Celebrating Tomy's triumph

On April 29, when Abhilash Tomy crossed the finish line in second position in the gruelling Golden Globe Race (GGR) in ocean sailing, it was, to misquote Neil Armstrong, one significant event for a man and one landmark moment for a nation. Tomy, a retired Indian Navy Commander, had notched up one of India’s finest sporting achievements, in a field traditionally dominated by western nations. If leveraged properly and disseminated widely, this event has the potential of providing a huge impetus to sailing and can be as momentous as 1983 World Cup was for Indian cricket. However, that involves ruminating over various aspects of the ocean sailing ecosystem in our country and what the future portends.

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To begin with, let’s understand the full extent of Abhilash’s achievement. First, sailing — implying travelling on wind power alone with no motor propulsion allowed — around the globe, non-stop, solo, is by itself a Herculean ordeal and considered one of the toughest challenges in the world. Such expeditions usually last anywhere between 150 and 300 days and, thus, it’s no wonder that the club of solo circumnavigators has less members than ‘Everesters’ or those who have gone into space. Second, doing so as part of a race is even more daunting and often described as the endeavour of those who are ‘truly mad’. The GGR itself has been held only thrice (including the current edition) and, typically, only around 20 per cent of the participants complete the race, with the others giving up. Third, the GGR rules demand that participants use technology as in 1968. Thus, it’s a ‘retro race’ with no luxuries of GPS navigation or satellite communication available. Combating stormy seas, capricious weather, variable winds and a range of meteorological conditions on one hand and keeping the tiny vessel in a seaworthy state by attending to her maintenance requirements on the other, while simultaneously fighting loneliness, fatigue, sleep deprivation, illness are the very stuff of superhuman challenges. And Abhilash conquered them.

But he also overcame a few other demons that haunted him. First, he had experienced a setback during GGR 2018 when, after encountering a severe storm in south-eastern Indian Ocean, his vessel almost got wrecked and Abhilash lay with a broken spine for 72 hours awaiting rescue in one of the remotest parts of the world. His injury necessitated a surgery that involved fusing five vertebrae and inserting titanium rods in his spine. Rehabilitation began with learning how to walk again; thus, participation in the ‘very race that killed him’ was about mental toughness and getting a ’monkey off his back’. Second, despite his achievements, it was not easy for him to find sponsors and while his fellow competitors were preparing for the race, Abhilash was running pillar to post to find someone to back him and fund his equipment. Third, very unfortunately and for no fault of his, just a few weeks before the race, his yacht ‘Bayanat’ was involved in a collision with a Dutch merchant ship. This damaged his bow and necessitated urgent repairs, making it a ‘touch and go’ situation with respect to his participation. His mental state can well be imagined. Fourth, the race itself was no cakewalk and presented the full range of challenges that oceans do to those who dare them. Consequently, Abhilash’s vessel was bruised and battered in unimaginable ways. It was his genius at innovation and ‘jugaad’ that enabled him to manufacture or conjure spares out of the unlikeliest of things; everyone in the GGR community acknowledged Abhilash as the ultimate DIY maestro.

Despite all this, he fought a thrilling race and finished second, missing out on the first place by a whisker’s margin. Thus, his achievement is not merely about a podium finish; it’s about fighting incredible odds and emerging triumphant, about never giving up, about the finest values and virtues that adventure sports engender. Abhilash credits much of his toughness, survival skills and sailing savvy to the Indian Navy which has, in the last decade and a half, done some heavy lifting to put eight persons in the circumnavigation club. The Indian Navy’s ocean sailing journey began in right earnest in 1988 when INSV Samudra, skippered by Cdr Vijay Vadhera, went around the world, albeit with multiple rotated crews and a few stops en route. Later, Samudra undertook some more voyages involving ocean sailing expeditions. Concurrently, the Navy also acquired sail training ships —Varuna, Tarangini and Sudarshini — to train cadets during the ab initio phase.

However, the major impetus to the quest happened when the late Vice Admiral MP Awati, a true sailing visionary, mooted the idea of solo circumnavigation and relentlessly campaigned for it with the naval authorities. This bore fruit when Commander Dilip Donde became the first Indian to achieve this feat in 2009, followed by Abhilash Tomy in 2013 and six women officers in 2018. A silent contributor to this magnificent endeavour was Ratnakar Dandekar, a Goa-based shipbuilder who built most of the yachts used for these voyages. Following on these successes, and to give an institutional thrust and create a pool of qualified personnel, the Navy inaugurated the Ocean Sailing Node (OSN) in Goa a few years ago. The node has a fleet of six vessels and, if reports are to be believed, preparations are afoot to soon flag off a woman-skippered solo-circumnavigation expedition.

While the Indian Navy has ploughed a lonely furrow in this domain, making it a more popular sport requires a ‘whole of India’ approach. Other stakeholders in the maritime realm need to buy in to the idea, the government needs to create more maritime infrastructure such as marinas to encourage a range of waterfront and open sea activities, and popular culture needs to celebrate the achievements of heroes like Abhilash to fire people’s imagination. Abhilash’s awesome achievement will have a true imprint only if an ocean sailing legacy is created in India. Abhilash has done his bit, now it remains for the rest of us to do ours.

— The writer is a Navy veteran