The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ELEAZOR ‘the Sailing Barber’ Johnson always prides himself on drawing the largest crowd on Montagu Beach for his annual St Valentine’s Day Massacre.

But what he trys not to do is let the crowd watch his B Class Lady in Red, Lady Nathalie, get caught by the A Class boats.

In the challenge race that he has put together for the past 27 years, Johnson’s Lady Natalie was given a 12-minute start ahead of a field of six A class boats. The object is to complete the three-lap race before she is caught.

Skippered by Clyde Rolle, the Lady Natalie was sitting in good position for the first two laps before his brother, Lundy Robinson, skippering the Red Stripe, made a run for it in the third and final lap to clinch the “Catch Me If You Can” title.

It was the second straight year and the sixth time in the series that the Lady Natalie was caught. The Red Stripe, who repeated last year’s feat, has caught the Lady in Red more than any of the other A Class boats in the series.

“I fight hard, but this time they gave me a shorter race,” said Johnson as he watched the action from the shorelines with thousands of fans on hand.

“What they gave me was no time for those A Class boats.”

Johnson said he was disappointed that he got caught, but watching the crowd of spectators on hand, he was on cloud nine because he continues to draw more people to his regatta than any other.

“I try my best to bring the people out by doing a lot of advertising with all of the media,” Johnson said. “They really came out out and support us. She’s like the Lakers. Even when she loses, she is still a winner. It’s good to be here in front of Montagu with everybody enjoying themselves.”

While Lundy Robinson was unavailable for comments, his older brother, Clyde Rolle, put the race in prospective.

“I was expecting the wind to drop down a bit, but it didn’t. Instead of dropping down, it sprung up a bit,” said Clyde Rolle. “I was beating them upwind, but those A boats are so powerful and when the wind came down, they were able to overpower me.

“They took off four minutes off me on the reach, but going into the wind, they didn’t gain anything on me. But on that last leg, we got caught. I’ve never seen the Lady Natalie sailed so fast, but the Red Stripe was just that much better today. She still was able to catch us.”

Despite the loss, Rolle said he’s not that much disappointed because he was able to keep it in the family, losing to his younger brother. He gave his brother a lot of credit after he claimed he “eased up” when he saw him coming.

After getting caught by the Red Stripe, the Lady in Red was able to hold off the Lady Muriel, skippered by Brooks Miller. Ed Sky, skippered by Lee Armbrister, was fourth and Who Dat, skippered by Dwayne Higgins, was fifth. The Southern Cross got sixth and Palm Cay didn’t sail.

The ‘Catch Me If You Can’ Race was the highlight of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre that got started on Saturday. In the C Class competition, the Whitty K, skippered by Stephen Knowles, emerged as the winner in the three-race series over the Chaser with the Asue Draw Thunderbird settling for third.

The weekend culminated with the Bahamian Brewery and Sands Beer’s Man in the Boat sculling race that was won by Dennis Fox, of Long Island.