The one thing common about the spectacular development of two altogether different sports – chess and sailing, in Tamil Nadu is youth power. After the emergence of five-time world champion V Anand, chess has evolved as a much sought after sporting activity for youth in different age groups. Now, the same is happening in sailing too with the 12-year-old from Chennai, Krishna Venkatachalam stunning the sailing sport fraternity by bagging the gold in the YAI Youth and Junior Multiclass Sailing Championship at Mysuru in June this year.
Representing the Royal Madras Yacht Club, Krishna demonstrated his innate talent, winning with a lead of 19 points. He went to the Mysuru meet after having won a silver medal at the Monsoon Regatta in Hyderabad on the Hussain Sagar lake. Over the last year and a half, Krishna has also represented India in international regattas. He competed in the Optimist class which is a global entry level category competition for young sailors. Krishna took to sailing when he was just five, with full encouragement from his parents. He is a student of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan in Chennai. Another winner at the Mysuru meet was the girl sailor Vantava Raghuraman competing under the aegis of Tamil Nadu Sailing Association (TNSA), who picked up a bronze medal in the girls section.
Windsurfer Ishwarya.
What adds meat to the evolving story of sailing sport in Chennai especially, driven by youth power is the fact that four young sailors of Chennai/ Tamil Nadu Sailing Association won three of the ten gold medals at the prestigious Sail India YAI Senior National Open Championship at Chowpatty in Mumbai held from January 21 to 26, 2025. The first two days of sailing were marked by medium to high wind condition of 10-15 knots, whereas on the next three days the winds were low between 6-12 knots with patchy conditions. The sailors braved the varying conditions and demonstrated their talent and skill in the national arena. Their inspiration was Nethra Kumanan, the double Olympian from Chennai, who won the gold in the One Person Dinghy – ILCA 6 Women class (which was earlier called Laser Radial Class) with 15 penalty points in 10 races against six competitors. Chitresh Tatha won the gold in the Formula Kite Class with 6 penalty points over 7 races. In the iQFoil (Women) competition, Ishwariya Ganesh, won the gold with 9 penalty points over 11 races. MK Lepakshi finished fifth in the ILCA 6 competition, while Sachin Ganesh – sailing in iQFoil (Men) races was placed sixth. Nevertheless, theirs was a commendable performance.
At the 16th YAI Monsoon Regatta 2025, held at the Hussain Sagar Lake, Hyderabad, from 8 to 14 June 2025, Tamil Nadu’s talented contingent, under the expert coaching of former Asian Games sailor Chitresh (TNSA), won the top honours in multiple categories: Alia Sabreen Faisal (TNSA) ranked first (gold medal) in the ILCA 4 (Girls) Division, continues her consistent ascent as one of India’s top young sailors. Shreya Krishna (TNSA) dazzled the fleet with a commanding performance to finish first overall and was ranked first among girls, winning the gold medal in the Optimist (Main) class. Krishna VR (RMYC) won the silver medal in the Optimist (Main) Fleet ranking for boys. The guidance and mentorship of Chitresh have been instrumental in carving the success of these three young sailors of Chennai.
Ashok Thakkar, Vice President of the Tamil Nadu Sailing Association and Yachting Association of India, spoke to Madras Musings about the scenario of the fast developing sailing sport in Chennai, and the emergence of young talent: “The TNSA started dedicating itself to training youth seriously for competitions; not as any leisure activity. The youth have now started taking to this sport seriously, and their parents have also been encouraging them. It was not for winning initially but training hard,” he points out.
He further explains that for ten years – beginning 2006, the Tamil Nadu Sailing Association (TNSA) had been conducting the India International Regatta in all the youth classes, which had played a role in attracting youth to sailing in a big way. And now, with full support from the Tamil Nadu government, which is focusing on youth development in sport, TNSA is on the way to conducting the Asia Cup and India International Regatta again, for all youth classes. “We hope to see more and more sailors from other parts of India benefit out of this competition,” Thakkar remarks hopefully.
“Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and Hyderabad (Telangana) are also doing well. Mumbai, known as the capital of sailing sport in India, had originally produced the country’s top sailors. Though it has slipped a bit, their state association is working hard to produce more and more sailors to compete in big competitions with corporate support,” says Thakkar.
Sailing in Tamil Nadu is bound to get a boost as the state government has come up with the budget, and allotted land for a sailing academy on the bank of the Cooum river in the Marina area. “This will bring about a big change for the better in the development of sailing sport in Tamil Nadu,” says a confident Ashok Thakkar.