Atlantic Challenge to showcase Madurese boatbuilder's work

Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Madura

Boat-maker Muzammil Sholihin looked elated when some journalists took pictures of a boat that he had made. The boat was set to participate in the Atlantic Challenge Boat Race in Genoa, Italy next year. "This is the first time that my work has got so much attention from the media," he said.

The story behind the boat dates back to 2001 when boat builder Lance Lee read a book titled Round the Bend, which tells a tale of European sailors traveling around the world. After reading the book, Lance was interested to gain deeper knowledge on local boats made by Indonesian boat-makers, especially the Madurese.

Lance went to Surabaya in 2001, and accompanied by Daniel Rosyid, the deputy rector of the Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS), he visited Madura Island to see how the Madura boat-makers produced the boats.

Lance then contributed a large fund to an ITS team participating in a boat race and exhibition in Maine, the United States in July 2002 and Toulon, France in July 2004, said a supervisory board member of ITS Maritime Challenge, I Ketut Aria Pria Utama. At that time, the ITS team used a Portuguese-style boat made by the ITS boat builder.

This year, the ITS Team and Lance entrusted the family of Muzammil Sholihin to produce a boat to participate in the Atlantic Challenge boat race and exhibition in Genoa, Italy.

Muzammil recalled that the order was a stroke of luck for his family. In the past year, the boat making business in Madura was in the doldrums as the number of orders was slowing on the back of the rising price of diesel fuel.

Before last year, the family could produce five to six boats, at between Rp 15 million (US$1,500) and Rp 17 million each. But, this year up until August there had been no orders, except the order from Lance and the ITS team.

"I am also happy that having participated in the boat exhibition and race in Genoa, more people will know about the boat-making industry in Madura," said Muzammil.

Lance contributed US$2,000 in July and most of it has been used to finance the boat building (Rp 16 million or $1,600) and the rest was used to pay ITS students' operational costs. The students helped Muzammil build the boat, which was named Lanceng Madureh, which means (Male) Virgin in Madurese. The boat is 8.2 meters long and 2 meters wide.

Lance also sent his confidante Brian McClellan to supervise the boat building. McClellan, who has been in Madura since July 15, said that he was amazed by the Madura boat-makers. The boat- makers have never received training on boat-making techniques but they built excellent boats, he said.