On the Asian seascap

It’s a sport where reading and riding wind and wave counts, where young mariners in small sailing boats may find themselves buffeted one moment, becalmed the next. "The competition in Chinese Taipei was extremely tough. In the beginning it was very windy as a typhoon had passed the day we arrived and we felt its after effects. Towards the end (of the 10-day competition), the wind died down. There was also a very strong tide,” says 14-year-old Xerxes Bamboat about his and 15-year-old Viraf Heerjee’s participation at the IODA Asian Optimist Championship 2006 from July 27-August 5.

"One day when we went on water the wind was light. But then it started blustering to about 45 knots, so the race was abandoned. Conditions were unpredictable and the level of competition pretty high,” describes Heerjee, adding that the waters were very clean, the people helpful and friendly, the Championship very well organized. With several individual and team events, Bamboat placed 31st from amongst 64 competitors from 13 Asian countries plus New Zealand, while Heerjee stood 46th. Bamboat’s small frame works to his advantage in this class of boat. The Optimist class is the nursery of mariners, sailed by both boys and girls between the ages of eight to 15 in 110 countries around the world. Three feet in width, 7.7 ft in length, the boat weighs around 32 kg, making maneuvering it a test of balance, tactics, determination and fitness for a budding Farokh Tarapore or Homi Motivala [India’s international yachting champions, with Motivala currently the head coach of the national (adult) team].

In May this year, Bamboat had breezed through to the trophy at the ABN-AMRO National Optimist Coastal Championship 2006, which was also the selection trial for the IODA Asian Championship. It was Bamboat’s first national title. Heerjee ranked fourth out of 44 participants from all over India. As part of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club team, Bamboat and Heerjee also won the team championship for the third year in a row. "Xerxes’ maiden national crown is a culmination of many hours of hard work for Sheri Bamboat (Xerxes’ father) whose initial hobby of dabbling with sails and masts extended to personalizing them for his son when he actively took to the Optimist dinghies six years ago,” reported The Indian Express, May 7, 2006, adding that as a child Xerxes had once toppled out of his father’s yacht during a Bombay-Mandwa race and that had almost scared him off the sport! Viraf’s father Cyrus too is a passionate sailor and promoter of the sport and both Sheri and Cyrus have worked long and hard over many years to coach young Optimists (see "The young men and the sea,” Parsiana, March 2002).

Cyrus is currently chairman of the sailing development committee, with a mandate (honorary) from the Yachting Association of India to work towards broadbasing the sport. "We need to create the numbers. There should be 100 kids sailing and competing with each other. Only then can standards be raised,” Cyrus asserts. "Even the talented ones need to be ‘pushed’ in competition by several young sailors vying for top positions, otherwise they tend to stagnate.” As part of the program, the committee is looking to appoint ambassadors in several places (like Goa, for example), with meetings, presentations, etc to school students.

While earlier it was the South Americans who were world beaters, now it’s the turn of the Singaporeans, Malaysians, Chinese to win at world, not just Asian, level, Cyrus explains. "They train in an organized and totally dedicated manner. Everything boils down to money and time. Because the kids there finish school at a later age and are less burdened with books, they can practise morning and evening. They employ the best, international professional coaches at $ 300 a day and keep them there for weeks or even months. We cannot afford to engage them even for a day!” he rues.

In March this year, both boys had taken part in the Asian Sailing Championship at Doha, Qatar, where Xerxes ranked a creditable seventh and Viraf stood 18th. Last year’s IODA Asian Championship had seen them sail in picturesque Pattaya in Thailand. At that time, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet had given the boys Rs 25,000 each for the purchase of new sails, etc, the fathers inform us, expressing their appreciation for the encouragement. On the near horizon are the Asian Games to be held in Doha this December. "I need to work towards getting better starts,” assesses Xerxes. "Sailing is like a game of chess,” believes Sheri. "There are a lot of variables — the outward ones like wind, wave, tide, and the inner ones like thinking about tactics of attack or defense, steadying the nerves to avoid costly errors, the desire and the determination to push yourself to the utmost limit.” Sailing in different parts of the world is a different boat game altogether!