Mahesh Balachander was at the top of the points table with 37 penalty points in the Optimist Class competitions at the end of the penultimate day of the Deloitte Monsoon regatta at the Hussainsagar lake here on Saturday.
He was followed by Chitresh Thata with 44 penalty points and Vishnu Saravanan with 62.
The weather gods were kind and four races were held without any hitch in the Optimist Class competition on Saturday.
With a total of 67 young sailors taking part, the scene had a festive look with many little white sails darting across the water.
Immense depth
The Optimist fleet which has immense depth has seen some fierce competition so far. Apart from Thata of Chennai and Saravanan of Mumbai, no other sailor has got more than one win.
However, Saravanan had a setback on Saturday when he was disqualified in Race 4 for having missed rounding a mark and Aniket Rajaram protested against him.
Due to this, Saravanan’s ranking without discard fell from first to third.
In case the weather plays spoilsport on Sunday, Saravanan will find it hard to recover lost ground.
But he has shown consistency in his performances till now with two wins, two seconds and two third places.
Another sailor who is doing well is Mahesh Balachander who had defeated Saravanan by a whisker, at the last nationals at Marve, Mumbai.
This is a national-ranking championship for Optimist sailors who are hoping to enter the national squad and from there, to international regattas.
The Family Regatta kicked off with eight teams vying for the gold. Some boats took upto six team members in the imported Omega boats.
The results Optimist Class:
Fourth race: 1. Mahesh Balachander, 2. Aniket Rajaram, 3. Jayalakshmi.
Fifth race: 1. Vishnu Saravanan , 2. Naveen Kumanan, 3. Raghavendra Kaki.
Sixth race: 1. Vishnu Saravanan, 2. Chitresh Thata, 3. Mahesh Balachander.
Seventh race: 1. Chitresh Thata, 2. Mahesh Balachader, 3. Vishnu Saravanan.
