Experienced sailor Andrew Scott, author of Cruising Guide to Indonesia: A pilot guide to Indonesian Waters, talks to The Jakarta Post about how he started his career and his views on the archipelago's sailing industry.

The Jakarta Post: Can you tell us about your sailing experience?

Andrew Scott: I first came to Bali in 1997 on an around-the-world trip and just fell in love with the place. I went looking for other amazing places out there, sailed across the South Pacific, stopping at all these wonderful little islands with an intent, albeit a bit naïve, to find another Bali. Nowhere felt right, and when I next set foot on Bali in 2004, I already knew I was home.

Sailing in Indonesia has just been an extension of that feeling. I feel pretty much at home anywhere across the archipelago, from Aceh all the way over to Papua; the people are wonderful, and I couldn’t ask for a better ‘home’.

How did you develop a love for sailing?

I have always loved the ocean. Growing up surfing and diving lead into getting jobs working on boats, so I could do more surfing and diving. At one point, I bought a Westsail 32, read every book from Thor Heyerdahl to Joshua Slocum, practiced sailing in the San Diego Bay for a grand total of nine hours and set sail for Tahiti.

There was no step in there where I think I developed a love for sailing. I think it would be more correct to say it was already there and I just followed my dreams.

What is the potential Indonesia has in the sailing/marine industry?

There is truly no greater cruising ground than Indonesia. With 17,000 islets covering some two million square miles of pristine tropical water and a rich and vibrant local culture, there truly can be no comparison. To grasp the enormity of untapped potential, one only has to look at neighboring countries with well developed marine sectors and far fewer islands. We have 17,000 tropical islands.

How do you think this country can improve its sailing industry?

I would, of course, like to have marinas and boat supply chandleries and workshops across the archipelago. We need these types of businesses as places of rest and repair.

Indonesia is a maritime nation and there are generations of skilled craftsmen and boat builders in all the old ports around the country just waiting to fill these positions. It is not as easy as just building marinas and sailors will come. I think it is more of a ‘welcome them and they will come'. When this begins and more and more yachts arrive each year, growth in the service industry will come organically.

(Read also: Full-size replica of Titanic to sail in 2018)

What would you suggest to the government?

Let us do this, but do it slowly. There is a real push from the government to drive up foreign yacht arrivals, and success is gauged by simply counting numbers. I think, at the same time, there needs to be an equal push to develop marine infrastructures to support increased traffic. For example, in the Komodo National Park there is already a shortage of mooring balls, which often leads to illegal anchoring on coral reefs, basically destroying the very reason we came to visit.

What does Indonesia need to do to increase the number of yacht arrivals?

A simplification of regulations for visiting yachts and a consistency in enforcing these regulations throughout the country. Once word gets out that Indonesia is welcoming, the people will come.

The success of this campaign depends largely on the implementation of regulations at ground level. It is one thing to hand down new government regulations from Jakarta, but quite a different thing to enforce these regulations throughout the country.

Indonesia calls this sosialisasi (socialization), but the people want regional autonomy. If individual harbormasters make their own local bylaws, then really nothing has changed. (kes)

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