‘It was a hard task to get TNSA in place’

Today, it is the most significant civilian club in the sport and its activities, national and international, make it the top association in sailing in India. Thakkar, who took to sailing two decades ago, has worked hard to take the club from scratch.The former TNSA commodore (president)  recounted the toil that he and his team had to undergo in the initial years in an interview to DT Next. Excerpts:  

The State Government had allotted three acres of land to Royal Madras Yacht Club (RMYC) on lease which was expiring in 1997.The government allotted two acres from this to the Indian Coast Guard and around one acre was left with RMYC but after the lease renewal, only five grounds were left with the club. To ensure that the renewal was done, we had to build a facility there and we put up  a small shack and this was an instant hit with the members. But once this started, many non-sailing members started taking more interest and slowly, sailing gave way to social activity and partying. A few senior members decided that we must have a new facility to promote sailing and also, at this facility,  get fresh blood and more youngsters. It was Navaz Currimbhoy who drafted the constitution and by-laws for Tamil Nadu Sailing Association. That was how TNSA was born. It was quite a hard task as we had to apply and get an area allotted in the port. The shed from where RMYC  operated in a small area, was allotted to TNSA. The first commodore of TNSA was Ramesh Lulla, a veteran sailor and one of the oldest surviving members of RMYC. I took over from him until the last AGM where I stepped down as the vice-commodore.

The first challenge was to get the place allotted at the port. The Survey department was using the place. We had to get them to shift to another location. We had to convince and seek the support of the workers and the unions before the Marine department. The next was to get boats and this came from the Indian Navy  and from members including me.The SDAT also supported us during this time to get more boats. The next was to get the staff who could be trained and some who knew to handle boats. We recruited some boys from the fishermen community and trained them. 

Right from the second year onwards. At the national level, we had many firsts. The Asian Games bronze and the European series silver in 2015 were the highlights. We were leading the Olympic qualifiers till the second last day. Asia had one slot at the qualifiers in Abu Dhabi and our team was leading the event on the first three days.  

Well, sailing is getting more popular but at a very slow pace. There are many reasons. It is not a spectator sport and as not many can see the races or events, they are not aware of this as a sport. It is not so accessible as it is run from the port where entry is restricted. Indians by nature are scared of water. While we have a long coastline, we are unable to exploit it. In this sport, a kid at the age of seven can start competing and can continue to sail till late 30s. So we must invest in this sport a lot.