Saluting Abhilash Tomy: India's great maritime hero

Today, 5 April, India celebrates its National Maritime Day commemorating the day in 1919, when SS Loyalty, an Indian-owned ship, of the Scindia Steamship Navigation, sailed from Mumbai (then Bombay) to London via Marseilles. That rather simple feat, seen retrospectively, was an audacious act, because at that time, the shipping routes, companies, trade and indeed the oceans were dominated by the British. Here was a Swadeshi shipping company started by four courageous Indians — Walchand Hirachand, Narottam Morarjee, Lallubhai Samaldas and Kilachand Devchand — who dared to dream big and challenge the British monopoly over ocean navigation. This year, the National Maritime Day has been preceded by a Maritime Week flagged off on 30 March but one wonders if the ‘nation’ is aware at all of either the significance of the day or of other matters maritime. To us, in the maritime realm, some facts stare us in the face. We are a country with a coastline of nearly 8,000 kilometres. We have more than 1,200 islands, nearly 200 ports and an oceanic Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of more than 2 million sqkm (about 70 per cent of our land area). Ninety percent of our trade is carried on seas. We are the only country in the world to have an ocean named after us. We have a great maritime heritage which traces back 4,000 years ago to the Indus Valley Civilisation which means that our ancestors were sailing the high seas when most parts of the world were trying to make sense of their immediate surroundings.

I will be taking part in the Golden Globe Race 2022 on the Bayanat. It is a big thing for me and here is why.

On 18 Sep 2018, I was racing in the south Indian Ocean when we were caught in an unusual storm which claimed two of the three boats in its way.

Mine was one of them.

— Cdr Abhilash Tomy KC, NM (@abhilashtomy) March 22, 2022

Despite that, it seems sometimes that we are a nation with an underwhelming maritime outlook and negligible maritime culture. If it needs reminding, it was the decline of our maritime prowess that led us to being colonised in the first place, losing not only our freedom but also ending up as one of the poorest nations in the world from being the richest at the end of first millennium CE. Alas, even today, the same indifference and myopia remain in the aam janta as also the elites of the nation even though governments, navy and maritime agencies do their best. Most Indians, arguably, don’t even know why National Maritime Day is celebrated. One symptom of this myopia is that in our obsession with cricket, Bollywood and other ‘weapons of mass distraction’ while a truly incredible sporting achievement by an Indian is being completely ignored. Much like the ‘fabulous four’ who took on the British 104 years ago, Abhilash Tomy, an Indian sailor is at the cusp of achievement in a sport dominated by the West. In distant Atlantic, thousands of miles away from us in India, Tomy holds the Indian flag aloft in one of the toughest sporting events in the world. And, at the time of writing this, he is in the pole position, poised to finish in the top two and, possibly, even, win the race. But great as this achievement is, that is not the only reason Tomy would rank as one of India’s greatest maritime heroes. To truly celebrate and relish the accomplishments we need to know a bit more about him and the race he is in. The Golden Globe Race or GGR as it is popularly called requires its participants to circumnavigate by nonstop solo sailing. Each of these words is hugely significant. In essence, participants are to transit around the world, alone, without breaking the journey, in a sailing vessel, using only wind power and sea currents to propel themselves. No engines or any sort of mechanised power is allowed for propulsion. There are some other technical rules too. The journey must begin and end in the same place, the vessels must traverse all longitudes in the same direction, travel a distance at least equal to the length of the Equator, must cross the Equator minimum at two points and above all, go around the three great Capes in the southern hemisphere – Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn. In addition, as the GGR seeks to emulate the first such achievement by Sir Robert Knox Johnston of UK in 1968, it requires participants to use only such facilities as were available in 1968. Hence, they have no recourse to modern aids in navigation or communication such as autopilot, GPS or phone calls/emails with families; instead, they have to rely on manual steering, sextants and radios. Therefore, it should be no surprise if a contest as tough as this should have only a minuscule number among the ocean sailors attempting it and even fewer complete it. [caption id=“attachment_12409422” align=“alignnone” width=“185”] Abhilash Tomy getting good luck for the competition. Image courtesy GGR and Abhilash Tomy[/caption] The odds can only be imagined. Not only do such sailors need to be very competent professionally to have good knowledge of winds, currents, pressure zones, sailing skills, chart work, navigation using celestial bodies and such like, they also need to be adept at the maintenance of machinery, repair of sails and keeping their boats shipshape. Being alone they need to steer, keep a watch, manoeuvre sails, communicate, cook all by themselves. They need to climb masts to repair sails or dive underwater to remove barnacles. They need to avoid collisions or groundings. They need to keep moving because it is a race after all and yet catch rest and sleep. They need to be everything – Captain, Crew, Bosun, Quartermaster, Cook, Carpenter, Stoker, Shipwright, Doctor. They need to fight exhaustion, loneliness, illness, all alone. They need to withstand bouts of hallucination and other mental mirages. They need to brave stormy seas, howling winds, terrible waves, dark foreboding nights, dangerous sea animals and all the damage the elements can do to their small vessels. They need to be physically and mentally at the top of their game. And they need to sustain this not for few hours or days or weeks but for months together, continuously, non-stop. Is it any wonder then that the club of solo circumnavigators including those not in the GGR is less than the numbers of those who have scaled the Mount Everest or gone into outer space? Arguably, therefore, solo circumnavigation, especially of the GGR kind, is one of the toughest sports in the world. To give some perspective, in the first race in 1968, only Johnston completed it among the nine who took part and in 2018, when the second edition took place, only five completed the race in a starting field of 17 participants. Coming to the current race, 16 sailors sailed on 4 September 2022 from Les Sables d’Olonne, a seaside town in western France. By February this year, 10 boats had retired from the competition. As of today, only three boats are left in main category. While the South African Kirsten Neuschäfer, the only lady sailor, is in the lead, Abhilash Tomy, is close behind second and Michael Guggenberger, an Austrian, is in the third position. Three others - Simon Curwen, Jeremy Bagshaw and Ian Herbert Jones - are in Chichester Class, so named after Sir Francis Chichester, who in 1966-1967 had sailed solo around the world with one stop. As on 04 April, the lead between Kirsten and Tomy had reduced to about 100 nautical miles, which is a hairbreadth in the ocean sailing vocabulary. Further, sailing experts opine that Tomy in his current position well west of Kirsten is likely to have better winds and that his tactical savvy in such matters will work to his advantage. With less than 2,800 nautical miles to go, we can expect, in the words of one expert ‘a thriller unfolding in slow motion’.

Mar 30 2023 5.17 AM
71: #AbhilashTomy (India) - Rustler 36 “Bayanat”: 71 The Bayanat has crossed the equator a second time. Congratulations to the team!

https://t.co/v2Rlfg1UxC

— Golden Globe Race (@GGR_2026) March 30, 2023

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One might have, therefore, expected that this race would be well covered in Indian media and followed daily, that the twists and turns and the fortunes of Tomy be a matter of huge interest. Especially given how Tomy has sailed this race and the past history, he should have been a household name. For long, India did not have anyone is the circumnavigation club. Some intrepid individuals from the army, navy and the civilians did sail around the world on their yachts but they did not qualify as they did not fulfill all the technical requirements outlined above. Determined to change this, the institutional impetus given by navy from around 20 years ago and some herculean efforts by four individuals – VAdm MP Awati, Dilip Donde, Abhilash Tomy and Ratnakar Dandekar brought us our first successes. Wile the complete story of their combined exertions needs a book by itself, suffice it here to say that Awati was the visionary who conceptualised the idea, Dandekar the Goa based builder, and Donde and Tomy were the two navy officers who set out to be the pioneers in sailing solo. Donde successfully completed his solo circumnavigation sortie in 2010 and thus became ‘The First Indian’ (the title of his eminently readable book on his Odyssey) to do so. Tomy, mentored by Donde went one step ahead of his Guru. While Donde has stopped at few places, Tomy solo circumnavigated nonstop, sailed for ‘151 days’ (the title of his book) continuously and completed his journey in 2013. These two, in turn, inspired and mentored the Indian Navy’s all women crew of six officers led by Lt Cdr Varthika Joshi, who completed their circumnavigation voyage in May 2018. In less than a decade, India had eight members in the elite club. More importantly, an ecosystem had been created to facilitate such endeavours in future. Given this background, Abhilash Tomy could have rested on his considerable laurels and made the most of his celebrity status. But guys like Donde and Tomy are made differently. The oceans hold a seductive charm for them and they beckoned Tomy when the organisers of the Golden Globe race announced a race in 2018 to commemorate 50 years of the first circumnavigation by Johnston. I was personally witness to some aspects of that thraldom. Being in the navy, some acquaintance with Tomy was natural, but we had spent a delightful year together as fellow residents of the Western Naval Command Officers (WNCO) Mess, Mumbai, from Jul 2016 to Jul 2017, when we were both forced bachelors. There were always some lovely exchanges over meals and occasionally, over a drink. My notes of that time record “It was but natural to admire his spirit, ‘can do’ attitude and, what seemed like, utter fearlessness. That he was very well read, articulate and observant was an added bonus. Like all young achievers he had a swag about him, which I found that utterly charming. Much of his time was spent preparing and practicing for his next adrenaline filled adventure, which manifest itself in mid-2018 as the Golden Globe solo circumnavigation odyssey”.  For GGR 18, Tomy got a special invitation and was the only Asian among the 17 participants. He sailed in a vessel called ‘Thuriya’ which was also built by Dandekar and was a replica of the ‘Suhaili’, in which, Sir Robin Knox Johnston had completed his circumnavigation. The 2018 Golden Globe Race commenced in July and about two-and-a-half months later, when Tomy was in the third position, tragedy struck. Encountering a very severe storm in the southern Indian Ocean Thuriya rolled over twice and was dismasted. In roaring seas, as Thuriya threatened to capsize, Tomy fell 30 feet from the mast onto the deck. For 71 hours, an incapacitated Tomy hung on in his knocked down vessel, making heroic efforts to save the boat and himself and then awaiting rescue. That riveting drama in real life in 18 September, is itself stuff of fascinating recall. It makes for and proves why Tomy is the hero that he is. The accident left him badly injured, limiting his mobility. Eventually rescued on 24 September, by joint efforts of the French, Australians and Indian Navy, he was found, on return to India, to have his spine fractured at four different places. At that stage he was unsure whether he would be able to walk again. Subsequently, he underwent surgery followed by rehabilitation. Titanium rods were inserted in his spine and five vertebrae were fused into one. I met him on 26 December that year, when he dropped into my office. My notes then record, _“_After pleasantries and benediction to God about his safe landing, I was fortunate to get a first-hand account both of the trauma at sea and his subsequent struggles negotiating surgery for a fractured back bone, rehab and slow easing back to normalcy. Courtesy the marvellous job (to use his words) by military doctors and full support by the navy, Tomy is now back on his feet and 80 per cent of the way to full fitness. Of course, he has many plans for the future and it would be in fitness of things for him to unveil them. For the moment though we must celebrate his courage in the face of adversity, be grateful that he is back amongst us and hope that is back to his ebullient, gung-ho self asap”. Tomy’s plans were about getting back to sailing and flying. Amazingly he accomplished them in quick time. And he was ready when organisers announced a GGR in 22. In a Facebook post announcing his decision to take part Tomy said, “…My legs were so badly off that I had to learn to walk again. But I did learn to walk, and then got into a cockpit and got back to flying, and sailing. … Three and half years later, I am heading back into the same race that almost got me killed. Wish me luck.” He retired from the navy to fully concentrate on the race but Covid and a combination of many other factors - structural and cultural - meant that much of his time was spent attending to those bottlenecks with very little time to prepare. Further, when he started the race on 04 September, the emotional trauma of the last race would undoubtedly have weighed on his mind.

An #amazingIndian will soon do #India proud. Story of #abhilashtomy in the grueling 30000 mile #GoldenGlobeRace is awesome. Can't forget his mast climb in the middle of S Pacific for repairs in 2013. Extreme daredevilry. Proves he can do anything. Cheers!https://t.co/S7dw07UjGh pic.twitter.com/xt9ktDbilS

— G Prakash (@Cmde_GPrakash) March 19, 2023

Looking at the way he has sailed the race though, it doesn’t seem that any of these factors seem to have mattered. He has negotiated the rough seas and mental challenges well. He also crossed a huge psychological barrier when he traversed the same Southern Ocean sans problems this time. Speaking to the race organisers he said, “When I crossed that point where I had the accident, I felt light and that was a very physical experience. I felt something leave me.” According to him, from the start of the race till that point, he had been tense. However, while still in the Indian Ocean he suffered a fall on his back. Added to the long hours of steering in bad weather conditions, his old injury flared up. He experienced ‘back pain and numb limbs.’ While doctors advised pain killers, Abhilash decided to sail slowly and avail some rest. This adversely impacted his speed and momentum. His worries didn’t end there. In the southern Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chile, Kirsten and Abhilash had to tackle a big storm. More recently, in February this year, he navigated through another heavy storm and several patches of rough weather losing ground to Kirsten. He waited several days for a weather window, heaving to, 700 miles off the coast of Chile to climb the mast and repair his damaged rig. And fittingly on Mahashivratri Day, 18 February, Tomy a big devotee of Lord Shiva, crossed the treacherous Cape Horn, considered the Mount Everest of Ocean sailing. Thus, it’s not exactly been smooth sailing for Tomy. His small light vessel ‘Bayanat’ has taken much punishment. But what has surprised observers and experts alike is Tomy’s resilience and his enormous capacity to innovate. Despite many problems on the vessel, he has hung on gallantly where others have retired or gone Chichester. He has handled number of problems including being without generators and making do with an innovatively repaired wind vane. The last one is particularly fascinating for it brings out Tomy’s genius in handling such situations. When Tomy informed the organisers of a failed wind vane pendulum rudder on his boat the options for repair onboard were limited. He had been facing wind vane issues since the beginning and had used up all his spare blades. He had also ended up cutting the boat’s chart table and toilet door to make windvane parts. When it broke down again in March, Tomy briefly wondered whether he may have to seek repairs on land and thereby join the Chichester Class. Eventually, though, he managed to do the necessary repairs by cutting a blade from the boat’s main emergency rudder. Such kind of innovative repairs to offset his limitations have earned him huge admiration from the Ocean sailing fraternity. [caption id=“attachment_12409412” align=“alignnone” width=“185”] Abhilash Tomy. Image courtesy GGR and Abhilash Tomy[/caption] To be sure the race is not over yet. While the so called ‘hot spots’ or tricky areas have been crossed and the sailors are on the home run, it still about 30 plus days for the first boat to reach finish line. Situations can vary and positions can change very dynamically. What makes the race even more compelling for an observer is that the participants themselves are not aware of where the other is or who is in the lead. This can trigger mental responses or tactical moves based on perceptions removed from reality. For example, though Kirsten Neuschäfer is in the lead she has been in light winds longer than other sailors since entering the Atlantic and is unaware that she is leading the fleet. This too could take an emotional toll on her. As experts say “morale and the mind game is becoming the major issue for Kirsten”. She too has suffered a broken spinnaker pole on her boat Minnehaha and can no longer fly her twin headsails. This is where, experts believe, Tomy has the edge. While he too is unaware of where others are, his current location and predicted paths suggest better winds. Further, he is supposed to be tactically brilliant. His repairs are finally sorted and after the Bayanat crossed the Equator on 30 March, it has gained considerably on Minnehaha. Plus, Bayanat is faster boat upwind and gives Tomy considerable advantage in the last leg. But Tomy is tired too having now been at sea for more than 210 days. Today, 5 April is also Abhilash Tomy’s wedding anniversary. Let’s see the race from the perspective of his wife and closest confidant Urmimala Abhilash. She says “As we near the end of this gruelling race, I know Abhilash is spent. He has struggled tremendously through the course of this journey. I had the chance to communicate with a fellow Keralite sailor who spoke to Abhilash for a while. I got to know Abhilash is finding it difficult to walk and has lost much weight. That was heartbreaking”. However, she too is amazed by his resilience and his bouncing back. She adds “But his performance in the past few weeks tell a different tale altogether. Two knockdowns in the violent storms he encountered before rounding Cape Horn and a very tricky system that he encountered on the 26th January (much like the one he faced in 2018) shook Bayanat up a bit. Torn mainsail, gas and fuel leaks, water leaks, gas failure but the toughest situation of all - the windpilot rudder and pendulum damage. Several skippers have retired due to this situation in the previous edition of the race, as well as this one. I was terrified when Don McIntyre called me that afternoon (it brought back some horrible memories) and told me quite clearly that he thought this was over and the windpilot was now ‘inoperable’. She further adds, “However, something within me refused to believe this was over. A stoicism lingered, a fool’s hope perhaps that he will find a way to get through this. I don’t know where he mustered the physical and mental strength to swing right back into action and cut up his chart table and make spare parts, he dismantled the anchor and made up some parts as well. I was gobsmacked but so very proud. But I knew he must’ve worn himself out thin doing this. Stayed up 2-3 nights, working endlessly”. She goes on further “Abhilash is not a professional sailor unlike Kirsten Damien or Simon. It is only pure passion for the sport that has brought him here. He has also hardly sailed on the Bayanat, whereas the others have done thousands of nautical miles on their boats. His resolve, never calling it quits attitude, his determination and bravery were instilled as part of his training in the Navy. The innovative ways through which he has handled moments and situations of extreme adversity are not qualities we find around ourselves anymore. Things are so easily replaceable, accessible. We are losing that touch, wherein we’d want to repair and reuse things. I think that stems from a deep respect for life in general. And Abhilash epitomises that quality. Respect for the resources comes from connecting with nature at a very deep level”. 

Reasons I let him off. Get quite the #tlc. Otherwise he is mostly demanding endless cups of coffee.

A big thank you to Capt Sadík, onboard MV Lady Serra, thank you for spotting @abhilashtomy and Bayanat! pic.twitter.com/99HSoMaxQz

— Urmimala Abhilash (@Urmimala_A) March 23, 2023

Respect for resources is one among the several other sterling qualities that Tomy has. He also has a fabulous sense of humour illustrated by his delightfully witty tweets or reports to organisers. A recent one that comes to mind when he was stuck in the Atlantic equatorial doldrums was the request for someone to ‘photoshop the equator and move it further south’. No matter how tired, he is invariably in high spirits. He was alert enough just few days ago to wish all in India on ‘Ram Navami’. He is a marvellous writer and raconteur too; his travels far and wide and varied experiences make him a natural narrator of tales and anecdotes in an interesting way. His experiences as a pilot, sailor, photographer, nature lover, adventurer give him a multihued perspective on many things. Above all, Tomy is a deeply spiritual person living a spartan life. He is inspired by the Vedas and Upanishads, by various other texts that grapple with the enigmas of our existence. His connect with seas is as much about solitude as it is about adventure. The elements of nature seek him out, speak to him and whisper their secrets. In that dimension of consciousness Tomy seeks to live his life forever. So, even this achievement of his, magnificent as it is for us laypersons, will be worn by him with a touch of lightness and gentle amusement.

Bravo @abhilashtomy ur amazing grapple with the oceans single-handed & titanium in your spine - literally/Scale of this epic voyage perhaps not adequately acknowledged /do read Shyam G Menon https://t.co/MwynGxxnNw /rounding Cape Horn eqvlt to scaling Everest @sardesairajdeep https://t.co/SU7NMk7Z01

— C Uday Bhaskar (@theUdayB) April 2, 2023

Given this multi-splendoured personality of his, it would seem axiomatic for people like me that adventurers like Tomy should be revered national icons and role models, that his deeds must be celebrated, that India should follow with bated breath his progress over the next few days. As Admiral Arun Prakash, the former navy chief puts it “the profound courage and indomitable spirit displayed by Abhilash Tomy during this epic voyage should be a source of pride and inspiration for every Indian”. However, sadly, that has not happened. Our indifference to Tomy is a subset of our neglect of the maritime domain in popular imagination. While official forums have honoured Tomy with many awards, he remains unknown among the citizens at large. As noted analyst Cmde C Uday Bhaskar observes “Tomy’s amazing grapple with the oceans single-handed and the scale of this epic voyage have not been adequately acknowledged.” The National Maritime Day gives us an opportunity to salute one of greatest maritime heroes. While Dilip Donde will always be the lodestar, Abhilash Tomy has carved out a special niche for himself in the way he has further expanded the envelope and enlarged the profile of Ocean Sailing in India. His achievements over the last 10 years in the face of tremendous physical, emotional, systemic, financial and material obstacles and his multiple forays to participate in, probably, the toughest race on this planet tells us a great deal about his character and commitment. Thus far, in his sailing career, Tomy has clocked a staggering 84000 NM of Ocean Sailing. Let that register. At the time of writing this Tomy is close to achieving one of the greatest sporting victories for India. He is the sole Asian in the fray challenging Western monopoly in the field. In all probability, we will see Tomy finishing the race next month at the top. Even if that were (God forbid) somehow not to happen he has done enough to be an Indian youth icon and an incredible achiever. The author is a navy veteran and former Director Maritime Warfare Centre, Mumbai and Officer in Charge, Naval History Project. He acknowledges with gratitude the inputs provided by GGR website, previous articles on this subject and comments by sailing experts and others who have been quoted here. All photos are courtesy GGR and Abhilash Tomy. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.