The “Golden Cat” was built in Hitesh, a boatyard at Billimora, Gujarat. Golden Cat is made from wood and ply as the fiber glass construction proved to be too expensive. She was commissioned on 25th December 2010 with the breaking of a coconut. In January and February 2011, Rajen and his team conducted extensive trials and sailed extensively off Vasi-Borsi, Surat to sort out teething problems and test out her strength and weaknesses. As their confidence in the boat grew, they decided to sail a little further away from home. In March and April 2011, she sailed from Vansi-Borsi (Surat) to Umargam – a 100 nautical mile (nm) round trip, Diu – a 250 nm round trip, and lastly to Mumbai – a 270 nm round trip. During her second year in 2012 her longest sail was to Goa – a 750 nm round trip.
As the confidence in the boat grew with shorter journeys, Rajen’s ambition to undertake a longer Surat – Lakshadweep – Surat expedition in the year 2013 also became stronger. Rajen alongwith his old time friend and two other members successfully completed their mission in February this year. Rajen and his team look forward to sailing the Golden Cat to many more places in the future and we wish them all the very best……
You can download the expedition details from the link below.
You can also read the blog Rajen maintains here http://shaharchita.wix.com/rajenshah
