Build
Heritage and Design
Traditional wooden ships of intricate craftsmanship, built with skilled artisans using traditional methods and materials. The build guide follows a commission from keel ritual to launch.
What Phinisi Owner covers
Our Expertise in
Phinisi Ownership
The heritage of the craft, the design and maintenance of wooden hulls, and the safety and rules a vessel has to meet — each covered in depth by the guides.
Traditional Wooden Ships,
Covered Independently
A phinisi is a traditional Indonesian sailing vessel, known for its distinctive design and craftsmanship, primarily from the Bugis and Makassar people of South Sulawesi. We are not a shipyard, broker or charter operator: our expertise is the information an owner needs.
Areas of Expertise
Four areas an owner has to understand, each mapped to the guide that covers it in depth.
Operate
Maintenance
A wooden hull stays in service only through regular maintenance and inspection. The operate guides cover haul-out cadence, hull care and what upkeep really costs.
Buy
Safety and Inspection
Safety rests on inspection, not on a listing's photos. The buy guides cover the marine survey, safety certificates and the red flags to check first.
Law
Maritime Regulation
Indonesian cabotage, vessel registration and foreign-ownership structures, grounded in verifiable law. Information, not legal advice.
Read On
Owning a Phinisi: The Start-Here Roadmap
Buy vs build, true budget ranges, legal structures, operating costs and exit realities.
What Is a Phinisi?
The two-masted Sulawesi rig, the wooden ship it became and the 2017 UNESCO craft inscription.
Phinisi Design & Naval Architecture
Cabin count, dive deck, engine sizing and structural standards, translated into money.
Phinisi Maintenance
Annual haul-out cadence, teredo worm risk, caulking and plank costs.
Phinisi Marine Survey Checklist
Teredo worm, nail sickness, stability red flags and the documents that kill deals.
About Phinisi Owner
Methodology, the three-tier labeling system and the correction policy.
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