Third edition of the Unifi Capital Offshore Regatta being held from the 1st to 5th May ’24

Chennai, May 1, 2024: The third edition of the Unifi Capital Offshore Regatta, featuring J80 sailboats, was flagged off this morning. The event, being held from the 1st to 5th May ’24 will conform to the safety standards of World Sailing, the world’s governing body for the sport of sailing.

The regatta was flagged off at 9:30AM at the Club House inside the Chennai Port Trust. The Chief Guest at the event was Thiru J. Meghanath Reddy IAS - Member Secretary of the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu. Dr. Malini V Shankar IAS, VC of IMU was the Guest of Honour.

Also present at the flagging off were heads from the Indian Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Sports Ministry TN, Chennai Port and Yachting Association of India.

The J80 class sail boats - the most popular boats in the world for offshore sailing - will race first between Chennai Port and Mahabalipuram and back, a distance of 50 kms each way, and should take about a total of around 10 hours. They then race between Chennai Port and Kamarajar Port, a distance of 20 kms each leg, and will take a total of around 5 hours.

The Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy are providing support and logistics for a safe event.

“The dual objectives of this event are the promotion of the sport of sailing and to raise the awareness of marine environment in order to help preserve our oceans and coasts from man-made pollution, said Captain Jitendra Dixit, Jt. Hon. Secretary, YAI.

Commander Abhilash Tomy (retd.), Kirti Chakra, Nau Sena medal, Vice-Chairman, Offshore Sub-committee, YAI, said that Tamil Nadu, with a coastline of over 1,000 kms and many ports and harbors, has a huge potential for promoting offshore sailing. He further said that a series of such events are to be conducted.

Mr. Sravan Raghunathan, Organizing Secretary said that in the six teams competing in the event were some Indian sailors of high international repute. A team from the CRPF which made their debut at the J/80 World championship 2023 at Spain, is also competing.

Capt. Vivek Shanbhag, RMYC said, “The boats are being provided with satellite trackers from Elektronik Labs for continuous coverage. The public can view this race from anywhere in the world on the www.trackanything.in website. The user name is ‘rmyc’ and the password is ‘offshore’.”

The event is under the aegis of Yachting Association of India (YAI), and organized by the National J/80 Class Association (NJCA), Royal Madras Yacht Club (RMYC) and the Royal Madras Yacht Club Ennore Centre (RMYC EC). 

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