Indian Navy Turns To Women Officers To Take Up Solo Global Circumnavigation

The Indian Navy now wants women officers to circumnavigate the world.

This comes after former Indian Navy commander Abhilash Tomy made history by becoming the first Indian to complete and secure second position in the Golden Globe Race 2022.

“After a tough selection process, we shortlisted two and they have been going through training phases,” a senior Indian Navy officer said.

The two women officers are Lt Commander Dilna K and Lt Commander Roopa Alagirisamy.

These women officers were part of a batch of six female officers who participated in a trans-Atlantic Acean race ‘the Cape 2 Rio Race’.

Lt Commander Dilna K is a logistics officer while Lt Commander Roopa Alagirisamy is a naval armament inspection officer.

The two officers started sailing just two years ago, and in that short period of time, both have sailed more than 17,000 nautical miles, which is very significant.

The first part of their training, according to the report, happened last year when they sailed to Kochi, Vishakapatnam and Mauritius.

The second part of their training was completed when they sailed from Cape Town, South Africa and reached Rio De Janeiro, Brazil as part of the trans-Atlantic voyage and returned back to Goa.

During the race, they encountered bad weather, sometimes over sea states 6 and 7, which also damaged their yacht, including breaking their sail, which they fixed promptly.

“The boat went through a very rough patch of weather for two days while she was south of Madagascar, which they very skillfully negotiated. The boat did experience many defects and damages to sail which they handled well,” the report says quoting a navy official.

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In 2017-2018, the first all-women crew of the Indian Navy completed a circumnavigation of the world as part of Navika Sagar Parikrama.

After the success of the all-women crew in the Navika Sagar Parikrama in 2017-2018, the Indian Navy was inspired to encourage more groundbreaking achievements.

Retired Commander Abhilash Tomy attempted the Golden Globe Race but unfortunately had to be rescued due to injury.

On 29 April, this year, Tomy made history by becoming the first Indian to complete the Golden Globe Race.

His achievement of becoming the first Indian to complete the race has rekindled the Navy’s commitment to supporting female officers in their own solo circumnavigations of the world.