The Yakobu-R. Kumar pair made optimum use of the light wind conditions to hog the limelight on the second and penultimate day of the RMYC-Vestas 420 and 470 National sailing championships at the Chennai Harbour on Saturday.
The Artillery Watersports Association duo from Hyderabad outraced the experienced sailors Sandeep Jain-S.R. Rout in the 420 class, finishing second in Race 1 and first in the remaining three races. At the end of eight races, Sandeep-Rout pair is still ahead but only by a slender margin of one penalty point.
While Yakobu had it easy in most of the races winning by at least 50-60 boat lengths, he found the going difficult in the first race. Trailing Lad-Maiti from the start, Yakobu raced past Lad in the second beat, to finish second behind Sandeep-Rout.
“I was in third position in the second behind Lad-Maiti and Sandeep-Rout but towards the round mark in the downward mark, I piped Lad to the finish,” said the 35-year-old Yakobu.
Tactical blunders
Sandeep said he made a quite a few tactical blunders that proved costly. Winning comfortably in the first race, Sandeep came seventh in the second and third in Race 3 and 4.
Sandeep took a wrong turn in Race 2 towards the left when the wind was blowing from the right. Further, he had tuned his boat to suit heavy wind conditions when the winds were, indeed, light.
“I need to check my whole set-up. I need to figure out where I went wrong. Sunday will be very crucial,” said Sandeep.
Young sailors from the National Sailing School (Bhopal) Aman Vyas-Sachin Singha did exceptionally well on Saturday emerging fourth in Race 1, second in Race 2, fourth in Race 3 and second in Race 4.
In the 470 class, the AYN pair of P. Muthu and R. Narender continue to be in the lead with 17 penalty points. Ayuz Shaikh-Ashok Kumar duo is behind with 20 points.
The results (after eight races): 420 class: 1. Sandeep Jain-S.R. Rout (AYN), 2. Yakobu-R. Kumar (AWSA), 3. Yaduraj Lad-B.K. Maiti (AWSA); 470: 1. P. Muthu-R. Narender (AYN), 2. Ayuz Shaikh-Ashok Kumar (AYN), 3. J. Manu-PC.C. Jitender (AYN).
