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Comodoro José Miguel Díaz Escrich
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66th “Ernest Hemingway” International Billfish Fishing Tournament

FOR COMMODORE JOSÉ MIGUEL DIAZ ESCRICH, THE MAIN ENCOURAGER OF RECREATIONAL BOATING IN CUBA, THE TOURNAMENT'S 66TH EDITION WILL BE THE BIGGEST OF ALL TIME

Cuba is all the rage in travel and tourism. This assertion also embraces fishing, and that explains why authorities on the island hope that one of its major tournaments could post record highs in terms of turnout and scope.
Commodore José Miguel Diaz Escrich, from the Hemingway International Nautical Club in Cuba, is by far the main encourager on this island nation of recreational boating, let alone a sailing enthusiast who loves his country.
What's more, he's probably the only Latin American man who boasts the most honor memberships in nautical clubs and associations around the world, in the U.S. and in Europe.
Mr. Escrich says for the 2016 edition of the “Ernest Hemingway” International Billfish Fishing Tournament, at least 86 boats, mostly from the U.S., will attend this year's event, a new record high that comes on the heels of the new thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba.
The commodore is one of the three Cuban representatives before the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA), a post he was tapped to 16 years ago, when he replaced the late Juan Manuel Bell, the late larger-than-life Cuban angler better known as “Blackaman”.
The IGFA and the Hemingway Tournament are closely related since this organization was founded in 1939 and the great American novelist served as its first vice president.
The Hemingway Club, for its part, was founded at the like-name marina -formerly known as Barlovento- in Havana, as a non-profit NGO on May 21, 1992. It started out with 28 members from ten countries and only one of them was from the States. Today, the Hemingway Club boasts 2,723 members from 65 nations, and over a thousand of them are Americans.
Even Mr. Escrich sees things moving beyond that point as he cautiously foresees that as soon as all travel restrictions on Cuba are lifted, some 60,000 recreational boaters from the U.S. could visit Cuba every year, scouring the entire archipelago, but mostly the strip between Mariel and Varadero (on the north coast).
He says there are over 11,000 marinas in the United States. In his latest trip to America, the commodore saw many game fishers willing to come to Cuba, even entire clubs with yearly programs that put attendance to the Hemingway Billfish Fishing Tournament on top of their lists.

A Brief History
Back in the 1950s, there were some one hundred nautical clubs in Cuba (39 of them in Havana), and those who founded the Havana International Nautical Club in 1950 -especially commodore Rafael Pozo- managed to talk Hemingway into naming the competition after him.
Even the writer donated the prize trophy as the tournament's top scorer. Therefore, when recreational boating got in full swing in 1960, and given obvious reasons at the time triggered by tensions and political conflicts, Cuba walked away from this activity.
But 32 years later and by the hand of Hemingway Club, the road was traveled on again and the potentials are huge. The future's so bright that Mr. Escrich is confident that the island nation could pan out to be one of the most important recreational boating destinations both in the Caribbean and in the world.
That's why the 66th edition will feature 86 boats that have been confirmed to date, mostly hailing from the U.S., plus attendees from Italy, Spain, UK, France and even from Angola this time around.
Roughly ten countries will have their teams searching for good locations under catch-and-release rules, because one of the objectives of the Hemingway Tournament is to guarantee protection of both the environment and the marine species.
Mr. Escrich is very enthused and upbeat because he's confident that Cuba is destined to become a powerhouse in the Caribbean and worldwide as far as recreational boating is concerned, with strongholds in fishing and in this major event, the Hemingway Billfish Fishing Tournament.