indonesia corners

indonesia corners

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Yacht Sailing throughout Archipelago

Indonesia is a maritime country but ironically its maritime potency is not fully exploited yet. The central and regional governments try their best to make use of all its resources, be it fishery or maritime tourism among other yacht sailings. Recently, the yacht sailing was held under the name of Wakatobi-Belitung Yacht Sailing, the international racing between Wakatobi,  at the coast of southeast Sulawesi, and Belitung island.

The current yacht sailing was the continuation of the sailing started from Darwin on July 23 which took stop over at Wakatobi. The sailing was participated by around 200 yachters, 61 of which came from 17 countries among others Canada, USA, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, and Italy. 

From Darwin the yachters sailed to around 21 places in  the country taking two routes,  one team via Kupang and the other team Saumlaki, with the final destination to Belitung. The yachters were supposed to be able to create the best sailing passage to the final destination. 


Both teams arrived in Labuan Bajo after five to six weeks and then sailed via Bali where the sailing ended at Kalayang Beach, Belitung one month later. In order to disseminate the maritime tourism, a series of events under the theme “Clean Ocean for the Future”, were held before the arrival of the yachters. Several events were organized such as a seminar on Marine Tourism,  East Belitung Fair, and various kinds of sports: beach volleyball, diving competitions, jet-ski attraction, underwater photography and underwater chess competition.


On top of the Wakatobi-Belitung sailing, the same events already took place a long time ago. The first group of yacht sailing events was held aiming to call for more Australian yachters and tourists to visit Indonesia especially Bali. This yacht sailing, under the name of "Visit Indonesia Fremantle-Bali International Yacht Race" covering the distance of around 2,600 kilometers, was held irregularly from 1981 to 1997. After no activity for 14 years, the event restarted in April  2011.

The second group started in 1986 is an annual event under the umbrella program of Ambon and Darwin cities and are supported by Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Darwin Cruising Yacht Association and local government of Northern Territory, Australia. It is hoped that all yacht sailing events will be held annually with the aim to strengthen the Indonesian position as a maritime country, to boost foreign tourist visits and maximally develop maritime resources. 

We all wish for the best!

1 comment:

  1. Hello friends,

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