Monsoon Regatta from tomorrow

The stage is set for the fourth edition of the annual Monsoon Regatta, which will be held at the Yacht Club of Hyderabad, with the match racing championship set to take centrestage. At the Regatta — to be held from July 3 to 8 — will also see young sailors vie for the national optimist class championship. Also back this year is the family championship, where a crew of five, including a mandatory female crew-member and a crew-member under the age of 15 will take to the waters and clash for top honours.

Top seed Ayaz Sheikh, of Mumbai’s Army Yachting Node (AYN), who was pipped to the title last year by Nitin Mongia, is back with his crew fresh off winning the national match racing championship and is keen to exact revenge.

“Last year the weather was very unpredictable and we did well in heavy winds but couldn’t really pick up during light wind conditions. But I know where we went wrong and we’ll be looking to bag the title this year,” Sheikh said.

Also in the fray is Atool Sinha, seeded second. Sinha (Indian Navy), who had finished second best to Sheikh at the national championship, will rearing to have a go at the championship here.

In all, there are 10 entries for the match racing event, including Ayesha Lobo, one of the two women skippers last year, is back too, with an all-woman crew.

This year the match racing championship will take place on the omega class of boats, which are much smaller compared to the J24 class, which were used last year. The omega class will also be in action during the family championship from July 6, which is also when the optimist fleet will be launched for their event.