Taking the sea ashore...

...and into space. Commander Abhilash Tomy's take on how lessons from sailing can be applied in diverse areas

- MATHEW T. GEORGE

THE SUREST WAY to change India in a generation is to send more youth to sea, said Commander Abhilash Tomy KC, NM, India’s first and only solo, non-stop circumnavigator. “Nothing builds character like the sea,” he said at THE WEEK Maritime Conclave 2024.

Tomy spoke about how skills acquired by sailors and techniques deployed in the maritime sector could have applications in areas far removed from the sea. Answering a question from the audience about the relevance of celestial navigation and ancient navigation, Tomy highlighted the practice of GPS disruption employed by governments and non-state actors.

Speaking to THE WEEK privately, he said: “There was this instance of a super-yacht which had deployed a GPS jammer to throw off paparazzi drones. The captain forgot to turn it off when the ship was in port in the Netherlands. This jammer hit GPS functions in the Netherlands, Belgium and some neighbouring countries. This was accidental, of course. But it is often done intentionally, too. So, knowing celestial navigation is a crucial back-up for sectors like defence as it is failure-proof, jammer-proof.”

Space is another area where sailing has something to contribute, he said. Tomy is collaborating with ISRO on the Gaganyaan mission and his inputs were specific to what the astronauts should do in case of an irregular entry on their way back. Usually, the crew module is retrieved from the sea after emergency landings.