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I had taken up sailing,
rather late in the day regrettably, primarily attracted
by the social and leisure opportunities it had to
offer, quite apart from its competitive aspects.
However, once I
could handle the rudiments of sailing, I was totally
hooked and before long found myself whole-heartedly
engrossed with the Yangon Sailing Club’s
( YSC ) week-end races and monthly challenges,
hardly letting a single week-end go by without
taking part in one Club race or the other, if
I could help it. |
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rest of the “Thwins” had discovered
a long time ago that if they wanted to spend time
with their “Old Man”, they had better
cater to his whims and fancies… and so it
was that the Rangoon Sailing Club (RSC) as it was
initially known, became our veritable “home
away from home” and to my delight every member
of the family took to the sport and enjoyed themselves
thoroughly in the process. Admittedly,
I still preferred “hoisting the mug”
to “hoisting the sails” unlike the
more serious ones among us and although my sailing
prowess did not advance much beyond the mediocre
stage I’m proud to say that, at least one
of my off-spring, did manage to compete internationally
as a member of the National Team.
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and leisure aside, on a more serious note, “Going
For Gold” has long been YSC’s traditional
objective once it was decided to venture into the
world of international racing. And
this could be attested by the numerous gold medals
our sailors have proudly brought back home over
the years, be it racing on vintage wooden-hulled
dinghies or the state-of-the-art modern fiber-glass
successors of today.
This instinct to
hunt for the top medal, I’m glad to see,
continues to be honed sharply with each generation
of young sailors and has not diminished one iota
even today.
“
The big difference is that we have now entered
a new racing era, where, thanks to space-age technology,
race-boats can even surpass the speeds of prevailing
winds ”, Michael Moe Myint,
the prime mover behind today’s YSC, told
me as I sat down to chat with him the other day.
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Fun and leisure aside, on a more serious note,
“Going For Gold” has long been
YSC’s traditional objective once it
was decided to venture into the world of international
racing. And this
could be attested by the numerous gold medals
our sailors have proudly brought back home
over the years, be it racing on vintage
wooden-hulled dinghies or the state-of-the-art
modern fiber-glass successors of today.
This instinct to
hunt for the top medal, I’m glad to
see, continues to be honed sharply with
each generation of young
sailors and has not diminished one iota
even today.
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“
The big difference is that we have now entered a
new racing era, where, thanks to space-age technology,
race-boats can even surpass the speeds of prevailing
winds ”, Michael Moe Myint,
the prime mover behind today’s YSC, told me
as I sat down to chat with him the other day.
“
Yatch-racing is a far cry from what it used to be
and unless you can keep up with the rest of the
world, you’re going to end-up getting nowhere
”, Michael said.
He was talking about his latest “search-for-gold”
campaign, and the preparations he and the National
Sailing Team had put-in over the previous months
in training and preparations.
While Michael enthused
about what he had achieved so far, I could not
help but share his enthusiasm as well as his sense
of pride and accomplishment as he eagerly looked
forward to his latest challenge.
“
The bottom line is speed…. Boat Speed is
what wins races after everything else has been
factored-in and I’m determined that our
competitors have the best equipment money can
buy to give them a decent fighting chance”,
said Michael.
“
No time nor expense has been spared to make sure
that our young and dynamic sailors not only received
the best training that the world’s best
could offer but we’ve also gone to the extent
of customizing all the boats to suit each individual
sailor and to get that little extra speed”
he explained.
Yangon Sailing Club
(YSC), thanks to its former mentors, and due to
the relentless pursuit of excellence by Michael
and its present leadership, continues to produce
top-class young sailors who not only possess the
skills and knowledge necessary to compete with
the world’s best, but who have been fortunate
enough to be provided with the proper “tools”
to match their skills.
Bringing back gold for
his beloved country and keeping up with tradition
is nothing new for Michael, but even he considers
the forthcoming Asian Games to be formidable.
“After this, I’m really going to sit-back
and take it easy”, he said (probably with
his fingers crossed behind his back), but having
known Mick, as I like to call him, for the better
part of his adult life and being quite familiar
with his penchant for any kind of challenge thrown
in front of him, I simply refuse to take him seriously.
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