By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Feb 15:
Yachting Association of India (YAI) Sailing Championship 2023 organised by Army Yachting Node (AYN), at Girgaum Chowpatty in South Mumbai, concluded with sailors of AYN dominating the event.
The event was organised from February 07 to February 13 and it was the third trial for the upcoming Asian Games scheduled to be held in China in September 2023 and a ranking event for both junior and senior classes.
189 Participants from 16 different clubs across the country participated in the event. There was introduction and participation of “Formula Kite” for the first time in the country.
The championship was held with 14 classes of boats including: ILCA 7, ILCA 6, 49er, 49erFX, 470 (mixed), NACRA 17 (mixed), RS:X (men & women), IQ Foil (men & women), Formula Kite (men & women) for senior classes and ILCA 4 (boys & girls) for junior classes.
The weather held true with medium to strong winds providing varying conditions throughout the event bringing out the best in all sailors. The citizens of Mumbai also could enjoy the event visible all around the Queen’s Necklace (Marine Drive) and directly from Chowpatty Beach.
Sailors of AYN dominated the event winning five gold, five silvers and four bronze medals in total and booking a berth for Asian Games 2023 in Laser, Nacra 17, iQ Foil and RS-X classes with brother-sister duo of Vishnu Sarvanan and Ramya Saravanan both making the cut for Asian Games.
This regatta is conducted every year to achieve the aim of attracting more youth across all genders and class into this sport and develop young talent and technical specialisation for the Army sailing for the future glory of the country.
The Army Yachting Node was established in 2001 at Mumbai under HQ Maharashtra Gujarat & Goa Area and is co-located with the Naval Sailing Club at Colaba in South Mumbai. The yachtsmen of the AYN have been dominating in events at National level, by making a clean sweep of all the medals in most of the events.
