Donald Lawson, who hopes to become the first African American sailor to break a round-the-world nonstop singlehanded speed record, has been reported overdue off the coast of Mexico. He is sailing the 60-foot Ocean Racing Multihull Association class, VPLP-designed trimaran Defiant (formerly Groupama 2 and Mighty Merloe) from Acapulco south to transit the Panama Canal en route to Baltimore, his home port where he has planned to launch his first record attempt.

In a statement she released Monday afternoon in Annapolis, Jacqueline Lawson, Donald Lawson’s wife, said that he left on July 5, sailing solo. She said he “encountered several issues with the equipment onboard along the way.”

On July 9, he texted her saying he was having “engine issues which prevented him from charging his batteries” and he was relying solely on a wind generator for charging. On July 12, that 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 said. “The 13th was my last communication with him. He was 285 nautical miles away from Acapulco with 25% of battery power and no way of charging.” According to an earlier news release, his last known position was “detected July 13 at 1324 GMT (1:24 p.m.), updated through the Predict Wind App, at 12°13.475’N, 099°19.735’W.”

The U.S. Coast Guard has issued an AMVER alert to vessels in a 300-nautical-mile radius of Lawson’s last known position, and Jacqueline Lawson said the Mexican Navy and Mexican Coast Guard are searching for him. Anyone with information should contact the USCG National Command Center at 202-372-2100.

Lawson started the Dark Seas Project to support his sailing aspirations and to inspire other African Americans to become more involved in sailing and sailboat racing. In a story on the US Sailing website, he describes how growing up in Baltimore, he wasn’t from a sailing family, but a chance to go sailing on a 100-foot schooner at 9 years old changed his life.

“The captain told me I could take a boat like that around the world, and that’s when I knew what I wanted to do for my career,” Lawson is quoted in the story. “From that day forward, that was my goal– become a professional sailor.”

Lawson serves as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee chair for US Sailing, which he says is helping make steady inroads into making sailing more inclusive. In the US Sailing story, he says his advice for young, underrepresented sailors who may be nervous about entering the sport is, “go there and find your own niche, find your spot where you fit in. Maybe one person will embrace you; maybe many people will embrace you–but you won’t know until you try.”

Lawson would not be the first African American to sail solo around the world, but he would be the first to attempt a trimaran speed circumnavigation nonstop. With Defiant, he has a solid platform. The last ORMA 60 trimaran built (launched in 2004), as Groupama 2 she earned the most titles of that class and won the 2007 Transat Jacques Vabre, according to the VPLP website. As Mighty Merloe, the boat set a speed record for the 2017 Transpac, finishing in 4 days, 6 hours, and 33 minutes, smashing a 20-year-old record.

However, Lawson has run into difficulty with the boat. According to a story in Scuttlebutt Sailing News published last September, Lawson sent a distress call on Aug. 31, 2022, after the boat went aground on Anacapa Island about 12 nautical miles off the California coast. A TowBoatUS vessel arrived to assist and described the trimaran “wedged into a rocky cove against a cliff.” Evidently, anchoring problems led to the grounding, but Lawson “disputes the characterization by TowBoatUS…stating…while the boat was against the cove, it was floating without problem.” A subsequent story in Latitude 38 in February 2023 published images of the boat on a mooring in Acapulco with tattered headsails and the mainsail crumpled in the cockpit.

Lawson has stated that he hopes to break at least 35 sailing records. The US Sailing story quoted him in an article he wrote to the Maryland League of Conservation Voters: “Becoming the first African American man to set a world record in sailing AND the fastest man to circumnavigate the globe means more to me than personal gain. It means becoming the kind of role model to the young members of my community that I wish I had in my childhood. But the most important goal I want to achieve is to leave a lasting legacy in the world—and inspire others to follow their dreams to do the same.”

Jacqueline Lawson says she’s requesting “all [and] any resources both Mexican and American to help me find my husband.”

“I’ve been to the sea with my husband before, so I know and trust him,” she said. “And now I, his family, friends, and supporters are determined to bring him back to Maryland safely.” 

July 2023