Cruising through Indonesia one encounters an incredible variety of indigenous sailing craft and the best known are the Buginese schooners. Until today several thousands of these keep plying the inter-island trading routes of Indonesia carrying cargo.

In the old days these schooners were pure sailing boats and consequently they were sometimes becalmed in windless seas for weeks on end. Although the “Phinisis” have retained their sailing rigs, since the late sixties virtually all of them have been motorized and nowadays they could best be described as motor-sailers. Traditionalists would not even call them schooners anymore as the aft masts have generally become smaller than the foremasts. Nowadays they are in fact ketches while the one masted ones should be referred to as cutters.

What has not changed however is the thousand year old boat building tradition of the Bugis, who are indigenous to South Sulawesi and have been known throughout the ages as the sailors, the traders and the pirates of the archipelago.

All Sea Safari vessels have been handcrafted by Bugi master carpenters, who were allowed to use only the very best, well seasoned, “ulin”, or ironwood, available. What sets them apart is that at the same time, Mr. Zainal Abidin, owner and chief architect of Sea Safari, has been incorporating his experience as a builder of tugboats into the final designs of all the vessels himself. They are sturdy ships with an easy motion that offer a level of comfort, otherwise only found on the very largest yachts.

Sea Safari maintains the youngest fleet in Indonesia. The oldest ship currently in operation was launched in 1997.