The first powerboat racer to win the iconic Around the Island Race in less than an hour was an innovator who passed on his skills to young mechanics.

Larry Robinson’s Bermuda Donzi team pulled off a famous 1-2-3 in 1971 — back when the high-speed boats would race through Flatts Inlet and speed across Harrington Sound — with Lawrence “Tonky” Trott coming second and Craig Armstrong third.

With the iconic race changing its course the next year for safety reasons, it is an achievement that can never be topped.

“I’m not sure if it was a good thing or not, but he followed that for the rest of his life,” said master mechanic Sinclair Gilbert. “That was his claim to fame.”

Confident and highly competitive, Mr Robinson was proclaimed “race ace” in The Royal Gazette on his second victory, telling the daily: “It’s the second time I’ve won this now — it sort of comes naturally after a while.”

Mr Robinson was among the powerboating pioneers who brought in the first fibreglass V-bottom hulls in the late 1960s — the same decade that the sport became organised, with the formation of the Bermuda Power Boat Association in 1963.

The new models were safer in tough conditions than their wooden predecessors and were deemed speed machines.

Mr Robinson and “Tonky” Trott drove the Bermudian-made Donzi model, built by Ed Welsh. Later, his twin-engine arrangement was unique for the times.

If he was determined to beat the competition, Mr Robinson was also generous with his knowledge, including teaching an auto mechanic class at the Bermuda Technical Institute.

Blaine Robinson recalled working alongside Mr Robinson at the boating company Pearman Watlington when he was 14, followed by more work alongside him at his garage on North Shore Road, where he kept his own boat for a while.

“He was a piece of work,” said Blaine Robinson, who would go on to become a racing rival. “As far as racing, he didn't like to lose.”

The elder Robinson was synonymous with his Black Knight, followed by the Black Knight 2 and the Royal Knight.

Mr Gilbert worked on the engine that propelled Mr Robinson for the record-setting Around the Island Race victory.

He maintained that the racing circuit under Flatts Bridge and into Harrington Sound was secure, so long as it was properly monitored and kept clear, but it was altered for safety reasons.

Mr Robinson’s racing ambitions were thwarted at times by the expense of the sport and the difficult task of obtaining sponsorship.

As the sport gained in popularity and Bermudian spectators grew to enjoy the more powerful engines, Mr Robinson brought in professionally constructed boats with the higher horsepower that divided opinions in the racing community.

Mr Gilbert said: “He stuck by it and he was very good at it.”

He said Mr Robinson’s eventual decision to step back from the sport was “very disheartening” to witness.

“He was racing in Boston, doing really well up there, and when he came to Bermuda and the equipment that he was bringing in, everybody said, ‘No, we can't have professional boats here.’ That was back then. So he lost interest in it.”

Although some in the Bermuda Government looked askance at the developing sport, Mr Gilbert said its ability to draw a crowd was recognised.

“We had the professional racers come to Bermuda and race in marathons in Bermuda,” Mr Gilbert said.

“Larry was teamed up with a gentleman by the name of Art Kennedy, one of the most popular persons of colour racing in the United States. He was really good.”

In his heyday with Donzi Racing, Mr Gilbert said Mr Robinson could have hundreds of spectators cheering him on.

Sheridan Castle, a longtime friend, said Mr Robinson not only influenced the sport but the personalities around it.

Mr Castle said: “From a powerboating aspect, I thought he was rather influential in keeping the younger guys off the streets because he allowed them to come around. He even built a recreation centre up above the little garage he had at that time.”

The informal “Donzi Club” provided a venue for young men.

“He was influential with a lot of the younger guys in the neighbourhood at the time,” Mr Castle said. “I learnt a lot of mechanics through him, Mackie Douglas, Cal Lynch.”

He added: “To me, it was a learning experience being around him ... it was a good experience being around, back in those days, with those kinds of guys.”

• Larry Mayceo Robinson, a record-setting powerboat driver, was born on October 10, 1948. He died in October 2024, aged 75