Rohini Rau, Chennai based sailor shares with iSport her experience of sailing in the YAI Multiclass Regatta.
Day 2 of racing was fraught with excitement. We started the first race at 1pm in a light breeze. I had a good start and finished 4th. The next race was a little more challenging. The wind picked up a bit more but it was still very shifty. I had a bad start and ended up rounding the first mark 8th or 9th. And to my horror, the chairman of the selection committee chose to observe that very race!
And, just as I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, my boat touched the mark – this in sailing is a big NO NO! I had to do a penalty! I lost valuable racing time as I had to turn my boat around on water in a 360 degree circle and then continue with the race! I wish he had stayed on for the rest of the race, because in spite of the bad beginning I managed to finish that race in the 5th position!
The last race of the day was sailed in 12 knots of wind. I had a good start and got the first shift. I crossed the entire fleet and rounded the top mark 1st. Rajesh Choudhury (Asian Games bronze medalist) was lying 5th or 6th. But I guess the excitement got the better of me, as I lost one boat at the next mark. But I held on to my second position for most of the race. Rajesh was now just behind me, I chose to cover him but in the process Gajender (AYN) rounded the mark 2nd coming in from the left. I finished 5th.
Day 3 - the last day of racing was my most consistent performance. I finished 3rd in all the 3 races. All in all, it was a good championship. I learnt some valuable lessons. I was leading 3 races, but had trouble holding on to my position, something I have to work on. It was great being able to sail against Rajesh Choudhury, who found me a worthy competitor, which was a huge compliment.
I finished 4th overall, losing out on the bronze by 3 points. Since it was an open category, the women were not awarded any prizes. It was a shame as it was the YAI Regatta celebrating its 50th year. It would have been a nice gesture on the part of the Yachting Federation to show support of women sailors especially as the laser radial is the women’s single hander class at the 2012 Olympics! Even a mention of the 3 girls who took part against the men from the army and navy would have gone down well with the entire sailing community especially as the women put up a pretty creditable performance:
Results – Rohini Rau (RMYC) - 4th
Mrinalini Santhanam (TNSA) – 9th
Alekhya Sudam (SSC) – 14th
The winners in the other classes were Jasveer Singh (AYN) in the Laser Standard, Sachin Singha (NSS) in the Laser 4.7 (Boys) Shweta Sadanandan (TNSA) in the Laser 4.7 (Girls) Naresh Yadav and Ayesha Lobo (INWTC) in the Hobie 16, Xerxes Bamboat and Krish Makhija (RBYC) in the 420 Class, Praveen Prabhakar (TNSA) in the Optimist (Boys) Niveditha Varman (TNSA) in the Optimist (Girls) and Zephra Currimbhoy (RMYC) won bronze in the Optimist (Girls)
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