Hyderabad|India|June'2010: Twin City’s first
Open Sailing Club – ‘The
Yacht Club of Hyderabad’ was launched in city,
off the Boat’s Jetty at Sanjivaiah Park, Hussain Sagar. The Club was
formally inaugurated by Sri B P Acharya, IAS, Metropolitan
Commissioner, HMDA in the presence of Mr Suresh Babu,
Chairman 10K Run foundation;
Mr Vidya Sagar Rao,
President & Mr
Suheim Sheikh,
Commodore,The Yacht Club
of Hyderabad.. The Club affiliated to the
Yachting Association of India - officially
recognized as the governing authority for sailing in India by the
Indian Olympic Association
and the Government of India, is fully supported by HMDA
and is partnered by the HYDERABAD 10K RUN FOUNDATION.
The Yacht Club of Hyderabad
affiliated to many National Class associations
including the Enterprise, 470 Class, Match Racing
Association of India, Hobie Class Association and
the Optimist Association of India is primarily a
sophisticated sports organization focused on
Sailing and allied adventure water sports like
Rowing and Kayaking. Unlike other
sailing clubs, it will be open to all,
therefore anyone can learn to sail and enjoy the
sport from this club. The major activity of the
club will be to run an academy that will conduct
beginner and advanced courses on sailing and
competitive racing with
world class quality course content
including Audio and Video course material to make
the entire experience delightful and invigorating.
Speaking on the occasion Sri B P
Acharya said Yacht club and sailors herald good days for
Hussain sagar lake as by July pollution of the lake will be
stopped, the
Kukatpally nala which besides bringing sewerage also
brings industrial waste, is being blocked. Hopefully in the next
few months the lake should start rejuvenating. He also declared
that the Yacht Club jetty at Sanjivaiah Park will be named after
the veteran Sailor, Arjun Awardee who brought laurels to the
city and the country – Mr C. S. Pradipak as Pradipak
Jetty.
Mr Suresh Babu
said Hyderabad 10K Run foundation is proud of being part of this
wonderful facility and promised complete support from the
Foundation in making this the finest
sailing club.
Mr
Vidya Sagar Rao said the
membership to the existing sailing clubs is limited to services
personnel and the long desire of citizens of Hyderabad to have a
sailing club where common citizens can join is being fulfilled
with the launch of The Yacht Club of Hyderabad. Our objective is
also to make
Hussain sagar a premier sailing destination of the
country. We want to more sailing clubs being launched in others
lakes of the city.
Mr
Suheim Sheikh
said, The Yacht Club of Hyderabad serves to fill in this gap
providing all of you access to water and a soon to
be world class
facility that will promote both recreational and
competitive sailing without discrimination. He added that the
club is providing free training to kids from Government schools
in sailing.
PARTNERED BY HYDERABAD 10K RUN FOUNDATION
With a clear focus on sports and environment
the Hyderabad 10K run finds the Yacht Club of Hyderabad a
perfect partner. Having jointly done many Save the Lake
Campaigns, Chairman Mr.Suresh Babu, and his team have proudly
joined hands to celebrate the occasion of World environment Day
and the Inauguration of the Yacht Club.
THE FLEET
The Optimist Class of Boats for under 15
The Yacht Club will focus to a large extent
on the Optimist Class of boats. The Optimist Class is a
one-design boat sailed across the world by children below the
age of fifteen.
The Optimist is a single crew boat designed
to safely carry one sailor and is stable under varying weather
conditions and a delight for children to learn and move up the
competitive ladder right upto the
Asian Games
and World Championships. 85% of all medalists in sailing at the
2010 Beijing Olympics learnt sailing in the Optimist.
29ers - A High Performance Skiff For
Ordinary Mortals
The 29er is a true high performance
skiff. A two man, single trapeze, asymmetric spinnaker boat the
29er is built on five continents, to exceedingly strict
one design standards, and under strict control of the
International
Sailing Federation (ISAF). This assures that the boats
provide sailing ability as the performance criterion. The boats
are rugged, well equipped and fully competitive straight out of
the box. Failures are rare, sails are durable, and the expense
of running the boat is modest. There is no one design boat
currently available which can touch this kind of dynamic
performance. For more information on the 29er
visit
www.29er.org
The Enterprise Class
The Yacht Club also has two racing class
Enterprise boats meant for older and heavier sailors. The
Enterprise class is amongst the oldest class in India and widely
sailed by the Navy. India has produced the most number of World
champions in this class including Capt. Homi Motivala and
Commander Farokh Tarapore.
Recreational Boats
The Yacht club
of Hyderabad will also provide facilities for recreational
sailing giving all ages the pleasure of enjoying the sport
right from 8 years upwards to 80. You can learn to sail at any
age and continue till yoare very old. The Yacht Club will soon
be buying two recreational family racers that will help
entire families enjoy the sport and safely spend time on the
water in almost any wind and water condition.
TRAINING
The Yacht Club in the near future will start
Corporate Leadership and Team Building programs apart from its
general coaching. One of the areas of focus will also be to
build a strong sense of seamanship and character amongst its
members.
The Yacht Club will endeavor to encourage and
motivate talent from the twin cities and foster a spirit of
sportsmanship amongst them and of course motivate them and
provide the facilities to train them to international standards
and levels.
It is a lesser known fact that India has 3
World champions in Yachting and two Silver medalists with of
course many medals at the Asian Games.
HUSSAIN SAGAR, ENVIRONMENT & SAILING
Shri B.P. Acharya (IAS)
is the common factor in all three of the above. Under his tenure
and initiative, one can see great strides
being taken to restore Hussain Sagar to
being an environmentally clean and green lake restored to its
pristine glory of yesteryear when people could safely swim in
its waters and fish thrived.
His establishment is rapidly bringing to
completion an intercept and divert channel at Begumpet and is
setting up two additional Sewage Treatment Plants that will
reduce the toxic inflows to a trickle.
It is under his tenure the lake and its
surroundings under HMDA have been declared as plastic free
and he is driving to completion the common consciousness of the
citizens to revive the bio diversity of the lake using all means
at his disposal.
With the right amount of political will and
affirmative action the Hussain Sagar will finally return to its
pristine quality and allow us to freely partake in it. Hyderabad
is amongst few cities in the world to be blessed with a lake in
the middle of the city and it is the duty of all citizens to
join hands to improve its quality of water and environment.
The credit of choosing to inaugurate the
Yacht Club on World Environment Day goes to Shri B.P. Acharya
IAS and a lot was possible due to his intrinsic interest in
Sports and Sailing in particular. It is his vision to see the
creation of a
world class sailing facility at Hyderabad comparable
to nothing less than the best.
Given this encouragement the sport of Sailing
is bound to prosper and grow under his administration. He would
like to see many World Class Championships and top sailors
participating in races on these waters which he promises will in
the near future be clean and green given the various initiatives
of the State government and administration under his
jurisdiction. Thanks to his initiative, The Yacht Club has the
first Solar lit Jetty in India. It provides adequate lighting
through the night using solar energy during the day to charge
batteries, thus contributing its mite to fight climate change.
HUSSAIN SAGAR & INDIAN CHAMPIONS &
LUMINARIES
Amongst the well known sailors and luminaries
that Hussain Sagar has produced are CS Pradipak ,
(Hyderabad’s only Arjuna Award winner for Sailing),
Sanjiv
Sidhu (founder and CEO of I2 Technologoes), Aditya Mohan
Rao, Shantanu Narayan (Currently Global CEO of Adobe systems),
Arjun Pradipak, Rajesh Chowdhury (Reigning National Champion),
Brig.Saini, Suheim Sheikh, Col.Jadeja, Brigadier Jagadish,
Anirudh Vijaykumar and Soma Pradumna, Selvam, Madhu from the EME
Sailing association and Yakubo and Kaushal Kumar from the
Artillery Centre.
Lt. Kelly Rao,
another Arjuna Medal winner who died in a tragic accident was
also from Hyderabad.
The likes of Farokh Tarapore and Homi
Motivala from
Mumbai will soon be visiting our shores for the Monsoon
Regatta and of course Nitin Mongia and Mahesh Ramachandran are
now household names amongst those close to the sport and who
have won many a thrilling Nationals at Hussain Sagar.
