For more than 500 years, travel between the 13,000 islands of the Indonesian archipelago was conducted on phinisis – graceful twin-mast, seven-sail schooners forged on beaches from ironwood and sweat by boatbuilders who passed their trade from generation to generation.
But the proliferation of motorboats in Indonesia after the Second World War, and the birth of commercial air travel rendered the phinisi redundant – a relic of the past, relegated to museums and books. There the handmade ships would have remained if not for the tourism boom born in Bali in the 1970s, since spreading far and wide across the archipelago. From the famed surfing breaks of Sumatra in the west, to Komodo National Marine Park, to the World Heritage-listed coral gardens of Raja Ampat in the east, phinisis have made a delightful resurgence in the crystalline waters of Indonesia.
In 2016, I travelled to the remote province of Sulawesi to study the origins of the phinisi with Raul Boscarino, an Italian-born but Indonesia-based sailor and boatbuilder who knows more about phinisis than any other Westerner alive. When the assignment wrapped up, Raul invited me to sail on his phinisi, a liveaboard dive yacht called Mantra, if I ever returned to the country.
When work took me back to Indonesia earlier this year, I took Raul up on his offer and made plans to join him and a few of his mates on a 16-day 1,000 nautical mile journey of exploration from the Banda Islands to Komodo. “We’ll stop at islands and dive on reefs in the middle of nowhere, and there will be no one out there but us,” he says, smiling from ear to ear as we motor south out of Ambon, a former Portuguese colony in eastern Indonesia. “It’ll be a real adventure.”
SPICE WARS
この記事は Classic Boat の November 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Classic Boat の November 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
The Need For Speed
Saving lives at sea has always been bound to the speed of rescue, from the first rowing boats to the 60-knot, all-weather motorboats of today
ROW YOUR BOAT
There has been a steady rise in recreational rowing over the past few years, and the choice can be bewildering. What’s the right boat for you?
Traditional Tool
JOINER’S NAME STAMP
Classic misuse of a word
Real classic ownership involves rot, rust and reward
SCUD MISSILE
Herreshoff’s newly-restored Bar Harbor 31 Scud lit up the classic racing scene in the Med in 2020 with a double win at Cannes and Saint-Tropez
BOSUN'S BAG
PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE TRADITIONAL BOATER
DOUG LEEN - Tugboat man
Vietnam vet, park ranger, dentist, small-craft conservator and tugboat skipper.... meet Ranger Doug!
CHANCE TO SAVE AN Albert Strange yawl
Chances at Albert Strange ownership don’t come up often, and Sheila II is the quintessential Strange – and one with a great history, too
AFFORDABLE CLASSIC Salcombe Yawls
A friend and I once decided that walking might make a change from sailing. So we set forth to walk from Branscombe to Bigbury, a 100-mile stretch of the south-west coastal path marked by knackering climbs and knee-wrenching descents.
Cardiff, Wales - Save The Elena Maria Barbara!
A rare, 18th-century schooner replica, restored to the tune of around £1 million, could be abandoned if a buyer is not found soon.