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Indonesia welcoming the next wave of phinisis
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Phinisis entered a new era in the 21st century with luxurious, charter-focused versions, which are now enjoying a new wave of popularity and productivity.
Words: Tristan Rutherford; Photos: As credited
The 48m Bhavana will be a high-end addition to Indonesia’s growing array of luxury charter phinisis; Image c/o Camper & Nicholsons
Cave art on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi depicts watercraft 20,000 years ago. At a ninth-century Buddhist temple on a neighbouring island, stone reliefs show sailing ships that could carry 200 guests. Come the 15th century, and Sulawesi shipwrights were constructing cargo ships that transported timber to China.
By contrast, Christopher Columbus chanced upon the Americas in a cramped caravel, then struggled to ascertain which continent he was on. Indonesians have saltwater in their blood.
Top deck on Bhavana; Image c/o Camper & Nicholsons
In 2026, a 48m Sulawesi-built schooner will rank among the world’s hottest yachts. Bhavana is being fitted out to superyacht standards in the Balinese port of Serangan for charter in Southeast Asia.
She has the first convertible cabins ever seen on a boat of this type. When her nitrox tanks are primed and her Starlink is installed, she will rival anything in the Mediterranean for adventure and amenities.
Frédéric Crétin from Camper & Nicholsons, the yacht’s charter manager, says: “Bhavana has a modern, contemporary and refined design that aligns with the tastes of most guests used to chartering from renowned shipyards.”
Master suite on Bhavana; Image c/o Camper & Nicholsons
Most importantly, more of these ultra-luxurious Sulawesi sailing vessels are being built than ever before. One shipyard, Persée, has four in build for the Southeast Asia market.
Guillaume Devora, the shipyard’s co-founder, says: “There is no reason why, just because it’s a wooden boat, we should have vintage comfort.” His modern boats can charter in Indonesia for six months, then cruise to Thailand, Myanmar and the Maldives. “Those boats can cross the ocean.”
Devora is correct. Navigating behemothic Indonesian ships to distant lands is nothing new. From the 17th century, sailmakers in the Sulawesi ports of Ara and Bira began copying the rig of Dutch merchants that raided the Spice Islands for cloves and nutmeg, the latter being considered more valuable than gold.
Pacific High has a 5,600sqm shipyard (above) in Sulawesi and several phinisis in build, having delivered the 36m Sanya (below) in August 2025; Photos: Pacific High
The two-masted sail plan, topped by a curtain of seven or more gaff sails, evolved to suit Asia’s monsoon winds. Trade winds would blow phinisis – as the type’s naval architecture became known – to Thailand or Australia. The 30m-long vessels would deliver sandalwood and tortoiseshell, returning home with porcelain or sea cucumbers depending on the destination.
The hull design evolved into a banana shape that bends upwards at bow and stern. This allowed phinisis – then as now – to ward off spray, keeping rice or Technogym equipment dry below deck.
LUXURY SURGE
The current phinisi building boom began in the 2000s. Not for cargo but for diving. Sulawesi sits near Raja Ampat, an emerald archipelago slap-bang in the Coral Triangle.
It’s home to the world’s most biodiverse seas, as a life-giving current called the Indonesian Throughflow nourishes everything from spaghetti worms to sperm whales. One marine biologist logged an astonishing 374 fish species during a single dive.
Yann Martinie de Maisonneuve, co-founder of Pacific High, one of Sulawesi’s largest phinisi builders, recalls: “Twenty or so years ago, phinisis were not like a premium charter yacht. They were liveaboards with small cabins in the hull with no windows.”
Completed in 2004, the 50m Silolona is the pioneer of luxury phinisis; Photo: Silolona Sojourns
The 2004 launch of the 50m-long Silolona, the brainchild of the late Patti Seery, showed what was possible by combining traditional craftsmanship with Western comfort.
Indonesian carvings mixed with hand-dyed fabrics and ensuite cabins. Instead of hiding the ship’s skeleton, as a European manufacturer would, the ironwood bones became part of the finish. Silolona is owned and operated by Silolona Sojourns and can also be chartered from US$130,900 per week.
LAMIMA LEADS
A decade later, 65m Lamima took charter capability to new realms. She also became the world’s joint-largest wooden sailing yacht, alongside the Gucci family schooner Creole, which has held or shared the record since its launch in 1927.
The 65m Lamima is the largest luxury phinisi; Photo: Lamima
Lamima enlivened destinations like the Spice Islands, Komodo and the Alor Archipelago with an armada of toys. WaveRunners to land on unnamed atolls. Paddleboards to explore cathedral-height caves. A Balinese spa that does facials and lemongrass massages. Plus enough scuba kit to send all 14 guests diving with whale sharks and giant mantas.
The only luxury charter with a fully Indonesian crew, her staff includes a chef snagged from Bali’s best hotels and a dive master who has made 5,000 scuba immersions in Raja Ampat. In short, Lamima proved that phinisis were the perfect platform for adventure. Big charter agencies took note.
“Phinisis combine exceptional seaworthiness with access to less-visited waters that modern vessels often cannot reach,” says Amy Harrigan from EYOS.
Lamima has an all-Indonesian crew, offering service with a smile; Photo: Lamima
Lamima charters with EYOS as her central agent for around US$200,000 per week. Note that Indonesian prices are all-inclusive, without the tax, fuel and provisioning charges that can add 50 per cent to a Mediterranean or Caribbean cruise.
LOCAL CHARTER
Another legal element has inspired the current charter uptick — and its knock-on effect on shipyard order books. Indonesia is a closed maritime registry. This means only locally owned boats can charter here. The vast majority are phinisis.
“I’m sure that fact has benefited this class of yachts,” says Crétin, who also manages 47m The Maj Oceanic, which has a full-beam master cabin with 270-degree views, and the barefoot-chic 50m Vela, which blends Hermès fabrics with local art.
Vela is among luxury phinisis available through Camper & Nicholsons; Photo: Emilio Kuzma-Floyd
Aside from growing charter potential in this closed marketplace, one final factor is fuelling the phinisi boom. Price. Shipyard sources claim the finished product costs one-quarter of a yacht made in Italy or Turkey.
“The latest phinisis are more like 40m to 45m, the cabins a minimum of 25sqm, all with sea views,” De Maisonneuve explains. A 45m will have a price tag of five or six million dollars, depending on the finish. “For a boat around 60m, we go around US$10 million.” Good luck buying a Benetti for that.
Best of all, this naval architecture has proved to be bulletproof, despite Southeast Asia’s monsoon winds and jagged reefs. In 1986, one 40m phinisi sailed from Indonesia to Vancouver via Tuvalu and Hawaii. It was named Nusantara, which translates as ‘archipelago’, after Indonesia’s 17,000 islands. Spending a day on each island would take 46 years, so most leisure-focused phinisis never leave.
Vela has six cabins; Photo: Emilio Kuzma-Floyd
Delivery time is fast, too. The completion of a 45m takes around 24 months from the laying of the keel. A 60m around three years. These timescales snip a third off the build of a similarly-sized GRP superyacht in Europe. And no owner wants to wait longer for their new toy.
LOOKING AHEAD
In 2026, Pacific High is working on four yachts in their 5,600sqm shipyard. Can anything steal the wind from the sails of the phinisi boom?
By bitter irony, the greatest threat to both manufacture and charters is an eco-initiative. Nickel is mined in both Sulawesi and Raja Ampat to fuel EV batteries in environmentally friendly vehicles. Mining in the latter archipelago sullied some dive sites with sediment until the Indonesian government revoked all but one mining licence in 2025. Deforestation is affecting Sulawesi’s ironwood forests.
As well as Sanya, Pacific High’s fleet of phinisis available for charter include Dewata (33m), Nataraja (32m) and Senja (31m); Photo: Pacific High
“Boat building probably only takes one per cent of the wood available in Indonesia,” says De Maisonneuve. “However, we are competing with resource-hungry industries,” like furniture, building and paper mills. Pacific High is exploring alternative hull structures from steel and aluminium, should the resource run dry.
One thing Sulawesi will never run out of is shipwrights, continues De Maisonneuve. “For craftsmen, the young generation are super interested in what their fathers or uncles are doing.”
A new cohort of female architects, engineers and project managers has entered the workplace, too, with four women working at Pacific High. “Indonesia will be in the top 10 global economies by 2030, so infrastructure and education are getting much better.”
Lamima offers a sunrise hike in Komodo; phinisis charter in some of the world’s most spectacular, pristine environments; Photo: Lamima
One question remains. Phinisis boast a UNESCO inscription for their hand-built heritage, but can the latest superyacht-style builds from Sulawesi be described as such?
“Technology is so advanced that not everything is done manually anymore,” admits Haji Saka, a Sulawesi shipwright who worked on Lamima. “But design is still done in the head, not on computers.”
This hard-won experience, passed on for generations over tens of thousands of years, has never been more in demand.
Note: This article originally appeared in Issue 88 of Yacht Style
