India skippered by Mahesh Ramchandran won the ISAF Nations Cup Regional Finals Asia by convincingly beating the Team from Thailand 3-0. As the Indian Women represented by skipper Pallavi Naik and her team were the only entries in the womens class India now will have a team in both Open and Women at the prestigeous ISAF Nations Cup Grand Finals (ISAF Grade I) at Brazil next year.

The invitational event was exciting to say the least with the double round robin yielding an interesting semi final line up of Aashim Mongia(1) Vs Mahesh Ramchandran (4) and Farokh Tarapore Vs Nitin Mongia. Earlier Pallavi Naik who had beaten Ayesha in the first RR lost to her after letting the boat take control losing her Damage deposit and the race. She however finished 5th one ahead of Ayesha due to her 3 wins.

The Semis were sailed in a steady but dying land breeze and Mahesh beat Aashim who had topped the RR 2-0. The second semi's threw up exciting racing with the teams tied at 1 point all going into the third race where Nitin scraped through to enter the finals.

The Finals was a race where the skippers and teams having sailed together on the same boat for three years previously for the Asian Games knew each other to the T. The wind was playing truant and coming in puffs of 4 kts before dying away again in an attempt to swing seawards. The RO started the 1st two races in difficult, light and shifty conditions and the swinging and dying breeze did the top ranked skipper Mahesh no favours with Nitin hanging in better to go 2-0 up after 2 races.The second race being particularly bad for the morale with the second boat finishing the run sailing a beat close to 15 Min after rounding the top mark 20 secs behind+ a penalty!

After a long wait the sea breeze finally kicked in and settled to 6-8kts from the NE with Mahesh winning race 3 and moving up to 1-2. The last race was exciting with Nitin getting a penalty in the pre start and both boats being OCS and returning to re start. Nitin edged ahead on the 1st beat and stayed a boatlength ahead through leg 2. He opened up marginally on the 2nd beat and managed to do his penalty and nip ahead at the finish line in a near photo finish thus winning the invitational event concurrently run with the Nations Cup Regional Finals in style.

The prize giving ceremony, dinner and dance was held at the terrace of the host club the INWTC(Mumbai). Captain Someshwar the OIC INWTC and Captain Bunty Sethi The Honorary Secretary General YAI gave away the prizes to the winners.Farokh Tarapore the President MRAI thanked the Western Naval Command and the INWTC for their whole hearted support for Match Racing and welcomed one and all with elan.

The Secretary General of the YAI in his speech expressed the pleasure of the President YAI regarding the good work being done by the MRAI in broadbasing the sport and conducting national and international events in a commendable manner. He also assured the continued support of the YAI to Match Racing as the open event is now in the Asian Games and the Women's event in the Olympics. Alfredo Ricci commended the standard and quality of sailing and racing he was on hand to witness during the event and lauded the organisation and the sailors for putting up a great show.

Aashim Mongia , Vice President MRAI and Chairman and MD West Coast Marine the willing sponsor and unwilling speaker was then coaxed into uttering a few pearls of wisdom wherein he brought out his commitment for the sport of sailing and Match Racing in particular and looked forward to a bigger and better Mumbai International Match Race later in the year.

Akhay(The Rock Star Match Racer) and his band belted out a few great numbers to keep the girls squealing and the men reaching for the bar to end the evening on a high as all evenings post Match Racing should be!

The detailed results have been forwarded earlier however a summary of the results are as under.

Nations Cup Regional Finals Asia Open
Winner - India (Team: Mahesh Ramchandran, Rajesh Dhulaji, Neeraj Sharma,PS Rao)
Runner up - Thailand

Women winner- India (Team: Pallavi Naik, Rohini Rau, Alekhya Sudam, Tulsi Chauhan)

Invitation Open Regatta
Winner - Nitin Mongia, Yuvraj Singh, S Pradhan, GL Yadav Runner up- Mahesh Ramchandran, RS Dhulaji, Neeraj Sharma, PS Rao

Best regards and look forward to seeing you on the water soon!

Cdr R Mahesh
Honorary Secretary
Match Racing Association of India