THE WIND IN OUR SAILS

Dripping wet, her suit frayed at the edges, Harshita Tomar steps on to dry land to make history. She’s 16, wiry, and hails from small-town Hoshangabad in land-locked Madhya Pradesh, an unlikely bet for a sailboat race. But she’s just navigated her Laser 4.7 craft past 13 competitors along the Pondicherry coast, to victory.

The event, Sailing the East Coast, is no less historic. It’s the first regatta (a series of sailboat races) in a town that didn’t even have a sailing club six years ago. Over Republic Day weekend, however, 50 sailors from India, France, Sweden and the US wrested with local tides and winds to popularise the sport in a country with two coasts but practically no sailing culture.

“We hope the regatta gets the world and locals to see Pondicherry as the ideal sailing destination that it is,” says SV Balachander, treasurer of the Pondicherry Sailing Association.

India has had posh yacht clubs for almost two centuries - the Royal Bombay Yacht Club is 172 years old – but now fresh winds are blowing in. Sailing clubs, schools and associations are being set up to rid the sport of its image as a pastime for rich brats and old men. It’s being redefined as an activity for kids and the middle-class.

In Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, efforts are on to create a marina for yachts, sailboats and cruise boats in the Krishna River. Sailing camps have been held in the state’s coastal town of Visakhapatnam. Along the west coast, the local yacht club in Navi Mumbai hopes to offer sailing lessons, while 15-odd companies offer classes off the Gateway of India in Mumbai.

In the lakes of landlocked Bhopal and Hyderabad, the activity determinedly targets another demographic — promising kids from underprivileged backgrounds, get education, nutrition and training to sail competitively, with exciting results. “Ten years ago, no one outside of the old clubs had access to sailboats,” says Shakeel Kudrolli, a lawyer and sailor who set up Aquasail with his marketer wife Zia Hajeebhoy in 2007. “Today we have 80 boats across Mumbai, Raigad and Goa and have given 40,000 people sailing experiences.”

WATER WORKS

Sailing is tricky. The boats are powered entirely by wind. Every breeze or passing puff of air must be harnessed. Two boats, side by side, may experience different conditions, adjusting their sail’s height and direction accordingly, so regattas are especially unpredictable.

“We have probably the best conditions in the world: warm weather and water – imagine sailing in Europe in 6-degree cold – a long coastline and predictable wind conditions,” says Kudrolli.

But, as more of India is realising, where you train matters. Our west coast is calm, safe and well inhabited. The east is the wilder sister – a deeper continental shelf, complex tides, bigger waves, strong currents and cyclones. Sailors love it, as do surfers, kite surfers and windsurfers. Here navigating your craft is more complicated.

Tomar, who trains at the National Sailing School in Bhopal’s still Upper Lake, reached Pondicherry a week in advance to make the most of the on-sea experience. “I’m trying out for the Asian Games in August. This is great practice.”

WIND CHIMES

India has hosted regattas since at least 1830. But access to waterfronts was reduced after Independence, clubs