The Hindu : Sport / Sailing : AYN continues to hold sway

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 26, 2005

Sport

Sport - Sailing

AYN continues to hold sway

S. Dinakar

Chennai: `Wanna do a 360 degree with me' proclaimed one of the several hoardings at the Chennai Harbour. It was not referring to a dance of the swirling nature, but to a penalty of the sailing kind.

Each time a sailor touches the `marker,' he does a 360-degree turn of his dinghy as a punishment. Actually this travels to the very heart of a sport known to be a great character builder; a sailor has to be guided by his conscience even if the infringement goes unnoticed.

In the tango between man and sea during the Indian Oil-TNSA Coastal Nationals here on Wednesday, there were both the 360-degree men and winners, in spirit and performance. And the sailors from the Army Yachting Node (AYN) Mumbai continued to hold sway. Like on Tuesday, only INWTC's Amit Arvind prevented an AYN clean sweep of the first places.

It was a gruelling day of sailing and three races each in the Laser Standard and the Laser Radial sections were conducted with a gap of less than 20 minutes between each contest.

Rajesh Chowdhary finished second to N.S. Johal in the first race of the Laser Standard section, but sailed cleverly to win the next two. In the Laser Radial division, V. Harihara (AYN) triumphed in the first and the second races but Arvind, who was disqualified from the second race of day two, bounced back to nail the third race today.

Race Officer Colonel G.S. Jhulka said the wind speed peaked in the first race when it ranged from 12 to 14 knots. In what was another fine day for sailing, the maximum swell was six feet.

Captain of Boats Munna Jamal was appreciative of Chowdhary's display, where the sailor read the `wind-shift' well and used it to his advantage. In a promising performance, the 16-year-old RMYC lad G. Sandeep finished fourth in the first Laser Standard race before being undone by a gear failure in the second.

The results: Laser Standard: first race: 1. N.S. Johal (AYN), 2. Rajesh Chowdhary (AYN), 3. D.P. Selvan (AYN), 4. G. Sandeep (RMYC).

Second race: 1. Rajesh Chowdhary (AYN), 2. N.S. Johal (AYN), 3. D.P. Selvam (AYN), 4. Sukhvir Singh (AYN).

Third race: 1. Rajesh Chowdhary (AYN), 2. N.S. Johal (AYN), 3. D.P. Selvam (AYM), 4. Sukhvir Singh (AYN).

Laser Radial: first race: 1. V. Harihara (AYN), 2. Jasvir Singh (AYN), 3. Amit Arvind (INWTC), 4. P. Madhu (AYN).

Second race: 1. V. Harihara (AYN), 2. P. Madhu (AYN), 3. Amit Arvind (INTWC), 4. Abilash Tomy (INSA).

Third race: 1. Amit Arvind (INWTC), 2. V. Harihara (AYN), 3. P. Madhu (AYN), 4. Vijay Rout (AYN).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport