“I understood the wind better and everything became more coherent,” said Tayte Stefaniuk, shortly after he won two back-to-back races in the Laser Radial fleet of the India International Regatta off Krishnapatnam Port on Saturday.
“My parents wanted me to be more outgoing and make friends and introduced me to sailing,” recalled Tayte, who hails from Banff in the snow-bound mountains of Alberta, Canada. The family moved to Bermuda where Tayte learnt the ropes and then to Dubai, where he’s in the 11th grade of James Wellington International School.
His coach Thomas Chaix felt his ward’s win in the opening race on Thursday was a bolt from the blue for the senior most section of the championship. “It was quite frustrating for Tayte to recover ground from say eighth place,” said the mentor who also trains the Ireland team.
Interestingly, Tayte stepped into a Radial only recently. A Canada Youth (under 19 years) champion, he also participated in three Optimist world championships.
Light winds favoured their own kind on the penultimate day, the slightly built sailors landing the spoils as the mild breeze hovered around five and peaked at eight knots.
The opening race was delayed by an hour due to poor and shifting winds. Only the Optimist sailors took the two-beat inner loop against the rest of the fleet who competed in the outer loop.
The results:
Laser Radial: Race VII: 1. Ramya Saravanan, 2. Vishnu Saravanan, 3. Govind Bairagi (all India). VIII: 1. Tayte Stepaniuk (Canada), 2. S. Jayalakshmi (India), 3. Ramya S. IX: 1. Tayte, 2. Govind, 3. Vishnu.
Laser 4.7: VII: 1. Harshita Tomar (India), 2. Samsuardi (Indonesia), 3. Saif Al Mansoori (UAE). VIII: 1. Harshita, 2. Chitresh Thata, 3. K. Gowtham (all India). IX: 1. Chitresh, 2. Musti Saibaba, 3. Naveen Kumanan (all India).
Optimist: VII: 1. Ramadin Tito (Indonesia), 2. Chunnu Kumar (India), 3. Othman Al Hammadi (UAE). VIII: 1. Ramadin, 2. Muhammad Faizuddin (Malaysia), 3. Mohammed Al Mansoori (UAE). IX: 1. Alexander Baudin (Swe), 2. Ramadin, 3. M. Faizuddin.
420: VII: 1. Ananya Chouhan & Vishnu Sujeeesh, 2. Bharat S & Abhishek Pandey, 3. Punit Kumar Sahoo & Amit Sahoo.
VIII: 1. Ananya C & Vishnu, 2. Bharat S & Abhishek, 3. Punit S & Amit. IX: 1. Ananya & Vishnu, 2. Punit & Amit, 3. Bharat & Abhishek.
