4 Young Sailors from the Royal Bombay Yacht Club (RBYC) have taken Optimist Class racing by storm. Xerxes Bamboat, Viraf Heerjee, Krish Makhija & Arisudin Sheth won the recently concluded National Team Sailing Championship in Goa.

The Optimist Class is widely acknowledged as the ideal training boat for young children to learn the intricacies of the sport. The class is limited to sailors under the age of 15. It is also one of the most prolifically raced boats in the world.

This win is especially rewarding since it bears testimony to the efforts of the people involved with a unique training program which is conducted by the RBYC in association with the Naval Sailing Club (Mumbai), called the Joint Optimist Sailing Program (JOSP), where a group of dedicated parents and other senior sailors pool in their time, effort and resources to get the children involved with the sport from a very young age. The program ensures that the children receive just the right kind of coaching at every stage of their learning process, with various innovative and interactive sessions on and off the water.

The JOSP works, and how! Out of the 5 Children selected to represent India at the Asian Sailing Championship 2006 to be held in Qatar, 3 were products of this program. Viraf Heerjee, Xerxes Bamboat and Krish Makhija braved very rough seas with wind speeds exceeding 20 Knots, to win the selection trials conducted by the Sea Cadet Corps Sailing Association.

Viraf, Xerxes & Krish along with Ayesha Lobo (again a product of the JOSP) were also selected to participate in the IODA Asian Championship in Pattaya, Thailand this November.