an inner drive to do it—like the saying about summiting Everest, he’s doing it because it’s there. But he’s also turning his personal ambition into a proven model for doing good by inspiring the school children who watch him.”

Those first 6,000 miles have taken a toll. Recent images of Defiant in Acapulco show it looking the worse for wear, with visible hull and sail damage. Some sailing websites report the boat lost its engines. Lawson says the boat is being repaired locally and he plans to soon sail through the Panama Canal, up the Atlantic coast to his home port of Baltimore, where it will be hauled out. “It will undergo testing, modifications and upgrades for the upcoming record season,” he says.

The record-breaking attempts could start as early as next fall, with the Newport-Bermuda race. Lawson is going after the record held by his mentor Steve Fossett, who sailed the route in 1 day, 16 hours in 1999. “If time doesn’t allow for that, then the next record attempt would be the Around the World Voyage in October,” he says.

The campaign is then planned to continue through 2028.

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Powers of Perseverance: Captain Weathers The Storms

Capt. Donald Lawson's boat the Defiant.

As far as single-handed sailing records go, just shoving off the dock can be the biggest hurdle. The time and effort spent planning, preparing, and provisioning can take the wind out of even the strongest sailors, no pun intended. For Baltimore native Captain Donald Lawson , whose ORMA 60 trimaran Defiant is in the final stages of starting her record attempt , an offshore collision with debris in January of this year threatened to stall the Dark Seas Project indefinitely. 

“Hitting debris in the water is not the worst thing that’s happened to me on the ocean,” he says with a chuckle, sitting in his booth on a rainy day at the Annapolis Spring Sailboat Show. Water puddles at his feet and gusts shake the row of tents where he’s set up shop. A little weather clearly does not disturb him. “I’ve lost power, been dismasted, ripped sails, and even had man overboard experiences. I’ve been through it all. Hitting trash happens.” 

At the time of the collision, Lawson and his wife were en route from San Diego toward the Panama Canal and 1,000 nautical miles from shore.  Defiant lost power and the couple was forced to sail the last 2,800 miles using a compass. Through it all, Lawson never doubted their ability to arrive in port safely. 

“We knew that we had a fast boat, we had food, and we had a strong crew,” he says. “We knew we were going to make it.”

Lawson’s perseverance is a hallmark of his operational strategy, and one he learned at a very young age. “My father worked for NASA, and coached five or six sports teams throughout,” says Lawson. “My brothers and sisters were All-American athletes. I was the only one who didn’t play sports; sailing was my thing. I laugh now because I’m the only one who’s still a professional athlete.” 

With Defiant still being serviced in Mexico, Lawson is itchy to get her back to Baltimore. “It’s nerve-wracking,” he says, mentioning his multiple webcams and regular check-ins with servicemen. Instead of sweating it, however, he’s using the time to have a mini refit performed. The engine is serviced, and a new wind generator, radar, and autopilot are being installed. Toward the end of May he’ll board her and begin the passage through the Panama Canal, up the Eastern Seaboard, coming into the Port of Baltimore in mid-June. 

Once in Baltimore, Lawson will be able to tend to Defiant ’s needs himself on a daily basis, going on standby in October when the records season officially opens. Ideally, he’ll start his attempt in December or January. 

“To be successful at this type of sport, you have to be very driven,” he says. “If you’re out there thinking to yourself, ‘I don’t know’, you aren’t going to make it. To make long-distance passages single-handed, you have to put yourself in the mindset that whatever happens between now and then, I’m going to get there.”

The “there” that Lawson is eyeing is a 74-day world record for his size boat. To achieve that, Defiant will have to average between 18 and 20 knots, 24 hours a day. He’ll push Defiant through some of the most dangerous weather patterns to maintain that speed. 

“Climate change is elongating weather patterns and systems,” he says, explaining his strategy. “Part of it is waiting until the right time of the year, when you can surf through an entire system rather than trying to hop big globs.” 

While Lawson will be pushing Defiant to her max (he lovingly refers to this as her “sweet spot”), he’ll also be testing the limits of human determination. 

“My biggest fear is failure,” he says. “And I measure failure by not trying, or quitting. As long as I’m out there trying, I don’t have to get everything I want,” he adds, referring to the record.

Lawson says that the only person who could stop him from achieving that goal is himself.  “I’m my biggest critic, and my most important foe,” he says. “When I’m out there sailing, I’m only competing against myself. No one else can stop me, but no one else can help me, either.” 

A gust of wind hits the row of tents at the show and a wall of rain seems to move horizontally off the harbor and into the booths. In the distance, a siren wails and showgoers begin to talk of weather warnings. As others take cover, Lawson’s calm holds. He shifts the brim of his baseball cap and casts a protective glance to his wife, who is likewise undisturbed. 

“If I’m going to get this done, I need to do whatever it takes,” he says. 

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Mexican authorities inspect capsized sailboat in Pacific, find no signs of Donald Lawson

Courtesy of Tori Lawson

Since acquiring a 60-foot trimaran in March 2022, Tori and Donald Lawson worked to ready the vessel for a circumnavigation attempt.

Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun

Captain Donald Lawson last year acquired a 60-foot trimaran which he named Defiant. The sailboat is an ORMA 60, a classification of trimarans that are fast but also extremely difficult to handle, sailors say.

His vessel, Defiant, was found about 360 miles from the Mexican shore. Mexican authorities “reported there were no signs of Donald’s whereabouts at the site where the trimaran was found capsized,” Jacqueline said in the statement.

The Mexican authorities, which have been spearheading the search for Lawson in the Pacific, continued their efforts on Saturday, according to a spokesperson for the Lawson family. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its efforts as of Friday evening.

The family spokesperson, Ray Feldmann, said Saturday that Jacqueline Lawson is grateful to both agencies for “their tireless efforts to locate her husband.”

“She remains hopeful that he will be found alive and will return home soon,” Feldmann said.

Lawson, a Baltimore sailor who had been preparing to sail alone around the world, set out from Acapulco, Mexico bound for Baltimore earlier this month but lost engine power . He last communicated with his wife on July 12 and Mexican and American authorities have been searching for his sailboat and for him for the past week. His last known position, on July 13, was about 300 miles south of Acapulco.

His boat had been spotted Sunday from a Mexican plane, but Thursday night was the first time a ship was able to locate and approach it. There had remained a possibility that Lawson was inside the capsized boat, but Mexican authorities evaluated it and determined the sailboat was, indeed, Lawson’s and that he was not aboard.

Because of the Mexican authorities’ search, the Coast Guard cutter Active, deployed this week to help in the search, did not inspect the sailboat. Instead, it searched the ocean Friday for any signs of Lawson, said Coast Guard spokesperson Hunter Schnabel.

Petty Officer Edward Wargo, with the Coast Guard, said on Saturday that the agency had suspended its search as of Friday evening, pending new information. That new information, Wargo said, might be someone spotted in the water along the search area or some kind of emergency position-indicating notification.

At this point, any hope for Lawson’s survival likely hinges on him being on a life raft. In Friday’s statement, Jacqueline said she has “not received any information about the location of the life raft that was on board [Defiant] when Donald left Acapulco on July 5, 2023.”

“You can keep on going for a long, long time in survival scenarios,” said France-based sailor Conrad Colman, who has completed three circumnavigations, including one solo.

However, it is challenging to survive under such conditions.

Lawson last year acquired a 60-foot trimaran which he named Defiant . The sailboat is an ORMA 60, a classification of trimarans that are fast but also extremely difficult to handle, sailors say.

He had been on the West Coast with the boat and was planning to sail it through the Panama Canal to Baltimore, where he’d planned to embark on a record-setting solo circumnavigation of the globe.

Baltimore Sun reporters Dillon Mullan and Darcy Costello contributed to this article.

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Captain Donald Lawson Onboard ORMA 60 Trimaran Defiant Sailing into San Francisco, CA

Captain Donald Lawson - Dark Seas Project Sailing finishing Delivery into San Francisco through the Golden Gate Bridge.

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In over his head: an in depth look into the defiant mishap.

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A virtual port of call for all those who love the sea , hosted by nautical novelist rick spilman.

Tag Archives: ORMA 60 trimaran

Donald lawson’s trimaran found capsized in the pacific, lawson still missing.

Donald Lawson and his Dark Seas Project was nothing if not ambitious. Lawson, 41, was preparing to set out to break at least 35 sailing records on his ORMA 60 trimaran, Defiant.  Lawson is a professional sailor from Baltimore who … Continue reading →

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No Sign of Donald Lawson As ‘Defiant’ Reportedly Spotted off Acapulco

We wish we had good news to share, but for now we can only hope that Donald Lawson is somewhere safe. However, East Coast news stations are reporting that Captain Lawson’s ORMA 60 trimaran Defiant has been found, capsized. The Mexican navy’s press office said a Mexican search plane had spotted a yacht, which they believed to be Defiant , 275 nautical miles off the coast of Acapulco, the Baltimore Banner reported on Tuesday. Though after its initial report, the Banner wrote, the navy “… are not confirming it to be Lawson’s Defiant. ” Crews have been unable to reach the vessel due to weather and sea conditions.

According to WMAR , Lawson’s wife Jacqueline reached out to the Annapolis School of Seamanship on Friday. On July 9, Lawson had advised he was without engine power and relying solely on a wind generator. Jacqueline’s next, and last, communication with her husband was on July 13, at which time he advised he had “25% of battery power and no way of charging” after his wind generator was damaged in a storm.

“We decided that it would be best for him to turn back around and head back to Acapulco to look over these issues instead of continuing to the Panama Canal,” she told reporters. At that time he was 285 miles from Acapulco.

Lawson’s brother, Quentin Lawson Senior, told the New York Post that Donald had “dramatically reduced his vessel’s speed late on July 12,” when he went from 11 to less than 3 knots, and that Defiant had “turned course, going against the wind late into the evening.”

“‘I believe something happened at that moment,’ he told NBC News .”

In a social media post for his nonprofit organization Dark Seas Project prior to his departure from Acapulco, Lawson wrote about his preparation, his sail plan and his safety equipment, which included, “Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) linked to satellites so local Coast Guards can find us. We also have a number of satellite phones onboard that provide our Global Positioning System (GPS) …” Defiant was reportedly also equipped with two life rafts, multiple radios and a survival suit; however there are no reports of flares, or electronic messages or signals coming from the boat. A US Coast Guard spokesperson told the Baltimore Sun on Tuesday afternoon that the agency “did not have information on the reported sighting” and was “having trouble getting in touch with the Rescue Coordination Centers in Acapulco.”

This morning has brought no new information. We’ll continue keeping tabs on the situation. In the meantime, we all hope Captain Lawson is found alive and well.

It would be helpful to know the position where the Mexican Navy located the stricken vessel. Boatwatch doesn’t have it on their report either yet asking for cruisers for assistance in locating the skipper. Thanks.

In the evening, I light as many votive candles that I have and make a wish for his safety. Also light a safe long burning tall candle that reflects in the window all night. Love this man and his dream! Please please hoping for a miracle … surprise, I am here! Cinde Delmas

Prayers Up for Protection SaFETY RETURN 💜 BACK Home…

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