East coast sailing takes wind at Club Oceanic

With the dawn of peace in Sri Lanka, the weekend of August 21-22 will see a major sailing regatta taking place in Trincomalee. The event is being organised jointly by Club Oceanic Hotel, Trinco and the Colombo-based Royal Colombo Yacht Club, which has been at the forefront of Sri Lankan sailing over the past century.

The sailing fleet in action

Launching off the beach in front of the Club Oceanic Hotel, large fleet of sailing dinghies belonging to four classes is expected to cross the start line in the first race scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday August 21. In addition to the GP14s that make up the bulk of the island’s amateur sailing fleet will be the Sri Lanka Navy team’s 14-foot Enterprise-class boats flying their traditional sky-blue sails. Several single-sailed Laser-class dinghies in the youth category too, are expected to participate, alongside a strong showing from the nation’s junior sailors in their Optimist dinghies.

Opti-teams2 medium

Announcing the regatta, the Royal Colombo Yacht Club’s Commodore, Lalin Jirasinha said: “In past years Trincomalee used to be a major hub for the sport of sailing and we hope this event will give new impetus to restoring it to that position once again. We chose August for this event so that many youngsters could participate during their school holidays, and also because during this period there are calm seas with strong south-westerly katchan winds blowing. It is the ideal recipe for exciting sailing.”
The two-day event is being hosted by Club Oceanic Hotel to signal that Trincomalee is now completely open for tourism and able to host major sporting events. The hotel, located on a broad sandy beach, 5 km north of Trincomalee town, is a haven for the adventure-travel enthusiast with waters ideal for angling, canoeing, surfing, scuba diving, and even whale and dolphin watching during certain times of the year.