Pinisi rig and sails: seven to eight sails on two masts, and how they are set

By Pinisi Boat Editorial Desk

A pinisi rig carries seven to eight sails on two masts, arranged like a gaff ketch with standing gaffs: the mainsails are drawn out along the gaffs like curtains and are never hoisted. UNESCO treats the rig and sail as what the word pinisi names, so on that reading the sail plan, more than the hull, defines the type.

Why does the rig define the pinisi?

Because the word itself points there. UNESCO says "pinisi" refers to the rig and sail of the famed Sulawesi schooner, and Wikipedia opens from the same position, calling a pinisi a type of rigging. Three general hull types carry it, so the same word can sit above quite different hulls. If you strip the masts from a palari, what remains is a palari.

That is the strict usage, and everyday speech has moved well away from it. Wikipedia notes that "pinisi" now gets applied to most types of Indonesian wooden ship, including charter and diving vessels marketed under the "phinisi" spelling. A reader who wants to know whether a boat is a pinisi in the older sense has to look up at the rig, because the name on the brochure settles little. The page on the phinisi schooner follows the naming side of the question.

What is in the full sail plan?

Both English and Indonesian Wikipedia give seven to eight sails on two masts. "Seven sails" is the figure you will hear most often, and it sits inside that range without being the whole of it. The names below are the Buginese terms the English entry records, with its glosses.

Six names can reach seven or eight sails because at least one repeats. The tanpasere occurs at each mast, for instance, and the entry speaks of main sails in the plural. The source does not give a sail-by-sail tally, though, so we have not forced the names into a total. It also leaves open whether the anjong counts within the seven to eight, or whether all of the additional sails are carried at once. Our short piece on how many sails a pinisi has deals with the count alone.

What do standing gaffs mean in practice?

On this rig the gaff stays up and the sail travels along it. The source's image is a curtain: the main sails are pulled out along the gaffs and are not hoisted. Reducing or removing a mainsail is therefore a matter of drawing it back along a spar that remains aloft, and the spar does not have to be lowered each time.

That description also gives you a reliable thing to check from the water or a pier. If the gaffs are fixed aloft with sail gathered along them, you are looking at what the source describes. If a sail is raised by hauling a spar up the mast, you are looking at something else, whatever its name. We have not seen a sourced comparison of effort, crew or speed between this method and other gaff rigs, so we make no performance claim for it. For the way the boats handle under way, see how a pinisi sails.

What do the Buginese names tell you?

They show how a sail plan was thought of by the people who worked it. Three of the six terms are glossed as "additional" sails, identified by their place in the arrangement. The sombala is the main sail, and those three are extras to it. A naming scheme like this suggests a plan that can be added to or reduced, which fits a range of seven to eight better than a fixed number would.

There is one more thing to notice. The vocabulary is recorded as Buginese, while Wikipedia credits the building of these ships mainly to Konjo-speaking people of Ara and to people of Bira, Lemo-Lemo and Tana Beru, with Buginese and Makassarese seafarers among the main users. It would be tempting to conclude that sailors named the sails and builders did not. The source does not say that, and we leave it as an open observation.

Is the pinisi a gaff ketch or a schooner?

Both words appear in respectable sources, and they are doing different work. UNESCO's phrase "Sulawesi schooner" is a name for a well-known kind of vessel. Wikipedia's wording is a comparison: the sails are arranged "like" a gaff ketch, with the standing gaffs as the qualification. Neither source rules on a technical classification, so this site does not claim to settle a debate the record leaves open.

For practical writing, the safe course is to describe the rig directly: two masts, seven to eight sails, standing gaffs. A reader then knows exactly what is meant whichever label they prefer, and you avoid an argument that adds nothing to their understanding of the boat.

How much sail does a modern phinisi carry?

We can offer one sourced figure. CharterWorld gives Lamima, a 65.2 m phinisi motor-sailer launched in 2014, 1,277 m² of North Sails. That is a single yacht, one very large vessel and not the limit of the market. The report does not break down how many sails make up that area or how they are arranged, so it cannot show how closely her plan follows the traditional one.

Treat the number as a data point and resist scaling it to a smaller boat. We have no published sail area for a working cargo pinisi or a smaller charter vessel to compare with it.

What happens to the rig when engines arrive?

The rig need not vanish, though its job changes. Motorisation of Indonesia's traditional trading fleet came in the 1970s and 1980s, and the motorised versions are called Perahu Layar Motor, literally motor sailing boats. A 50 m vessel completed in Bulukumba in 2011 is still described as pinisi-rigged, and Lamima is called a motor-sailer. The presence of an engine, then, does not on its own take a vessel out of the type. What the sources do not tell us is how often such vessels set their full plan, or how far masts on charter boats have become decorative.

When you are assessing a boat offered under the name, the following checks come straight from the description above:

• Count the masts: there should be two.
• Look for gaffs that stay aloft, with sail drawn along them.
• Ask how many sails the vessel actually carries on board, and ask to see them.
• Ask which of the named sails are in use, and when they were last set.
• Look for the triangular anjong on the foredeck.

What are the short answers on the rig?

How many masts does a pinisi have?

Two. Both English and Indonesian Wikipedia describe seven to eight sails carried on two masts, and that pairing is the shortest accurate description of the rig.

Are the mainsails of a pinisi hoisted?

No. They are pulled out along standing gaffs in the manner of curtains, according to Wikipedia, so the sail moves along the spar while the spar stays up.

What is the sombala?

It is the Buginese name for the main sail. The other named sails, such as the tanpasere and the cocoro pantara, are described as smaller or additional to it.

What does the anjong do?

Wikipedia describes the anjong as a balancing triangle on the foredeck. The source gives no further detail about how it is trimmed or when it is set.

Does every boat sold as a phinisi carry this rig?

No. The name now reaches many Indonesian wooden ships, charter and diving vessels included, so check the masts, gaffs and sails on the boat in question.

Does UNESCO's listing mention the rig?

Yes. UNESCO's description says that the word pinisi refers to the rig and sail of the Sulawesi schooner, even though the inscribed element is the art of boatbuilding.

Which sources support this page?

These were last checked in October 2026. The sail names and their glosses rest on the encyclopedia entries, so a sailor or builder with first-hand knowledge may well refine them.

• Wikipedia: Pinisi (rig, sail names, motorisation)
• Wikipedia (Indonesian): Pinisi
• UNESCO: Pinisi, art of boatbuilding in South Sulawesi
• CharterWorld: 65 m traditional phinisi yacht completed

How do I reach the desk?

If you sail on one of these rigs and can correct a sail name or position, we would like to hear it. Reach the desk on WhatsApp 6281139414563 or at bd@juaraholding.com.