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Tana Beru Boat Builder mark: a wooden phinisi inside a shield Tana Beru Boat Builder Tana Beru · South Sulawesi
Shipwrights in sun hats working along the frames of a wooden hull propped on the sand

Wooden Boat Builder

The South Sulawesi and Makassar ironwood tradition, applied to your hull.

We are a wooden boat builder in the South Sulawesi and Makassar tradition, working from the Tana Beru beach. We commission new hulls in ironwood, teak and bitti — phinisi, gulets and working wooden craft — built shell-first by hand and finished to modern standards.

01

The South Sulawesi Wooden-Boat Tradition

The reputation of the Indonesian wooden boat was made on this coast. From the beaches around Tana Beru and the port city of Makassar, Bugis and Makassar builders sent trading vessels across the archipelago and beyond for centuries. That lineage is not marketing — it is a living body of knowledge about how tropical hardwood behaves in a hull, and it is why a South Sulawesi wooden boat is still worth commissioning today.

We build inside that tradition rather than beside it. The same plank-first method, the same timber knowledge and the same hand skills that shaped the trading phinisi go into a modern owner’s boat — married to contemporary engineering, systems and safety.

Stack of freshly cut tropical hardwood logs waiting to be sawn into planks at a boatyard
02

Timber: Ironwood, Teak, Bitti and Bengkirai

Timber choice is the single biggest decision in a wooden boat, and we make it honestly. Ulin (ironwood) is dense, rot-resistant and extraordinarily strong — ideal for keel and structural members, but heavy and increasingly regulated. Bitti (Vitex cofassus), the local shipwright’s favourite, is prized for planking and framing. Teak earns its place in decks and joinery. Bengkirai (yellow balau) is a sound, cost-aware option for parts of the hull.

Every board we use is chosen for its role and sourced under SVLK legal-timber verification. We will explain the trade-offs of weight, longevity, cost and legality before you commit, not after.

03

What We Build in Wood

The core of our work is the traditional phinisi, but the wooden-boat craft here extends further: gulets for the charter market, expedition and dive liveaboards, and characterful owner cruisers that draw on the same hull knowledge. If it can be built well in wood on this coast, it starts the same way — a keel on the sand and a master shipwright reading the line of the first plank.

Shipwright running a circular saw along a long timber plank on the yard floor
04

Modern Standards on a Traditional Hull

Tradition does not mean primitive. A hull built the old way can still carry modern tankage, stabilisation, electrical systems, watermakers and classed safety equipment. Where an owner wants formal classification, the build is documented for survey from the keel up. The craft is traditional; the boat that floats off the beach is thoroughly usable in the modern world.

Frequently Asked Questions

All 101 questions

Yes, with honest maintenance. A well-built hardwood hull, caulked and antifouled on schedule, lasts decades. We hand over a first-year maintenance plan with every build.

Yes — gulets, liveaboards and owner cruisers, all in the same wooden-boat tradition. The phinisi is simply the best-known product of this coast.

The plank-first method and the timber knowledge. Hulls are shaped by eye and fastened with wooden pegs first, giving a fair, repairable, sea-kindly boat.

On the beach at Tana Beru in Bonto Bahari, Bulukumba Regency, South Sulawesi — open-air hardstand facing the sea, not an enclosed shed.

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

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