The Mhadei class are

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

going

sail training From its modern interpretations to its antecedents when maritime nations would send young naval officer candidates to sea (e.g., see Outward Bound), sail training provides an unconventional and effective way of building many useful skills on and ...

boats A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically found on i ...

of the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...

& include INSV Mhadei and INSV Tarini as the 2

sail boats A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminolog ...

of the class."INSV" stands for Indian Navy sailing vessel. On 19 May 2010 as he sailed ''Mhadei'' into Mumbai harbour, Commander Dilip Donde became the first Indian national to complete a single-handed circumnavigation under sail, in an Indian-built boat. He sailed from Mumbai on 19 August 2009 and returned to Mumbai after four stops on 19 May 2010. It was later used by Abhilash Tomy for his own single-handed, unassisted, non-stop

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...

under sail.

Design and description

INSV Mhadei INSV ''Mhadei'' is a sail training boat of the Indian Navy."INSV" stands for Indian Navy sailing vessel. On 19 May 2010 as he sailed ''Mhadei'' into Mumbai harbour, Commander Dilip Donde became the first Indian national to complete a single-hand ...

the first boat of the Mhadei class is a cruising

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...

built at the Aquarius Shipyard Pvt Ltd shipyard in

Divar The island of Divar (formerly ''Piedade'') ( knn, Divaddi, pronounced ) (derived from the word ''Dipavati'' or 'small Island' in Konkani) lies in the Mandovi river in the Indian state of Goa. It is one of the of 6 major islands within the ...

. The vessel was handed over to the Indian Navy in February 2009 and christened INSV ''Mhadei'', after the

Mandovi River The Mahadayi/Mandovi River (''Mandovi'', pronounced ), also known as Mahadayi or Mhadei river, is described as the lifeline of the Indian state of Goa. The Mandovi and the Zuari are the two primary rivers in the state of Goa. Mandovi joins ...

. ''Mhadei'' was built to a stock design by van de Stadt called Tonga 56 measuring 56 feet in length and displacing 23 tons. It was decided to build a wood-core and

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clot ...

sandwich hull for better performance than steel or aluminium. The boat has two mainsails, two Genoa's, a stay-sail, one try-sail and two gennaker's. She is also fitted with satellite communications and electronic navigation systems.

Service history

Originally built by Ottavio Tofful and Yohan Vels on the Divar Island in Goa. After launching in Goa, Commander Donde sailed ''Mhadei'' to

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

and

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

. Donde then took the boat on a circumnavigation voyage on 19 August 2009, and returned on 19 May 2010; ''Mhadei'' was the first Tonga 56 to complete a solo circumnavigation. In 2012, ''Mhadei'' was used by

Lt Cdr Abhilash Tomy to complete a single-handed, unassisted, non-stop

under sail. He was the first Indian, second Asian, and 79th person to do so. ''Mhadei'' finished the journey at Kochi, after completing a voyage of 23,100 nautical miles (42,781 km). In 2013, the navy's first all female team of sailors began preparation for another circumnavigation of the world, led by

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

Shweta Kapur. The crew practised in a race from

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

. In May 2016 INSV Mhadei set sail from Goa for a voyage to Port Louis in Mauritius skippered by Lt. Cdr. Vartika Joshi, a Naval Constructor. This was the first open-ocean voyage of the Navy’s all-woman crew of the Mhadei. It was a training voyage to expose the young crew to the weather that they would confront during the circumnavigation of the globe scheduled for 2017. The crew entered Port Louis, Mauritius, on Tuesday, 14 June 2016. The crew members were skipper Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, a Naval architect, and five others: Lieutenant P. Swathi, Lt. Pratibha Jamwal, Lt. Vijaya Devi, Sub Lt. Payal Gupta and Lt. B. Aishwarya.

Second Boat

A second boat in this class, INSV ''Tarini'', was ordered in 2016 and commissioned into active service on 18 February 2017. She was built by Aquarius Shipyard Private Limited. The sail boat was inducted by Admiral

Sunil Lanba Sunil (सुनील) is a first name for males, often found in the South Asian community. The Sanskrit word ' means "dark", "very blue", and is also an epithet of Krishna. Notable people * Sunil (actor), Indian Telugu film actor * Sunil (d ...

at the INS Mandovi Boat Pool with an all women crew and is skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi. The

vessel Vessel(s) or The Vessel may refer to: Biology *Blood vessel, a part of the circulatory system and function to transport blood throughout the body *Lymphatic vessel, a thin walled, valved structure that carries lymph *Vessel element, a narrow wat ...

will be

's first all-woman global

vessel and the extremely challenging expedition by Tarini's all-woman crew is slated to commence in August 2017.

Specifications

*Displacement: 23 tons *Length (overall): 17.1 m *Beam: 5 m *Height of mast: 21 m above

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that ind ...

Notes

References