The changes are very relevant to the present and have been made extensively over the entire association.
THE NEED
With the growth in the popularity and in order to sustain it, YAI in February 2007, under the then President initiated the preparation of a blueprint for the development of sailing in the country. Accordingly, the entire gamut of sailing activities starting from recreational sailing to organised club activity to competitive national and international level sailing were analysed. Further, the management and governance of the sport at various levels in the country and internationally were also studied in detail.
FACTS AND FINDINGS
The most important find concluded due to the study was the fact that there was a retardation of growth and several areas were not developing due to organisational bottlenecks.
And the most important solution would be the need to develop the sport at the grass roots level so as to have a larger pool of sailors in the country to help popularise and promote the development of the sport. (That's what we feel too.)
In addition, sailing in the country had for the most part revolved around a few centres, primarily Mumbai. The development of alternate / additional clubs / sailing schools in other parts of the country would help in broad-basing the sport and bring in the desired changes.
WHAT'S NEXT ?
In order to bring about these changes, several policy initiatives would be required to be put in place. These included amendments to the YAI Constitution, strengthening the network of clubs and setting up of sailing schools, formulating activities, widening sources of YAI revenues, supporting and promoting high performance racing at national and international levels and lastly delivering good services and administration.
From YAI's point-of-view, due to the divergent views of its council members, an amendment was chartered in the form of 'Constitution of the YAI', under the new presidency of Lt Gen RR Goswami.
This much required shuffle at the Yachting Association of India, brings about the importance of all-round growth of the passion and sport of yachting through its grass-roots. At the same time, we hope that the new Constitution is implemented effectively to sustain and promote further growth of yachting in India.
