Mandar Coast
The Coast Of The Sandeq Narrow Outrigger Sailing Boats That Are Among The Fastest Traditional Craft Under Sail Anywhere, Still Built And Still Raced · Polewali, West Sulawesi
A SANDEQ IS A SAILING BOAT ABOUT AS WIDE AS A MAN'S SHOULDERS, with a single outrigger on each side and one triangular sail, and it is among the FASTEST TRADITIONAL SAILING CRAFT ANYWHERE - crews drive them across open water at speeds that embarrass far larger boats, hanging out on the booms to hold them down. THE MANDAR PEOPLE OF THIS COAST BUILD THEM, SAIL THEM AND STILL RACE THEM, in an annual event that runs up the Sulawesi coast over days. It is not a revival. The hulls are shaped by hand from a single log, the fishermen use them for flying-fish roe, and the knowledge is passed down the way the pinisi builders' is at Tanah Beru. THE COAST ITSELF IS WORKING SHORELINE - MAJENE'S OLD PORT BUILDINGS, black sand, drying racks, and no tourism to speak of. Foreign visitors here are close to nonexistent. There is no gate and nothing to buy a ticket for - you drive the coast road, stop where boats are beached and ask, and a local contact turns looking into being shown. The annual race runs up this coast over several days, on dates nobody publishes.
Mandar Coast, Polewali Mandar and Majene, West Sulawesi, Polewali, West Sulawesi, Indonesia
THE COAST RUNS BETWEEN POLEWALI AND MAJENE and is reached by road - roughly FOUR TO SIX HOURS FROM MAKASSAR, or from MAMUJU to the north. THERE IS NO GATE AND NOTHING TO BUY A TICKET FOR: sandeq are built and beached in the villages along the shore, and seeing them is a matter of stopping and asking. A LOCAL CONTACT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE between looking at boats and being shown how one is made. THE SANDEQ RACE runs ANNUALLY, generally around the middle of the year, over several days up the coast - DATES ARE LOCAL AND ARE NOT PUBLISHED FOR VISITORS, so ask in Polewali or Majene. WEST SULAWESI IS STRONGLY MUSLIM: dress modestly and check for Ramadan. ACCOMMODATION IS SIMPLE. Bring cash; banking outside the towns is limited.