Tell-Tale of IEC 2024

Thirty Nine, Thirty 9, 39; One would usually wonder how coincidental it is to end a day sailing at the exact same position in all the races

But then the results displayed outside the regatta office sang the same song. It was the morning of our first race. I, staring at the sky filled with patches of white and grey clouds; folks in the background discussing events of the previous afternoon races; and the white horses seen over the waves in the perfectly calm lake made me wonder WHY!!!

With winds at around 15 to 18 Knots and the gusts touching almost 25, Vikas and I set sail towards the start line. Being careful and evaluating the risk of gear failure, he quickly identified a damaged tiller. Now we were sailing a brand new set of Rudder and Tiller; there was no play and the boat was moving predictably

If it wasn’t for my ability to count backwards effectively, we would never have had a great start as we did. Winds were gusty, and the only way to sail the boat flat was for me to hike. My mind kept telling me that, HIKE; but my body was on a pilgrimage, meditating and refusing into doing anything physically challenging.

For once, being overweight was helping. In the meantime, I also taught Vikas to sail the boat flat by letting the main sail loose. Effective sailing as they call it, we turned up at the first buoy rounding second, with a good lead on the third boat.

Downwind leg, the boat was reacting well; thanks to the new rudder, my skipper was happy again. Before we would start surfing the waves, I went inside the boat to do those things a crew has to; ease something, lift something, turn somethings, do this, do that and what not.

By the time I was out on the deck, here was my skipper sailing the boat off course towards the shore heading straight to a bunch of beautiful ladies jumping and waving at us in joy. I have never seen this side of my skipper, specially when he is on the water, in a boat. But what the hell, I was loving it, only until I heard him yell “WE LOST THE RUDDER”, the boat is not in our control; But then, WHAT THE HELL, it was sailing the right direction; towards the shore. Well, so much for that new rudder!!!

This is a state can typically be described as driving a car without a steering wheel or rather better put would be to ride a bike without a handle. While we kept yelling and warning others to stay away from us, there came no rescue. We eventually decided to run over people floating in the water from other capsized boats and decided sail into other boats racing the course.

I think we must be 17th in position by now. Missmanuvaring the boat helped, it eventually caught the attention of the recuse team who towed us back to the shore.

We Retired; Total Points, Race 1 – Thirty Nine

We engaged a carpenter to help us fix the rudder and realized how we were still in the era of the 1935s; when the F1 driver pulled into the Pitstop, it took the team 23.568 seconds to change the wheels, fuel the car and set him off to the track against the 0.987 seconds it takes now a days.

We missed our second race – Thirty 9

All challenged to do better we set sail towards the start line yet again before the beginning of the 3rd race. Since by now you all know my ability to count backwards, I need not tell you how amazing our start was. We turned up at the first buoy leading the fleet by several boat lengths. This is where we lost our rudder in the first race. The ladies were still waiting and waving, while Vikas kept checking …

The rudder!!!

In the checking and the waving and the waiting and the wanting and then eventually we gybing, we found our way straight into the water. Before we realized a gust of wind hit us and we flipped right in the middle of a perfectly executed gybe.

I usually am a very good swimmer, now with all that fat on me and the regulatory lifejacket, I had to dive under the boat, come out from under to the other side and help my skipper straighten it. The fact that I am a Masters in Physics made me question every principle I had then learnt; how the hell am I supposed to dive wearing a floating device, let alone the buoyancy I carry by myself. The ladies were still watching, waving and waiting

We managed, or rather should I say, he managed, The boat was upright but we were still in the water.

I was still defying the principles of physics, Vikas was exhausted working his ways straightening the boat, so I believe he came up with this bright idea of asking me to enter the boat first. He must be “##$%$&%$” kidding me. Have you ever tried getting out from the deep side of the swimming pool when the water level is about a feet or more below the ground level?

He and I both in the water barely able to hold the boat and me staring into his face; explained politely. “The way this works is for you get inside the boat and find a way to pull me in”

He: 😊😊 Bh#$ C%#d 😂

Next thing I knew was me being dragged into the boat; he tried pulling me by my hand, but then quickly realized pulling me by my lifejacket would do the trick. I fell like a lump of flesh on one side of the boat and Vikas fell with a plop on the other. With a sye of relief in his eyes, I could see the rescue mission had concluded successfully; did not take us a second before we burst out laughing at our misery; the water filled boat went out of control and before we knew, it flipped us back into the water. 😁

We Retired; Total Points, Race 3 – 39

End of Day 1 Racing – Thirty Nine, Thirty 9, 39 (Did not Finish, Did not Start, Did not Finish)

I must say, so far, this was the most eventful start to the 8th Inland Enterprise Championship 2024, held at Peacock Bay, Khadakwasla managed by the National Defence Academy.

Next day came by very fast, and the world champion I was sailing with had only one thought on this mind. “The least we have to do is finish at least a race”. Not sure if I ever mentioned about my capability towards counting backwards; maybe someday, I will explain.

Needless to say we found ourselves rounding the first mark first with quite a lead on the second boat. Downwind leg went well, we did not lose the rudder, and thank Heavens the ladies were not to be seen. I did my things inside the boat that I had to and got ready for the gybe mark. A voice from behind said “Get ready for a tac”

Me: “WHAT !!! we don’t even have the women waiting that side of the shore today“

Voice from Behind: “Lets tac”

What Vikas was trying to do was to turn left by turning right. Yeah!!! Basically, we had to go left but that would involve for us to gybe, so he turns right instead by tacking and then takes a right-U-turn and heads left. He never admitted, but I am sure it wasn’t the gybe he was scared of, he was petrified by the very thought that he may have to bail me out of the water yet again if we did flip over. I feared, what if he wasn’t a good skipper this time and left me behind😐

The Fear, The uncertainty and The Inabilities, all got together and we finally gybed…. It was “The Unplanned Gybe”, and then we gybed again and again and again and gybed again and again

End of Day 2 Racing – One, three, 1. We qualified into the Gold fleet;

Now we had to race the top 39 of the 70 odd boats. In the next two races we finished 4th and 11th. Thanks to amazing winds, and exciting times and great competition we finished 18th of 70 boats.

That Russian behind me is Vikas 🤣

A BAD DAY SAILING IS 100 TIMES BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK