The Admiral’s Cup Sailing Regatta-2016, being hosted by the Indian Naval Academy (INA) at Ezhimala here, began in the waters of Ettikkulam Bay on Wednesday.
The seventh edition of the Navy’s sailing race was flagged off on Wednesday. Naval cadets from 23 countries as well as two teams of the academy are participating in what is termed the biggest sailing event of the Navy in the country.
Abhimanyu Patankar, an umpire of the international sailing event, told reporters that multiple skills of the participants would decide the outcome in the fleet race on a single crew Olympic class laser-radial sail boats. He said that though he had witnessed many military sailing events, this was the biggest in terms of the number of participating countries.
Teams participating in the race are from Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela in addition to India. Of this, nine teams are first-timers in the regatta here, organising officials said. A team from Indonesia has come as observers. Ten participants from nine countries are women while both the participants from Poland are women, they said.
