2017: The Indian Navy Receives Its Second Ocean-Going Sailboat

January 30, 2017

The extensive sea trials for the Indian Navy sailing vessel (INSV) Tarini were successfully completed. INSV Tarini, which had been built at Aquarius Shipyard in southwestern India’s state of Goa, was only the second ocean-going sailboat to become part of the Indian Navy. (ISNV Mhadei, the first of these sailboats, had been commissioned into active service in 2009.) Tarini was named after the ancient Tara Tarini Temple, a major pilgrimage destination in eastern India’s state of Odisha.

Nineteen days after the completion of her sea trials, Tarini was commissioned into the Indian Navy during a ceremony in Goa’s capital city of Panaji. Those attending this ceremony included Admiral Sunil Landba, chief of the naval staff of the Indian Navy.

Measuring 56 feet (17 meters) in length, Tarini has a total of six sails. This vessel has also been equipped with such advanced technologies as satellite communications and a wind vane that was built for emergency steering.

Tarini has already made maritime history during her relatively brief service to date. On September 10, 2017, a six-person crew of female Indian Navy officers on board Tarini left Goa to sail around the world. This expedition, skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, took 254 days to complete the first-ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. Tarini covered 21,600 nautical miles (40,003 kilometers) during this unprecedented journey, which also entailed making five stops along the way, traveling on three oceans, and crossing the Equator twice.

In addition, Joshi and those under her command had to contend with potentially hazardous threats ranging from powerful winds that were stronger than 60 knots (111 kilometers per hour) to waves as high as 23 feet. “It was a grueling test of human endurance, perseverance and sailing skills to battle the elements of [the] sea and its wrath,” asserted Indian Navy spokesman Captain D.K. Sharma. The women on board Tarini also spent their time on the vessel collecting and updating meteorological, ocean, and wave data and monitoring marine pollution on the high seas.

Additional information on INSV Tarini is available at https://pib.gov.in/newsite/mbErel.aspx?relid=158551 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INSV_Tarini.

For more information on Tarini’s record-setting circumnavigation of the globe, please check out the 18 May 2018 Times of India article “All-Woman Team Returns After Sailing Around World” at https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/all-woman-team-returns-after-sailing-around-world/articleshow/64228929.cms.