Yacht Club of Hyderabad to conduct Monsoon Regatta in City

Hyderabad|India|June'2010: The Tata Photon Monsoon Regatta (July 12 – 18 2010) will be the first National level championship being conducted at the newly instituted Yacht Club of Hyderabad.

With the support of the HMDA under Shri. BP Acharaya, IAS the 40 year old Jetty has been reconditioned at Sanjivaiah Park .

The Tata Photon Monsoon Regatta essentially serves two causes. The first being to promote the sport of sailing in Hyderabad and the second , even more importantly to raise awareness about the quality of the waters of Hussain Sagar and to help make it healthy and clean.

The theme this year is "For a Clean Hussain Sagar" and provides the ideal vehicle for a cause close to everyone’s heart in the city, to a cause on the government’s agenda but requiring greater primacy and to a cause that has global ramifications.

30 years ago when some of us started our sailing careers we could swim and wallow in Hussain Sagar which had a visibility of more than 5 feet and even pick up coins from the shallows in the sunshine. Today, the lake has a dismal flow of sewage and chemicals. The Tata Photon Monsoon Regatta endeavors to create awareness for this situation and help bring the people and the Government closer together to solve this problem in perpetuity.

This will be the first Regatta ever in India to have Real time Batronics Tracking of boats by our technology partner who will embed GPS devices on board all boats. This means that in real time fans can track athletes on the Internet just like in any international Yacht Race.


INLAND MATCH RACING NATIONALS
Monsoon Regatta Defending Champion and erstwhile World chamipion in the OK dinghy Class Nitin Mongia will participate and challengers R.Mahesh National Champion and ranked at 33 in the world, along with Aashim Mongia will also be in the running.

What one is waiting for is a repeat of the 2009 Monsoon Regatta finals where despite 180 degree wind shifts and a storm Nitin Mogia beat the reigning national champion Mahesh in a nail biting 5 setter.

Great friends on shore and arch rivals on the water Mahesh and Nitin have become household names in Hyderabad amongst sailing enthusiasts.

Having practically leveled the table in the Laser class they went on the sail together in the Star and have now taken to Match Racing as rivals on the national scene but part of the same crew internationally.

Mahesh is ranked 33 in the world and Nitin Mongia 93 but their Match Racing is like India and Pakistan in a T20 thrilling to the last drop.

Defending National Champion in the ladies Match Racing, Ayesha Lobo has an all new crew and is training hard in Mumbai on a brand new J24 and is planning to beat some of the top contenders from amongst the men having dominated the girls fleet for the last 2 years.

The YAI Inland National Match Racing championship Trophy has been sponsored by Tata Photon


OPTIMSIT GIRLS
This is going to be an all star cast with both defending champions for boys and Girls appearing and two of the Guangzhou Asian Games selectees participating too.

Amongst the Girls Defending Champion Zephra Currimbhoy of the RMYC (Royal Madras Yacht Club) will make her second appearance. After winning the title at Monsoon Regatta 2009 Zephra went on to winning all 10 races at the Asian selection trials and will represent India at the November Asian Games at Guangzhou, China.

Zephra is returning from Pataya Thailand on the 11th only to participate in the Tata Photon Monsoon Regatta.

She will be closely challenged by Sidra Sabir of the NSS Bhopal, 2009 runners up and Ekta Yadav of INWTC Mumbai.


OPTIMIST BOYS
Defending Champion Upamanuy Dutta of the RBYC (Royal Bombay Yacht Club) will be challenged by Ganapathy of the TNSA (Tamilnadu Sailing Association) who beat him by a whisker at the recent Asian Games selection trials and heading for the Guangzhou Asian Games in November.

Ganapathy will be returning from Pattaya from the IODA Aisians for the Tata Photon Monsoon Regatta.