Overview
- Flag-off from Porbandar, Gujarat, to Muscat, Oman, is scheduled for December 29, marking the vessel’s maiden overseas run.
- Built with coir-stitched wooden planks sealed with natural resins, the engineless ship sails under wind power with no metal fastenings.
- The project stems from a Ministry of Culture–Indian Navy–Hodi Innovations memorandum of understanding and was executed by artisans led by master shipwright Babu Sankaran.
- Hydrodynamic testing and stability studies with academic partners, including IIT Madras, guided design choices and certified the vessel as seaworthy.
- Named for the mariner Kaundinya, the voyage retraces historic Indian Ocean routes once used by traders between India and West Asia.