A fleet of jongs racing off Teluk Bakau, Bintan
The Jong School · Teluk Bakau, Bintan

Wind, wood, and the next generation.

Sails lined up on the beach at the Selatan race, 2026
Selatan Season · August 2026

Twenty-three groups, one exceptional day

Kelompok arrived from across the island and as far as Batam and Pulau Penyengat — who went on to sweep all three prizes in the big jong category, under winds as fierce as the dancing that followed.

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Sails lined up on the beach at the Selatan race, 2025
Selatan Season · August 2025

The rain that couldn’t stop it

Fourteen villages, hand-carved sails, and a downpour that should have ended the day before it began — until the crowd built shelter out of tarps and tree trunks and waited the sky out.

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Kids in red uniforms lined up in the shallows with their jongs
The Next Generation

Every jong on this beach was once a kid learning to read the wind.

Kids don’t start by building a jong from scratch. They start by watching one take shape — the wood, the sail, the outrigger — then assemble their own, session by session, until the wind takes it out of their hands for the first time. This year the program grew past its original 20 funded spots, as more kids from the village asked to join.

See how kids join the program →

“You need to keep your heart clean.” — Zakir

The archive, the writing, the races

Jongs racing off Dompak

Races & Events

Every race since the first one in 2013, from Utara season to Selatan season, village by village and year by year.

Kids learning to sail a jong

Learn

The youth program: how local kids join, what a session looks like, and how to sponsor one.

Jongs lined up on the sand at Teluk Bakau

The Writing

Essays, interviews, and press coverage — and the book still being written.

Jongs racing, close action shot

Photo Archive

Every photograph, organized by year and by subject — portraits, action, craft, and ceremony.

Michel Lippitsch sketching out the book's structure at Teluk Bakau
Book cover: A Jong Sails from the Heart, a memoir by Michel Lippitsch
Now Available

A Jong Sails from the Heart

A Memoir · 14 Chapters, Two Interludes & an Epilogue

The full story behind these pages: meeting Zakir on the beach at Teluk Bakau, what a jong actually is and what it asks of the person who sails one, and years of races, seasons, and a community built one boat at a time. The book is finished and free to read.

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Browse by year

Open the full archive →