Sailors all set for battles on water

As many as 10 skippers are expected to vie with each other for the fourth annual Monsoon Regatta match racing championship, which is set to begin at the Yacht Club of Hyderabad here on Thursday.

Nitin Mongia is back to defend his title with a newlook crew while the top seed, national match racing champion Ayaz Sheikh of the Army Yachting Node, will look to go one better this time.

Last year, Ayaz Sheikh, unbeaten through the round robin stage, had led for most of the final, but lost steam towards the end while Nitin Mongia surged ahead to lay claims on the title.

There is one major difference in the match racing championship this year. No longer will the skipper try to manoeuvre the cumbersome, slow-to-respond J24 class of boats in the event. Instead, the crews will be manning the ultra-light, incredibly fast Omega boats, which had made their debut here last year for the family championship.

This can only mean each match race, held between two boats at a time, would be faster and exciting.

However, Sheikh sees it differently. “While the race will be exciting for the two crews, it may be too fast for the umpires, who may not be able to follow all the action as they might otherwise with the J24’s,” he said.

Atool Sinha of the Indian Navy, who finished second best to Sheikh at the recent national championship, is seeded second this time around.

Mumbai’s Ayesha Lobo, who was one of the two women skippers in the last edition, will also be seen in action this time, albeit with an all women crew.