‘When I heard he’s broken his wind vane, I thought his race was over’ Abhilash’s father traces the journey of his son: on the sea and in life.

For father Tomy Valliara, constantly stressed and now used to it, the perennial prayer has been that son Abhilash Tomy completes the Golden Globe Race 2022. He jokes, “I’m a father and I want him to finish, not worried about any position because if not then he will once again beg, borrow, steal and make a boat and set off around the globe!” A horic achievement for India to circumnavigate in the toughest race there is, but a source of dress yet pride to the expectedly worried father.
Nevertheless the former naval officer has settled into a routine. “I check updates that come every four hours. Even at night 1.30 am and 5.30 am. Earlier I needed alarms, now I wake up automatically anyway to check.”
The whimsy ways of the ocean would scare him. “I know about oceans and how they behave. Today they are calm, tomorrow they’ll be different.”

Abhilash Tomy / Bayanat crossed the finish line at 0446 UTC, finished his 2nd time solo non stop around the world journey, he at 2nd in #GGR2022 Race. He thanks Les Sables, and his sponsor https://t.co/PTR9zVB5aF . Congraturation Abhilash!!! pic.twitter.com/SLBxM5jTrH
— Golden Globe Race 2022 (@ggr2022) April 29, 2023
The father remembers the first time Abhilash set off in his boat. “It was at Uran near Navi Mumbai. Our official accommodation was on the 4th or 5th floor, and my wife saw someone bobbing about in a makeshift boat. When Abhilash returned, we asked him if it was him. It was a thermocol boat made of packing material and he was scared to say yes,” he recalls. It was low lying waters, but Abhilash was only in Class 6.
It had started out at a sailing Club at Kochi, when he was just 7. “I was always posted near the sea shore and at Kochi, we were close to a sailing club. Whenever there was free time, Abhi would go and do something or the other at the club. The manager was very impressed and slowly started training him first on a small boat, then on a bigger one.”

However there was another yearly ritual that points to Abhilash’s passionate embrace of risky sea voyages and solo sailing. “He would read 100 years of Solitude Marquez atleast once every year! He loves the book, and loves solitude, I’m telling you,” he says. Yet eight months on the oceans all alone, is superhuman.
“He was always an extensive reader. 100 years of Solitude, Ramayan. Upanishads. He might be able to quote from Upanishads more than any Hindu counterpart. He reads a lot,” the father adds.
Of all the challenges, Abhilash bouncing back from a broken wind vane gave the father the most jitters. “When I heard he’s broken his wind vane, I thought his race was over. But he found innovative ways. It’s natural for a defense person to be resourceful. You can’t back off in a battle and say my gun isn’t firing!” His ingenuity was built at the naval Academy, his brother Aneesh reckons.
A studious child, Tomy recalls Abhilash coming either first or second in class always. “And if he came second, he would study harder to come first. He’ll be awake through the night. Very competitive,” he says.
During board examinations, a frantic friend once dropped his office to tell him Abhilash was spotted playing cricket the afternoon before his paper. “When I heard that, I felt relief. All it meant was that Abhilash had confidently finished his portion and was ready and relaxed for the exams.” Besides cricket, the brothers also played volleyball. “He’s not an outstanding player, but we played in the backyard.”

Outstanding sailor he did turn out to be. So, what’s the welcome planned for him? “He lives in Goa, but I’m sure he’ll come down to Kochi to meet his mummy who will cook him his favourite tomato-coconut milk thick curry,” the father says.
“He had called it an unfinished task in 2018,” Tomy recalls. In completing the task, Abhilash Tomy scribbled himself a mammoth stroke of Indian maritime hory.