A voyage to promote sailing as a sport

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The local sailing community is excited at the prospect of a couple of civilian sailors travelling to Chennai from Kochi in training ship INS Sudarshini.

The ship, built at the Goa shipyard and commissioned early this year will embark on a voyage as Indian ambassador to Southeast Asia covering eight countries and 18 foreign ports to commemorate 20 years of India’s Look East policy initiative.

“The move will bring publicity to civilian sailors and the general public. The Armed Forces have been dominating the sport at the adult level.

If the emerging sailors are given an opportunity to sail in INS Sudarshini it would be a great opportunity to showcase the sport and generate interest among the public,” Commodore Ashok Thakkar of Tamil Nadu Sailing Association told this newspaper.

He added that about four Indian sailors, including sailing enthusiast actor Revathi, travelled from Singapore to Chennai in SS Gotheborg, a similar sailing ship in 2007.

“When the young sailors are put on board INS Sudarshini, they will get invaluable lessons on sailing apart from a lifetime experience in being part of a naval ship,” he added.

The INS Sudarshini belongs to the class of INS Tarangini that circumnavigated the globe to ‘build bridges of friendship across oceans’ in 2004.

The new ship is capable of operations under sail or power and can remain at sea for at least 20 days at a time. Five officers, 31 sailors and 30 cadets can embark and travel for training at a time.

Built for worldwide operations and to act as a basic seamanship and character-building platform, the ship will start from Kochi port on September 15 and reach Chennai around Sept.

25, 26 and 27. “We will host the ship in Chennai and organise cultural shows and sports fixtures for the sailors,” said National Maritime Foundation’s regional director Commodore S. Shekhar.