Team Aeronero
As we move to choppier seas under a raincloud-rimmed Chennai sky, the sailboat’s movements undergo a shift. It was bobbing lightly on the waters by Royal Madras Yatch Club: now, the bobs turn to leaps, as each wave lifts us higher and then lets us go in almost sheer drops.
“We want to ride the waves, not hit them headlong,” says Chinna Reddy, captain of the team, even as his boat tilts to a 45-degree angle and his team rushes from one edge of the little vessel to another, for balance. Chinna should know, he’s a professional sailor. In fact, his Skipper Abhimanyu Panwar and he, have won the National sailing championships about seven times between them. Abhimanyu alone has been national champion five times in a row. This is reassuring, since it’s their team that will be competing in the professional category, against 180 teams from around the world.
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The other members of the team are Janeshwara Raja and Durga Das, while Ashwin Kumar and Satish Rajasekharan will be on backup. It’s the formers’ job to man sails — mainsail , headsail (jib) and a 700-square-foot gennaker — rigging them and taking them down at captain’s orders, while also maintaining balance of the boat, which may be tilted at an angle of up to 135 degrees during the race, leaving the ocean clearly visible beneath their feet. The captain and skipper, meanwhile, are in charge of steering and charting course: calculating wind direction, wind speed, current and a number of other factors simultaneously. “As wind speed rises, so should our coordination.”
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Those who are new to sailing, while on a sailboat are likely to unceremoniously cling to the sides of the boat; literally hold on to dear life. As we sail out to the ocean, the waves start lapping up against the boat and a few minutes later, they make themselves felt. “I am tacking in 3..2..1..” commands Rohini Rau, part of the all-women’s J/80 crew, who is currently onboard one of the four J/80 boats that the Royal Madras Yacht Club proudly owns. The international athlete, who has participated in eight world championships, heaves the rudder to change the direction of the boat. Metallic creaks follow, as the boom (a pole that runs along the sail) whizzes past my head. We jump over the rudder to reach the other end. Curt directions are exchanged as each one of them take to their roles. One of them is aggressively yanking out the bright red gennaker, which blows up almost immediately.
While Rohini is at the helm, Aishwarya Nenduchezhian (Asian Games bronze medallist), Alekhya Sudam (national and international medals), 15-year-olds Tejashree (an upcoming sailor) and Tulsi Movva (who has won medals in the Optimist and Laser 4.7 class), and Yashna Vummidi (a National-level swimmer) are constantly moving— it is to either hoist the jib, or to direct the captain.
“When the wind is behind you, you can go straight,” they say. The team will be competing against six other all women’s teams and has been researching about the weather conditions and temperature in Bilibao, which could affect the sailing. “We have also been speaking to a local sailor, to get a sense of the conditions there,” says Rohini.
Royal Madras Team
An eight-year-old sailor, Tanusa Nadar, the youngest of the crew, is waltzing over the ropes and past the boom, in their J/80.
The others don’t seem to be distracted by it, though. The boat too, remains in position. Which is precisely why she is on board. “With her weight, she wouldn’t be able to throw the boat off balance even if she prances about,” says Pallavi Shanbagh, one of the crew members of the team that represents India and the Royal Madras Yacht Club.
This mixed team (with equal number of men and women) has members between ages eight and 56. A mixed team is expected to have an equal number of men and women. Apart from Pallavi, her father Vivek Shanbagh (ranked 5th at J/80 Asian Championship, China in 2018), Murgan Nadar (Optimist Nationals gold medalist including many), Vishnu Sujeesh (gold medalist in 420 class National championship), Ananya Chouhan (Gold medal and winners trophy - 420 class, India international regatta 2017) , and Tanusa are in the team.
“To find a crew that comes below the weight requirement of 350 kilograms was the challenging part,” she says, adding, “We have been acquainting ourselves with all the roles so that we can cover for each other at all times during the course of the race (usually between 45 minutes and an hour).”
Team EMESA
The team from the Hyderabad-based EME Sailing Association (EMESA) has been practising at Chennai’s Royal Madras Racing Club for months now. When asked why, the captain, Lieutenant Colonel Alok Yadav echoes what every sailor says about these seas: “The water in Spain will be colder, but all other conditions — including wave height and tides, are exactly the same as it is in Chennai.”
The team includes Yadav, Sachin Singha, Ashish Patel and Ram Mohan. “All of us have at least a decade of experience in sailing each,” says Yadav, adding that the team was last year’s national champion in the J/80 category.
The team’s year-long preparations, however, have been on other categories and sizes of keelboats, not just J/80s. “Most equipment on keelboats are the same. So practice, which mainly involves improving coordinating time while rigging sails like the spinnaker (an asymmetric gennaker), can be done on any of them,” he explains.
What are keelboats, you ask? Their defining element is a keel — a long stretch of steel rod that runs along the centre of the boat, jutting out. A J/80 weighs about a tonne, out of which the keel alone weighs 750 kilograms. It is central to the vessel’s balance.