Bombay Merchants' Cup Regatta 2018 ends on a jubilant note
May 17, 2018: Ending on a celebratory note with many triumphant smiles and shakes, the Bombay Merchants’ Cup Regatta 2018 was one by two stalwart teams.
One of the highlights of this year’s Regatta was the introduction of their first Made in India yacht, The Stargazer, designed and built by Sheri Bamboat in Alibag. Another change in this year’s edition was to split the race into two categories of yachts.
Yachts under 40 feet in length competed in the category of small yachts, and those over 40 feet in the large yacht category. The yachts in each category competed for the Gurkha Cigars Trophy. The small boat category was won by the yacht Tengi, captained by the World Champion sailor and Arjuna Award recipient, Captain Homi Motivala. The large boat category was a close run race and finally won by the Indian Navy yacht, Navy WNC 1, sailed by a team from the Indian Navy and Captained by Lt K Sai Anand. The Gurkha Cigars Trophies were awarded to the winners at a post race event hosted by the Royal Bombay Yacht Club.
The post-race evening witnessed Hennessy cognac cocktails (or simply Hennessy X.O. on ice for those who preferred it that way) and Glenmorangie Malts with world class Norwegian Salmon flown in by the Norwegian Seafood Council. Savouries by Lotus Bloom, Movenpick ice cream and Kettro chocolates were enjoyed after the race.
The other luxury yachts that participated in the prestigious race today are owned by industrialists including Jamshyd Godrej from the Godrej Group, Ravi Mariwala from the Mariwala Group, Arvind Rao, Nandan Chandavarkar of FDC Pharma, Ashish Hemrajani from BookMyShow, Bharat Kewalramani, ex-head of South East Asia for JP Morgan, and Frank Hancock, ex-MD of Barclays Bank investment banking and more.
The array of luxury yachts competing in the Bombay Merchants Club Regatta included multiple Jeanneau, Beneteau, Archambault and Grand Soleils.
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The Regatta was organised by Viraf Hansotia from Gurkha Cigars in collaboration with IIFL and Rustomjee. Mr Hansotia said, “It gives us great pleasure to be able to value add in helping to grow awareness and participation in the sport of racing luxury yachts. We will now start planning for how we can make next year’s event bigger and better. And next year, we hope to see participation of many more Made In India yachts.
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