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‘Twas them days a ship was part of the sea, and a man was part of a ship, and the sea joined all together and made it one.
– The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill
On 1st July 2018, 18 boats will set sail from Les Sables d’Olonne in the south of France, kick-starting the Golden Globe Race (GGR) covering a route of 30000 miles. Boat Number 5 Thuriya in a striking shade of teal brings a special Indian connection to this event. Skipper Cdr. Abhilash Tomy of the Indian Navy reprises his earlier sailing voyage but this time with a difference. This voyage will take him longer in time and distance to complete. The GGR is iconic as it commemorates the 50th year of the 1968 edition of the race and has seasoned sailors from 13 countries with a fantastic line up of sailing crafts. Most importantly it ups the ante for its participants. It evokes a sense of retro sailing as it comes close to the onboard conditions of the 1968/69 winning boat Suhaili skippered by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. That means no electronic navigational aids that have come to be de rigueur in major sailing regattas.
Incidentally Cdr. Tomy, who is a reconnaissance pilot in the Indian Navy, is the recipient of the Kirti Chakra and the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for his non-stop solo circumnavigation in 2012-13. He has the distinction of being the second Indian and first Asian to complete this extraordinary feat. He has also been awarded the prestigious McGregor Medal for military reconnaissance.
Much of Thuriya’s genesis has been shared by its skipper through social media. He has been closely invested in its construction right from the drawing board to the last rivet on the boat. This seafaring ketch modelled on the 1925 design called Eric by William Atkins is a homage to the Suhaili which was incidentally built in Bombay. Design and refits are critical aspects of ocean sailing crafts. With its strong record of seaworthiness to make a wood epoxy composite replica of the Suhaili in India from a scratch, was the most feasible option in keeping with requirements of the race.
Like this writer, curious visitors, fans, and journalists have made their way to the construction site at Aquarius Shipyard and later to the anchorage at Reis Magos in Goa before it was shipped to Europe, to see this Make in India endeavour reach its fruition. Comparisons with INSV Mhadei are inevitable. Abhilash’s sailing vessel for his 2012 non-stop solo circumnavigation Sagar Parikrama II is still strongly entrenched in the public imagination through his book 151 Solitary Days at Sea Sailing Non-Stop Around the Globe, expansive media coverage and numerous public lectures. However, Abhilash admits that “it’s one thing to build a boat just to go sailing, quite another to build one for a race”. The challenge is to prove Thuriya as a worthy successor to the sailing prowess of the much bigger and technologically endowed vessel.
The boat, smaller than Mhadei, presents a compact and pared down interior devoid of any sophisticated electronic gadgetry. Yet it is commodious enough to store food, fuel, spares and sails in neat lockers and designated spaces for a chart table, small galley, toilet and bunk bed. The affable skipper is evidently proud to outline some of the creature comforts that the Thuriya will provide for the forthcoming arduous months at sea. “The boat is a strong one” according to Abhilash, “but the sailing isn’t simple as the last time”. It has been a huge learning curve to break out of the technology aided bubble to master celestial navigation. With only charts, nautical almanac, sextants, compasses and HF radio, the boat will test the waters around the three Capes and traverse the freezing stormy seas in the Southern Hemisphere, for the first time. The skipper will also be multitasking as a weather forecaster, medical expert, naturalist, handyman, and a conservationist in course of the journey.
The very rationale of such a voyage may seem incomprehensible to some or positively atavistic to others. But it is the spartan nature of the race that has been a powerful USP for Abhilash in accepting this invitation from the race organizers. “Life is lived so much outside of you these days when all that is worth exploring is within”. Predictable questions about being afraid or lonely from visitors only draw a bemused look from this seasoned mariner. Reflecting on his previous voyage and the relentless pace that defines so much of the contemporary world he remarks, “I got a lot of clarity in solitude. It’s absolutely essential”. But this confidence comes with the awareness of dangers that such an enterprise can entail.
Despite the most stringent safety precautions and preparations, there are no guarantees in this kind of voyage. Signing up for the race is not merely about reaching the finishing line. One realises that the key word here is endurance for both Thuriya and its skipper. It is also about the opportunity to capture the spirit of camaraderie between sailors, the rare ability to draw out the last knot of speed; catch the most favourable current of the ocean and flow of the wind when the sea can turn from a friend to an enemy. And most importantly to make this all possible without the most sophisticated of technology.
In conversations with the skipper, the elemental aspect of the sea has resonated in much of his perspective on life. He says, “I am convinced of the fact that there is nothing that builds character better than the sea. And if one generation of our country went to sea, for a couple of months, we will be a different nation altogether”. The indefinable call of the sea has constantly underscored all his attempts to carry this sailing odyssey forward. The odds have seemed staggering at times. These have ranged from funding issues, time, professional commitments and yes, the hidden but omnipresent Leviathan of bureaucracy who, Abhilash wryly observes, “have not been to sea ever”. Looking at the quiet strength and competence that Thuriya emanates, makes it seem worth all that effort.
Currently, sailing events appeal only to a niche audience in India and do not generate a large scale response like that of big-ticket sporting events. This story of the construction of Thuriya perhaps evokes in a tangential way to the rich tradition of Asian maritime networks of seafaring and technology transfer in shipbuilding that existed in the Indian Ocean littoral spaces since the sixteenth century. Much of this legacy today is forgotten or side-lined in maritime archives, as we have increasingly turned away from the sea to embrace an expansionist attitude towards land. But it is a good reminder for us to recognize how oceans connect and have shaped human history particularly that of the Indian sub-continent.
By early June, Thuriya would have sailed from its assembly anchorage in the Netherlands to Falmouth in the UK to join up for events commemorating the 50th year of the return of the victorious Suhaili. Thereafter it will sail the SITRaN Challenge for the starting line in France. This time around the skipper will be off social media for the course of the voyage. But fans need not despair. Those following the race will be able to track the boat on the live tracker at goldengloberace.com. The GGR 2018 will be the fourth attempt at circumnavigation from India coming in close succession after the completion of the voyage of INSV Tarini in May 2018.
Cdr. Tomy with the support of his invaluable triumvirate of mentor and manager, Capt. Dilip Donde, technical experts, Ratnakar Dandekar and Johan Vels promise to carve a league of his own in the international sailing arena. But what has surprised him immeasurably is the tremendous outpouring of goodwill, resources and enthusiasm from global fans and well-wishers, that has kept the project, in his words, “buoyant”. We will have to wait for next year to hear more of the sailing exploits of this intrepid duo. More power to the growing pantheon of Indian circumnavigators and wishing bon voyage to the Thuriya and its skipper as they ride the wind and the waves.
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