Skip to content
Tana Beru Boat Builder mark: a wooden phinisi inside a shield Tana Beru Boat Builder Tana Beru · South Sulawesi
Two-masted wooden phinisi under tan sails making way on open water, the outcome of a Tana Beru commission

Commission a Build · Pillar

Phinisi Builder in Tana Beru

Traditional Bugis phinisi, built plank-first on the beach for owners and charter operators.

See cost bands

  • 20–45 m

    Owner and charter-grade phinisi

  • Plank-First

    Shell built before the frames

  • Wooden Pegs

    Dowels driven before bolts

  • Milestones

    Payment tied to build stages

As a phinisi builder in Tana Beru, we lay a fresh keel on the beach for each commission and raise a traditional Bugis phinisi plank-first, fastened with wooden pegs before bolts. We build owner and charter-grade phinisi from roughly 20 to 45 metres, owner-supervised, to honest USD bands.

01

What It Means to Commission a Phinisi Here

A phinisi is not a single design; it is a family of two-masted Indonesian wooden sailing vessels that evolved on this coast. When you commission one from Tana Beru, you are not picking a hull off a line — you are agreeing a length, a purpose and a layout, and then watching craftsmen translate that into curved ironwood on the sand.

Our role is to hold the commission together: agree the brief, lay the keel with the right master, keep the build to a schedule of milestones, and hand you a vessel with its paperwork in order. The people doing the physical building are the same panrita lopi families who have shaped these boats for generations.

Close-up of a wooden dowel locking two hull planks together, the fastening driven before any steel bolt
02

Plank-First: Why a Bugis Phinisi Is Built Backwards

European yards build a skeleton of frames and then skin it. Tana Beru does the opposite. The planks are shaped, edge-joined and fastened into a self-supporting shell first, and the frames — the internal ribs — are fitted into that shell afterwards. It sounds impossible until you see it: the shipwright reads the curve of each plank by eye and adjusts the next one to keep the hull fair.

The fastening tells the same story. Long wooden dowels lock plank to plank first, drawing the seams tight, and steel drift bolts and galvanised fasteners are added where load demands. It is a method tuned over centuries for tropical hardwood and for repairability far from any dock.

Crew member working out along the bowsprit of a wooden phinisi, masts and standing rigging behind
03

Sizes, Rigs and Layouts We Build

Owner phinisi of 20–25 m suit a family or a small private programme — four to six cabins, a sailing or motor-sailer rig, a shaded aft deck. Charter-grade hulls of 28–35 m carry six to nine cabins and the wider saloon and dive or sun deck a commercial programme needs. Above 40 m you are into flagship liveaboard territory, with the tankage, stabilisation and range the eastern routes demand.

Rig choice is honest, not romantic: many modern phinisi are motor-sailers that set canvas in the trade winds and motor through the calms. We will tell you what actually gets used on your intended route rather than what looks best in a rendering.

Spirit level held against timber framing inside a hull under construction during a milestone check
04

Owner Supervision, End to End

You do not have to live in Sulawesi to own a build. A commission runs on milestones — keel-laying, planking complete, frames in, engines and systems, interior, finishing, sea-trial and launch — and each one comes with photographs and, where you wish, a site visit. The contract, held by PT Komodo Galangan Nusantara, ties payment to those milestones rather than to the calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

All 101 questions

We are the build brand that holds your commission and works directly with the Tana Beru master shipwrights — not a broker reselling someone else’s slot. The contract is issued by PT Komodo Galangan Nusantara.

Around 20 m is the practical floor for a liveable owner phinisi. Smaller wooden boats are certainly built here, but below ~18 m the economics of a full phinisi rarely make sense.

Yes, though we will be candid about how much a full working rig will be used on your route. Most owners choose a motor-sailer for reliability in the eastern archipelago.

This site commissions on the Tana Beru beach. Bira and Ara are neighbouring boat-building communities on the same coast; we can describe the honest map, but our builds are Tana Beru.

Send the intended length, use and rough budget band on WhatsApp and we will come back with a realistic layout and timeline.

Continue Your Build Journey

Start a Build Conversation

Every commission begins with a short, honest conversation about length, use, timber, budget band and realistic timeline — no obligation, no pressure. Contracts are issued by PT Komodo Galangan Nusantara.

+62 811-3941-4563 bd@juaraholding.com

Message the Build Desk on WhatsApp
Message the Build Desk on WhatsApp