Pinisi

The pinisi or phinisi is a traditional Indonesian two-masted sailing ship. It was mainly built by the Konjo tribe, a sub-ethnic group of Bugis-Makassar mostly residents at the Bulukumba regency of South Sulawesi but was, and still is used widely by the Buginese and Makassarese, mostly for inter-insular transportation, cargo and fishing purposes within Indonesian archipelago.

General description

The hull of the ships looks similar to that of a dhow while the fore-and-aft rigging recalls western schooners, although it might be more correctly termed to resemble a ketch, as the front mast is the larger.

The large mainsails differ from western style gaff rigs though, as they often do not have a boom and the sail is not lowered with the gaff. Instead it is reefed towards the mast, much like a curtain, thus allowing the gaff to be used as deck crane in the harbour. The lower part of the mast itself may resemble a tripod or is made of two poles.

Pinisi may be 20 to 35 meters long and 350 tons in size. The masts may reach to 30 meters above the deck.