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| Edited By: Ornella D'Souza |Source: DNA |Updated: May 20, 2018, 10:46 AM IST
Sailing – the fine art of getting wet and becoming ill, while going nowhere slowly at great expense (equivalent to standing in a cold shower, fully clothed, throwing up, and tearing up $100 bills, while a bunch of other people watch you) is a standing joke among the yachting community worldwide. Yet, these ocean addicts continue to race, cruise or do both, stylishly. In fact, over unlimited Norwegian salmon, Swiss Movenpick ice-cream, Hennessy cognac cocktails, Glenmorangie single malt Scotch whisky and much merriment at Mumbai’s colonial haunt for sailors’ – Royal Bombay Yacht Club, Colaba – the winners of the racing season of the annual Bombay Merchants Cup (BMC) were declared last Sunday. The luxurious Gurkha Cigars ($5000 per cigar), in association with IIFL and Rustomjee, sponsored the trophies. It marked the end of the fourth season where every Saturday from October to May, 15-20 yachts belonging to Mumbai’s top industrialists including Jamyshd Godrej, Arjuna awardees and even the Navy, engaged in a mad race to the Bombay Harbour and back. Here’s profiling a few swanky yachtsmen and their mean machines:
Frank Hancock, a founding member of the Bombay Merchants Cup (BMC), shares a lineage with a better-known BMC – the Brihamumbai Municipal Corporation; his great grandfather, Colonel HF Hancock, was the Corporation president 1877-78, and lent his name to the now demolished 136-year-old blackstone bridge at Sandhurst Road. The 57-year-old Brit investment banker, has been working in India for over 20 years, and sailing for 30. In 2011, he bought Cunning Plan, a Jeanneau 34, from Langkawi, Malaysia for about a crore with sailing partner and Mumbai businessman Sajid Malik. The pair had it sailed across a 3,000-mile, three-week journey via the Andamans, Sri Lanka and Kochi to finally reach Mumbai.
Hancock borrowed the name ‘Cunning Plan’ from Black Adder – an iconic ’80s UK TV fictional series he grew up with, where a dimwitted servant, Baldrick would announce “Sire, I’ve got a cunning plan,” right before doing something stupid.
CP was originally a long distance cruiser till businessman Bharat Kewalramani introduced Hancock to big-boat racing. His friend, Arjuna Awardee Captain Homi Motiwala (IN Red), who runs a boat business, then reconfigured CP for racing; two extra winches to manipulate the sails more quickly and a prow mechanism to carry more sophisticated sails, like a spinnaker, were added.
In 2014, Kewalramani formed the BMC with Motiwala, Hancock and their sailor friends Adil Zainulbhai, Frank Koenig, Arvind Rao, Nandan Chandravarar, and Ravi Mariwala to foster a racing culture among big boats. From three to four yachts, the number has grown to 15-20 racing every weekend, which in a city of 20 million, Hancock feels is nothing compared to Dublin in Ireland, that with a population of just over 1m supports an ecosystem of 400-500 big boats sailors.
The Englishman confesses to being a “mid-level” sailor, perhaps hinting at why CP came last this season in the big-boats category, despite winning the event last year.
Apart from dolphin sightings, good winds, an opportunity to detox from the everyday gruel and even cruise twice a year to nearby ports, it’s the camaraderie of BMC – “all friends and good sailors” – that he enjoys the most. For those keen to attempt this ‘rich man’s sport’, Hancock suggests forming a syndicate where the parties can split costs, about Rs 40,000 a month. “All are welcome to join the BMC, which is keen to be inclusive and grow the ecosystem of big boat sailors,” says Hancock.
Among the slick fleet, Nandan Chandavarkar’s Skadoosh with its big, black Angry Bird sail and a crew sporting quirky African print dashikis (kurtas) cut an endearing image. “We take our fun very, very seriously,” says the Joint Managing Director of FDC Limited.Chandavarkar’s 41ft quirky Skadoosh, is a J122E sailing vessel by French manufacturer J/Boats. He purchased this Ocean A-certified model for Rs 3.5 crore in 2015. The performance cruiser is equipped with two cabins, a toilet and galley (kitchenette).
He began windsurfing 20 years ago to quench his love for the high seas. “But windsurfing was just you, your board and your sail. I prefer keel boat sailing because you train and sail with eight to 10 friends in your own 40x8ft space. I may helm, but it’s more about how in sync I am with my team.”
Chandavarkar and his crew, all of whom had only sailed on club dinghes and sea birds within the harbour, learned to sail Skadoosh over much practice – including, a nonstop 36-hour Mumbai to Goa sail. Despite Chandavarkar nursing a broken toe and another mate, a dislocated shoulder, they raced and won Skadoosh second place. “Well, it was the last race of the season,” he trails off, matter-of-factly.
Most of the Rs 20,000 monthly costs includes salaries of the deckhands as Chandavarkar does most of the maintainence of the yacht on his own. For updates on the world sailing community, he actively follows leading US Sailmaker North Sails’ social media and J/Boats’ monthly newsletter.
Sailing, for him, is a complete disconnect from the rest of the world. “Once you leave the jetty, even if it’s for a couple of hours, you leave behind your daily life and conflicts... It helps keep your sanity.”
Mongia, 49, certainly throws overboard the caution that one cannot stand on boats as he’s much in love with his two yachts Blood Vessel (BV) and co-owned Premier Cru (PC); though maintaining both costs him close to Rs 40,000 each, every month. Aasim, who grew up watching his father (retd) Commodore Surinder Mongia, sailing for his country and then man a yacht of his own – Wahe Guru, and grew so addicted to the sport that he ended up being an Arjuna awardee like his father.
BV, which is the oldest yacht on Bombay Harbour at 30 years, is a Danish X Yacht 372 second-hand 1988 cruiser-racer. It’s massive sail area, powerful rig and the only yacht here with runners for mast support, makes it a ‘high performance sailor’, according to Mongia. The 37-foot sail yacht boasts of two cabins each of which accommodates six, a galley, toilet and a chart table, and is touted to go water-coast cruising upto the Maldives.
When Aasim bought ‘Blood Vessel’ from a doctor, at Rs 30 lakhs, it had the red heart on its white spinnaker, the name and the design, he continues to retain for they remind him of surviving a blood disorder in the early ’90s and a relapse in 2000 that led to his resignation as a naval lieutenant. He then ventured into business and founded the successful West Coast Marine Yacht Services India in 1994 – now a one-stop shop for yachting.
Premier Cru, on the other hand, that he purchased at Rs 40 lakhs, is akin “to driving a sports car and ideal for racing because it’s fast,” says Aasim. Built by Chinese company Far East, this 28-ft boat won the Design Class of the Year award in 2017. She’s the smallest big-boat, but one of the fastest; having won seasons 2, 3 and 4, with Mongia’s loyal crew of 10 years. BV holds a special place for Mongia as on it he stumbled upon the Ambavani bay, 100 miles south of Bombay outside Raigad, which is not even on the map! For the race, Mongia helmed PC while BV was handled by his friend Shahid Basheer, a marine surveyor, National champion of the Keyboard class and representative at the Asian Sailing Regatta.
“Sailing develops your focus, inculcates discipline, makes you take split second decisions, lead a team... all entrepreneurial skills. Also that unexplainable feeling of disappearing for a couple of hours...” is how Aasim sums up his passion for the sport.
