Wooden Boat Builder

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.

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.

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.

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.