More than two dozen naval officers and sailors are engaged in a keen contest, exhibiting their skills in manoeuvring the boats against the wind, taking decisions in a split second to sail ahead and keep the boats afloat as they reach the finishing point.
Since Wednesday, the sailors, including a handful of woman officers, have been competing in the Indian Navy’s Enterprise Class Yachting Competition in the Navy channel of the harbour off the Indian Naval Watermanship Training Centre of the Eastern Naval Command.
Each Enterprise Class boat has a two-member crew.
Seven races are scheduled to be held till Friday, the final day of the meet, and the winner will be decided on the least number of penalty points scored by the crew.
The well-established NWTC here is providing all the facilities for the competitors. This is an open meet and the crews from different Naval Commands are participating individually.
Capt. Tribhuvan Jaiswal and Commander A. Patnakar, who have past experience of representing India in international sailing meets, are the head of the Race Committee and judge respectively of the meet. Incidentally, it is mandatory for all the Naval officers to undergo training in sailing and they do it on Enterprise Class boats, which is the first step to start sailing.
“Some of them are taking it seriously and participating in the competitions while yachting is also picking up among sailors,” observed Capt. Jaiswal.
