International Sailing Competition- India International Regatta

The Minister of Shipping Shri G. K. Vasan has said that sailing is an ultimate learning experience and it teaches to control one selves by learning to control the boat based on the flow of the wind, the tide, currents, etc,. He was speaking after inaugurating the fifth edition of the INDIA INTERNATIONAL REGATTA competition in Chennai today. He said that sailing teaches the challenges of taking on winds that blow against you and also taking advantage of winds that blow with you and would make a person hold in good stead in whatever the career he or she may choose.

The minister lauded the Tamil Nadu Sailing Association for taking forward this annual sailing event. He said that it is a matter of pride for the Association that recently its young sailors had accomplished creditable performances by winning Gold in the team sailing championships in the ‘Sail the Gulf’ event at Doha, Qatar in February, this year, besides winning a few other individual medals. He hoped that all this would lead to many of the young participants to take up a career in the Indian navy or the merchant navy.

India International Regatta (IIR), is the only International sailing event held in India every year. The first edition was launched in 2009 and a total of 77 sailors from 5 countries including India, participated in the two classes of competition. The two classes of boats are: “Optimist”, the starter single-handed boat for sailors from the age of 7 to 15 and “29er” a double-handed skiff for sailors up to the age of 19. These two classes of boats are sailed by youth enthusiastically all over the world. The ‘Optimist’ is the most popular international class for the junior sailors while the Australian designed ‘29er’ is a stepping stone for the Olympic classes ‘49er’, ‘49FX’ and ‘470’.

In its fifth edition of the INDIA INTERNATIONAL REGATTA this year more than a hundred participants from nine countries including India are taking part in three classes of competition with addition of competition in the “Laser 4.7” class.

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