Tomlinson Still Waiting for Abu Dhabi Decision on 2011 Class 1 Season

Caught up with multiple world-championship winner John Tomlinson earlier this week. Tomlinson, who co-owns TNT Custom Marine in North Miami, said he’s still waiting for a decision from the Abu Dhabi team on what it wants to do for the 2011 Union Internationale Motonautique Class 1 offshore racing season, which begins in April. At the request of the team, Tomlinson prepared several proposals, from building a new 48-foot MTI catamaran and bringing over his own crew for testing and racing to leasing a Victory team cat, as the Abu Dhabi campaign did for six races last year.

“I’ve given them all the options and associated budgets, and now I’m just waiting to hear from them,” said Tomlinson, who throttled the boat for Abu Dhabi. “I think they’re going to race, but I also think its fifty-fifty as to what they’re going to do, go with a new boat or lease one.

“In a perfect world, they’d call me up and say handle it, assemble it and let’s do it, and we’d go over there with a full-blown effort ourselves,” he added. “But at the same time, I still enjoyed what we did last year with a Victory team boat. I wouldn’t be unhappy with that.”