The Yacht Club of Hyderabad Launches 12 New Boats

Yacht Club of Hyderabad introduced 12 new boats - 9 Optimist Class boats & 3 recreational racing boats. Shri Rajeshwar Tiwari, IAS, Metropolitan Commissioner, formally launched these boats at Boat's Jetty, Sanjivaiah Park, today, in the presence of Mr. Suheim Sheikh, Vice President, The Yacht Club of Hyderabad.

On the occasion, The Yacht Club of Hyderabad also adopted ten Government School kids from underprivileged sections of the society for rigorous training program and grooming them into competitive Sailors.

The YCH has recently procured another 9 Optimist Class boats for children. 80 percent of medal winners at the Beijing Olympics learned their sailing in the Optimist and it is the world's most popular boat for children with a population of more than 500 thousand. Over 150,000 kids in over 100 countries sail the Optimist. The Optimist is not only one of the biggest dinghy classes in the world and it is the fastest growing

Given the YCH's continuous campaigns for the environment and especially the Hussain Sagar clean up, the Children's boats will be named after birds found around the lake like Little Cormorant, Darter, Sandpiper, Brahmini Starling and Golden Oriole. India has two of-its young sailors KC Ganapathy (14) and Zephra Currimbhoy (14) representing the country at the Gaungzhou Asian Games 2010 making them India's youngest ever Asian Games participants. It is interesting to note that Sailing is amongst a few sports at the Asian Games that allows for participants below 15 years of age.

Additionally the YCH has recently imported three 4.7 meter recreational racing boats called the Omega Topaz from Topper Boats UK represented by Marine Solutions Mumbai. The boats are the best in the world for training and can accommodate upto 5 sailors at a time and has ultra modern fittings with jib furlers, mylar sails and a Genneaker allowing them to be safely sailed by novices and experienced professionals alike.

Mr. Anil Chalamalasetty CEO of Greenko Group (a clean energy venture) on the occasion said "The Yacht Club of Hyderabad is doing a great service to Hyderabad and we are deeply attracted to the facility which serves the sophisticated novice and the underprivileged under one roof, making it special. Greenko is especially proud to be associated with the safe and green sport of sailing and happy that our contribution of 2 Omega boats will open up avenues to all those interested in Yachting, a sport propelled by clean wind energy." With these additions the YCH now has a fleet of 20 brand new sailing boats to train with one of the largest and most modern fleets across the country. The Yacht Club of Hyderabad has over the last 9 months trained 7 kids from Government Schools including one orphan and 4 have been selected to participate in the Sub-Junior Sailing Nationals in Khadakwasla Pune.

Spurred on by this success and a bunch of happy and smiling faces the YCH has once again collaborated with Project 511 an NGO that connects Govt. schools with donors to select another batch of 10 children to take to the waters. These kids will effectively be trained alongside a regular batch of children trainees studying at private schools like Gitanjali, Diksha and HPS. The Yacht Club of Hyderabad will celebrate this achievement in an unusual way by inviting children from under privileged Govt. Schools for a never before experience of a big boat ride on Sunday 21st November. 25 kids have been long listed based on their ability to swim and will be introduced to the sport and then put thru a selection process to chose those who can make a career in Sailing. The children who's parents are vegetable and fish vendors, drivers and often living hand to mouth will now be put thru a rigorous racing program shoulder to shoulder with children from top schools.

The idea behind this sustainable charitable venture is to channelize talent from across the city and allow for children to benefit from participation in events and of course attempt a sports career in the now rapidly growing sport of sailing. The YCH is a member of the Yachting Association of India and provides students with sophisticated audio visual training material from the Royal Yachting Association, UK and US Sailing. The YCH will be launching a series of training programs called Go Sailing, Go Solo and Go Racing that will teach adults and youngsters both recreational and competitive sailing. Attached you will find a brochure to provide you with more information about YCH and its sailing programs.

Suheim Sheikh Vice President
The Yacht Club of Hyderabad.