Xerxes Bamboat of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club (RBYC) won the first race in the Radial category of the 26th National Laser sailing championship at the Hussainsagar lake on Tuesday morning.
But the proceedings were again badly affected by poor wind conditions and this was the only race that could be sailed on Tuesday. The races which were scheduled to be held in the afternoon session had to be called off.
The morning session which was to begin at 9 a.m. failed to get underway on time due to lack of winds. Finally at around 12.30 p.m. the wind speed picked up to a low five knots and the organisers decided to get the competitions started.
Xerxes rounded the windward mark about 20 boat lengths ahead of his nearest rival. At that stage the second spot was held by Anil Sharma of NSS Bhopal. But during the third leg Dharmendra Singh of AYN overtook Sharma.
Later Bikram Mohapatra of AYN read the winds correctly and moved up by a sizable margin to take the second spot. Keeping in view the extremely light wind conditions, the Race Committee shortened the course. Xerxes who sailed consistently well finished first in 58 minutes and 48 seconds followed by Mohapatra who timed 58 minutes and 51 seconds.
The results: top six positions:
Radial class: first race: 1. Xerxes Bamboat (RBYC). 2. Bikram Mohapatra (AYN). 3. Dharmendra Singh (AYN). 4. Anil Sharma (NSS Bhopal). 5. Sharif Khan (EMESA). 6. Varun Thakkar (TNSA).
