If Tuesday was a tough day for the young participants of the ongoing ABN AMRO National Optimist Coastal Championship, Wednesday was even tougher.
Unless something goes wrong drastically, the RBYC boy has the title in his grasp.
MUMBAI: When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
If Tuesday was a tough day for the young participants of the ongoing ABN AMRO National Optimist Coastal Championship, Wednesday was even tougher. The wind was in a real foul mood — the gusts going up to 22-23 knots at times — making the job that much difficult for the little sailors in their tiny boats.
But it couldn’t deter the resolve of Xerxes Bamboat of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club (RBYC), who extended his overall dominance by winning the sixth race and coming second in the other two races of the day. Unless something goes wrong drastically, Bamboat now looks almost certain to run away with the title.
Race 5 began with Alok Dhangare of Sea Cadet Corps making good use of the ebb tide to race ahead by the first windward rounding, followed by Arisudan Sheth, Krish Makhija and Bamboat, all from RBYC.
But by the second windward rounding, Bamboat was back in familiar territory, close behind the leader.
But Alok proved a tough nut to crack, hanging on gamely till the finish. Bamboat came in next, followed by Aniket Pednekar and Kuldeep Singh of Sea Cadet Corps (SSC). The duo, who were fifth and sixth respectively at the second windward rounding, recovered well to take the third and fourth spots.
Alok was again to the fore in the next race. But Sheldon D’Mello of Goa Yachting Association (GYA) came out of nowhere to cross the windward mark first. By then Bamboat, who had been trailing way behind, had managed to close in on the leader.
The RBYC boy overtook Sheldon on the run, who was later swamped by a wave at the second windward rounding and was out of the reckoning, followed by Krish, Gaurav Pikale of Colaba Sailing Club, Dilip Nalla of INWTC and Tricia Silveira of GYA. The top three managed to hold on to their positions till the finish. Bamboat and Krish raced off to a fine start in Race 7, the last race of the day. The winds were virtually howling now.
But like a seasoned sailor, Bamboat kept going steady, while Krish misjudged the direction of the tide and veered off to the left to lose out. Bamboat was followed by Pratik Angre (SCC), Dilip Nalla (INWTC) and Aman Singh (CESC) at the first windward rounding.
By the second rounding, Ayesha Lobo of Colaba Sailing Club, who was fifth at the first beat, managed to take advantage of a windshift to come within striking distance of Bamboat and Pratik, who were involved in a tacking duel and came flying in on the starboard layline to round ahead of them and slowly started pulling away. Bamboat, however, didn’t give up. On the approach to the finish he engaged Ayesha in a tacking duel and almost succeeded in pulling off a spectacular reversal.
However, Ayesha held on to her nerves to finish first by a hair’s breadth. They were followed by Pratik Angre (SCC) in third place, Dilip Nalla (INWTC) and Siddhesh Surve (SCC) in that order.
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