About Pinisi Boat

By Pinisi Boat Editorial Desk

Pinisi Boat is a specialist guide to the pinisi sailing vessels of South Sulawesi, combined with a request desk, and run as a brand under Juara Holding Group. It publishes sourced, dated explanations of the boat's history, rig, prices and rules, and it answers enquiries. The site itself is not a contracting party, and any contract comes from a named company.

What does this site cover, and why this subject?

The subject is one type of vessel and the craft behind it. UNESCO inscribed "Pinisi, art of boatbuilding in South Sulawesi" on its Representative List in 2017, and yet the word has drifted a long way from that origin. Wikipedia notes that it is now used indiscriminately for most Indonesian wooden ships, including charter and diving vessels sold under the name phinisi. Readers meet the word in heritage records, sale listings and holiday brochures, and these rarely agree. Sorting that out is the job of this guide.

The pages fall into five groups:

• The boat. Rig, hull types and size, starting from the schooner rig.
• The past. How the type developed and what UNESCO actually inscribed.
• The craft. Boatbuilding and the centres around Bulukumba.
• Money and law. Published prices, flag and ownership questions.
• Going aboard. Chartering, park fees and where to see the boats.

Who writes and checks the pages?

The Pinisi Boat Editorial Desk, and that is the only byline you will see. Writing, source checking and answering enquiries are functions of the desk, and the pages do not attach them to named individuals. We publish no staff biographies, credentials or claims about how long anyone has worked in the trade, because a reader could not test them. A reader can test a link. Some links go only as far as a home page or a notice that names a law, and where that happens the page says so. That is why each page gives its sources, and why the check date, currently October 2026, is shown with published prices and fees.

What rules does the Editorial Desk follow?

These rules apply to every page. They are simple enough to hold us to.

1. Each figure has an origin. Numbers come from the sources in each page's list, and any sum we work out ourselves is labelled as our own arithmetic.
2. Prices stay in a table. Money figures do not appear in running text. They sit in a table with the source and the month we checked it, on the pages that have one.
3. An asking price is called an asking price. A figure on a sale listing shows what a seller hoped for, not what a buyer paid.
4. Two sources do not make a range. We do not merge figures from different places into one neat span, because that span would then belong to nobody.
5. Marketing claims are marked. Lamima is described as "marketed as" the world's largest wooden sailing yacht, since that is what the claim is.
6. Official statements are attributed. When a tourism authority makes a claim about how visitors travel, we say who said it, and whether the calculation is explained.
7. Laws are named with care. We do not quote an article of a statute unless we have read the text of it.
8. Gaps are not filled. Where we have found no source, the page says so and moves on, without filling the space with an estimate.

How do you treat different kinds of source?

A source's type changes how much weight it can bear. The table shows how we read each kind, with an example from this site.

What can't the site tell you?

Plenty, and it is better to know that now than to find out mid-purchase. We have no reliable count of boatyards in Bulukumba, of phinisi at Labuan Bajo or of visitors to Raja Ampat. We have no verified road distance from Makassar to Bira. Speed and range for the type, general build times and timber schedules are also unconfirmed on this site. We make no claim about whether a foreigner can or cannot own an Indonesian-flagged vessel; that question belongs with a lawyer. And the pinisi is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list, not the World Heritage List, whatever a brochure may suggest.

Fees and rules also move. Raja Ampat's permit rates changed on 3 August 2026, for instance. Use our pages to understand the question, then open the linked official page before you pay or sign.

Who issues a contract if a request goes ahead?

The site itself is not a contracting party. Three group companies issue contracts, each for its own kind of work:

• Construction, repair, refit and vessel-sale contracts are issued by PT Komodo Galangan Nusantara.
• Brokerage, central agency, charter marketing and commercial representation contracts are issued by PT Komodo Bahari Nusantara.
• Boat-management contracts are issued by PT Komodo Vessel Management.

The work location is stated in the offer. Any fee and payment terms are stated in the offer. Please read the guide with one interest in plain view: a request through the desk can end in a contract with one of these companies. So when this guide suggests how to test an offer, apply those tests to ours as well.

How are corrections handled?

Send the page address, the statement you think is wrong and a source that shows otherwise. We check it against the source and change the page if the source holds up. Corrections matter most on the subjects that change fastest, namely fees, rules and listings, so a newer official notice is especially welcome. We would also like to hear about a gap, where you found a source for one of the open questions above. An opinion or a recommendation without a source will not change a page, however well meant.

What are the short answers about the site itself?

Is Pinisi Boat part of UNESCO or a government agency?

No. It is a brand of Juara Holding Group. We cite UNESCO, ministries and park offices as sources, and we hold no role in any of them. Permits, inscriptions and vessel registers remain the business of those bodies.

Does the site itself sell or charter boats?

No. The site publishes the guide and receives requests, and it is not a contracting party. If a request goes ahead, the offer comes from the group company that handles that kind of contract, and it is the offer that binds anyone.

Why are no authors named?

Every page carries one byline, Pinisi Boat Editorial Desk. We publish no personal names or credentials, so please judge a page by the sources it links and whether those sources say what the page claims.

How do I report a mistake?

Write to the desk with the page address, the sentence in question and a source that shows the correction. A dated, checkable source is the most useful thing you can send, and it lets us correct the page with a clear basis.

Is anything on the site legal advice?

No. Summaries of flag, company and shipping rules help you ask better questions, and they stop there. Before you buy, build or operate a vessel in Indonesia, take advice from a licensed Indonesian maritime lawyer.

Which sources support this page?

Checked in October 2026.

• UNESCO: Decision 12.COM 11.B.13
• UNESCO: Pinisi, art of boatbuilding in South Sulawesi
• Wikipedia: Pinisi
• Balai TN Komodo: official tariff page
• YachtWorld: boats for sale in Indonesia
• Emerhub: liveaboard business in Indonesia
• detik.com: Komodo National Park visitors in 2024
• Stay Raja Ampat: marine park entry permit
• CharterWorld: Lamima completed

How do I reach the desk?

Questions, corrections and requests all go to the same place; the contact page says what to include. WhatsApp: 6281139414563. Email: bd@juaraholding.com.