Sandeq Boat Knowledge Transmission and Character Education

“When we begged our school principal for permission as he seemed hesitant to give his permission to us simply because my friend and I were both females. He said why not give the male students a chance. Fortunately, we gave our arguments and showed permission letters from our parents, so regardless of whether he wanted it, he gave his permission,” said Humauerah Nur Izzatinnisa after she sailed with the legendary sailboat from West Sulawesi called sandeq. Humauerah and 20 high-school students representing Majene Regency, West Sulawesi, took part in the Student on Sandeq, a sailing practice organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology in collaboration with the Tourism Office of Majene Regency and the 2022 Sandeq Festival committee on 1 September 2022.

The West Sulawesi provincial government entrusted her with coordinating the sandeq sailing event from West Sulawesi to Kalimantan under the theme of the 2022 Sandeq Festival. Taking part in the event were seven classic sandeq, the original models of the sandeq which used daily to catch fish. Unlike the sandeq for competitions that non-competitors cannot ride, the classic sandeq is smoother and safer. Thus, students can ride it to feel the sensation of sailing.

The classic sandeq race or regatta is not a speed race but a battle for the most precise making of a classic sandeq (traditional fishing vessel) a la sailors of the past. He who can show that his sailboat is the closest resemblance to the classic sandeq is the winner. Fishermen try to make sandeq as similar as possible to the traditional Sandeq. For example, sandeq uses organic rope, clay or terracotta cooking and eating utensils, and the conch shell horn. A regatta shows the “land-dweller,” the original form of the sandeq boat.

Almost all the sandeq made in recent years are the sandeq for a regatta. The shape bears similarities to the classic sandeq, but the size and the function differ. If the classic sandeq only uses 5060 meters of sail raw material, the raw material for the sandeq race can reach up to 130 meters.

No Ordinary Sailboat

Sandeq is not an ordinary boat. The boatbuilder made the sandeq hull and tip of the stern and bow in such a way, so it can plow through the water. Boom or baratang, mounted across the top of the boat hull, is holding the floats. At the end of the baratang, there is a tadiq, an inverted L-shaped lamtoro log. The boatbuilder tied the upper end of the tadiq to the outrigger and connected the lower end of it to the outrigger float called palatto or katir, made of petung bamboo.

The sandeq’s triangular sail is in the bow, about a quarter of the boat’s total length. The mast of the sail is called pallajarang. The bottom of the mast is a piece of bamboo that extends towards the stern, called a peloang or a sail boom. Seafarers attached the vertical sections to the masts and the horizontal ones to the sail boom. When the sails are idle, the cloth is “stacked up” in the sail boom to avoid the line from coming loose. To extend the sail, seafarers pull the stays through a pulley at the top of the mast. So, the sail that is on the sail boom will expand.

Sandeq is not just a sailboat. There is a legacy of knowledge and character behind the sandeq sail. The song lyric, “My ancestors were seafarers, they sailed the vast oceans, challenged the waves fearlessly, surfed the storm familiarly…” should not lull us. The song composed by Bu Sud is a way the older generations try to rekindle younger generations with the love of the sea.

Countries such as the United States, France, and Japan have long been training their young people to sail. They systematically taught three key things from a young age: safety, fun, and learning. The most important aspect is that young sailors learn to treasure the oceans and treat the sea with respect and appreciation. When children and young people set sail, sandeq challenged them with possibilities covering boat driving, navigating, understanding the marine environment, and mitigating disasters.

How about in Indonesia? When you type the keyword “sailing training for young people” into an internet search engine, what comes up is a formal sailing academy. There are no community-run sailing schools. The seafarer/fishers community inherits sailing knowledge naturally. When a father invites his son to go with him to the sea, the child will see and learn what his father is doing. There have been no systematic efforts to teach sailing skills to children and youth who do not live by the maritime tradition.

Inheriting knowledge and love for sailing boats to the community only occurs during the sandeq regatta. However, the tourism aspect of the event is more dominant. We can say that education efforts are still minimal if you don’t want to say there aren’t any. So, this is the time for sandeq to contribute to education, to pass on maritime knowledge to the younger generation. That is the aim of the Student on Sandeq.

“The lesson learned is that no one can work independently and is not dependent on other human beings. Because each individual has duty and responsibility, and together we bring new stories and experiences to life,” wrote Muhammad Faisal, a participant of Student on Sandeq.

The Pinnacle of Mandar Culture

Sandeq is the pinnacle of the maritime culture of the Mandar people. To see sandeq “as a whole” requires multiple perspectives. Indeed, People believe sandeq is the fastest sailing outrigger sailboat in Austronesia, from Madagascar to Easter Island, Taiwan to New Zealand. Like a woman, Sandeq is not only beautiful in shape, but her beauty also radiates from within. Sandeq’s beauty and majesty take thorough observation to reveal as it has some hidden secrets.

Sandeq’s journey began long before we started cutting down some trees in the forest, as the buyer and the lumberjack opened a shabby sheet of a mystical formula called “kutika” to find the most auspicious date. Everything has a story, such as when the shipwrights dredged the wood and brought the boat to the battilang or when they performed rituals of boat-making and the boat’s maiden voyage. That’s just the beginning. How about when the boat owner (punggawa) ties the lower thwart bound to a center rudder (kottaq sanggilang) by ropes? Also, how about when the boatmen pull the halyard, the boat owner is pulling the sheet of a sail or baya-baya (daman rope), the wind is coming from the right side when there is no current, the wind is so strong, the waves are not friendly, and the sandeq is back on the beach? That’s only part of it. What are the fishers’ reasons for keeping sandeq white and clean? What is the story behind the philosophy of Lopi sandeq na malolo (the beautiful sandeq boat)?

We could say that the original sandeq is rare to find. Sandeq for fishing is hard to find. The existing sandeq are just left weather-beaten or sold by their owners for materials for other uses, such as house walls or even firewood. Therefore, we should not leave the sandeq behind in their final days. Sandeq is to be made and sailed, even if not to catch fish anymore.

Today sandeq has become “pop culture” for the people of West Sulawesi, just like K-Pop for South Korea and Hollywood for the United States. Sandeq no longer sails the sea. Sandeq appears in various logos of government agencies and local institutions. Sandeq often sailed youth expedition adventures and became a media name. The media often interviewed sandeq shipbuilders. Sandeq is part of the collection of museums in Australia. Sandeq sailed to France, made into a song, sailed on the state palace ground, and its philosophy became words of encouragement.

“We have to be like sandeq, small but fast,” said Acting Governor of West Sulawesi, Akmal Malik, who started the Sandeq Festival with over four billion rupiah budget not coming from the state or regional budgets. “We have to make sandeq a tool of diplomacy. There is almost nothing that stands out in West Sulawesi for our social capital other than the sandeq boat,” he uttered that phrase when the sandeq sailboat arrived in Manggar, Balikpapan. He also sailed the sea on a classic sandeq.

The sandeq boat is the pinnacle of the outrigger boat evolution in Austronesia. In many parts of the world, outrigger canoes have become extinct or are very near that, but the sandeq is still in use today. In the past, seafarers were the ones sailing the sandeq. We hope that someday young ‘land-dwellers’ will travel across the sea on a sandeq. They will find a suitable sandeq style for themselves, the sandeq that can teach them maritime characters.