Since Covid has finally stopped being a life-threatening situation for people, the College of Engineering Pune Technological University has decided to bring the 95-year-old tradition, the Regatta on a bigger scale.
The Banks of the Mula River will light up with boats and students on March 26 to celebrate the 95th Regatta, which is being organized by the students. Since the pandemic, it has only been celebrated in virtual and hybrid modes which is why, this year, the college wants to organize it on a bigger scale.
Vice Chancellor of COEP shared that both the students and the city have been missing the Regatta a lot. They are all excited to see it come back to its glory as students have been practicing day and night and even under the blazing afternoon sun.
The Regatta Secretary has announced, “The preparations for the 95th Regatta are steadily progressing as we are nearing our show date.” The theme for this year’s Regatta is ‘Stride towards the Pinnacle’ to show the hard work of the students who are dedicated to this year’s Regatta.
The event always attracts a large number of alumni and sponsorship support to help make the event better and grander. The 91st Regatta in 2019 made it into the Limca Book of Awards for the longest-running fest. This is why students are determined to make this year even more exciting and worthwhile. While the usual head count is 5000-7000, the Regatta chief coordinator informed everyone that they are expecting more than the usual headcount and a lot of them will also be outsiders.
There will be five main events- Shell Games, Kayak Ballet, Tele Matches, Mashal Dance, and Punt formation. The event always starts with an arrow formation made by all the boats from every event till now. After this, the Shell Games or the Kayak Ballet is performed. It consists of rowing and kayaking boats. The entire event is normally for 4-5 hours out of which Kayak ballet and shell games are of 15 minutes each.
After that in Tele Matches, the boats portray a story with the help of movements, lights, and fireworks. The punt formation is created which involves blue and orange boats. Each boat can capacitate 4-10 people and they try to form different shapes to send out a message. Lastly, the Mashal Dance as the name suggests is performed by students holding flaming torches to signify a message.
A lot of students are attracted to this college because of the love they have for these sports. Even during the pandemic, whenever the students of undergraduate and postgraduate were allowed to come back to the campus, they would come and start practicing Kayaking or rowing. This is why the entire event is managed mostly by the students.
There are a total of 17 old kayaks and 21 racing kayaks in the club. They also have 10 single-scull and 6 double-scull boats. Once a student masters the old kayak, they are given a chance to use the racers. There are also other boats like racing pairs, canoes, racing eight, etc.
The Regatta will officially begin on the full moon night and the club hosts midnight punting for the students to let them enjoy the scenery. Very soon, on March 26, all the students and many others will come together to marvel at the beauty of the Regatta.
