Delivery Voyage, Sea Trials and Crew Handover: The Last 60 Days
The last sixty days of a phinisi build are launch, fitting out afloat, sea trials, snag rectification, the delivery voyage from South Sulawesi to your operating base, and crew familiarisation. None of it is ceremonial. This is where you find out whether the boat performs to specification, and it is the last moment when defects are the yard’s problem rather than yours.
- Sea trials test: speed, handling, vibration, noise in cabins, and every system under load.
- Snag list: written, numbered, photographed, and closed before final payment.
- Delivery route: Bulukumba across the Flores Sea to Labuan Bajo, typically a multi-day passage at 10–12 knots.
- Handover pack: certificates, drawings, manuals, spares list, warranty terms — insist on it as a condition of payment.
Owners spend eighteen months thinking about the boat and about ninety minutes thinking about the handover. It should be the other way round at the end. The sea trial and delivery period is compressed, expensive to redo, and the point at which contractual leverage transfers from you to the yard — so it deserves a plan.
What happens between launch and the first paying charter?
| Stage | Typical duration | Owner’s job |
|---|---|---|
| Launch and fitting out afloat | 2–4 weeks | Attend; verify installed equipment against the specification |
| Sea trials | 1–3 days, repeated if needed | Run the trial protocol; record everything |
| Snag rectification | 2–6 weeks | Chase the numbered list; withhold retention |
| Measurement, class and registration | Runs in parallel, 3–6 months overall | Keep the document file consistent with the boat |
| Delivery voyage | Several days depending on route and weather | Crew, fuel, insurance in force, passage plan |
| Crew familiarisation and drills | 1–2 weeks | Do not skip this to catch a booking |
The certification tail overlaps everything and is the usual reason a boat that is physically finished still cannot sell a charter — see BKI class certification and ship registration for the document chain.
What should the sea trial actually test?
A sea trial is not a celebratory cruise. Run a written protocol and record results against the specification:
- Speed and fuel burn at several engine loads. Most phinisi are specified around 10–12 knots cruising; confirm the number and the consumption that goes with it.
- Handling — turning circles both ways, astern control, steering response, behaviour at low speed for anchoring.
- Vibration and alignment through the rev range. Vibration found now is a shaft alignment job; found in month six it is a bearing.
- Noise levels in guest cabins under way and at anchor with the genset running. This single measurement predicts more guest complaints than any other.
- All systems under load: air conditioning across every cabin simultaneously, watermaker, galley, dive compressor, deck machinery.
- Anchoring and mooring gear at full scope, in real depth.
- Stability documentation — an inclining experiment is standard practice for a classed passenger vessel, because lightship weight and centre of gravity on a hand-built wooden hull cannot be reliably calculated from drawings. See naval architecture and stability engineering.
How should the snag list be managed?
Numbered, dated, photographed, and shared in one document that both sides work from. Categorise each item: safety-critical, must-fix-before-handover, and post-delivery warranty. Agree the categorisation with the yard rather than assuming it.
The commercial mechanism that makes this work is retention — typically 5–10% of contract value held until the snag list is closed and the defect period has run. This should have been agreed long before launch; the questions to settle at contract stage are in choosing a phinisi shipyard. Independent verification during this phase is exactly what an owner’s representative provides.
What does the delivery voyage involve?
The classic route runs from the Bulukumba yards — Tana Beru, Bira, Ara or Lemo-Lemo — south around the Sulawesi peninsula and east across the Flores Sea to Labuan Bajo. At a cruising speed of 10–12 knots this is a multi-day passage, and it is the boat’s first sustained run: engines at working load for days rather than hours, systems tested continuously, and the crew learning the vessel while doing it.
Before departure, confirm:
- Insurance in force for the delivery passage specifically, not just for charter operations.
- Fuel and water capacity against the passage plan, with real margin.
- Navigation equipment operational and charts or electronic charts current.
- Safety equipment aboard, in date and stowed where the crew can reach it.
- Crew documentation and a passage plan with alternative shelter options.
Treat the delivery as an extended trial. Anything that surfaces on a five-day passage would otherwise have surfaced on a charter with sixteen guests aboard.
How should crew handover be run?
Crew familiarisation is the most commonly skipped step and the most consequential. Standard liveaboards run about 0.6–0.8 crew per guest and luxury vessels 1.0–1.4 — on a well-crewed boat that is a lot of people who need to know the same systems.
Cover, before the first booking:
- Engine room routines, alarm responses, fuel and bilge management.
- Electrical system architecture — what runs on which genset, what runs on batteries, load management at anchor.
- Firefighting, life-raft launching, man-overboard and abandon-ship drills, run for real.
- Emergency oxygen and casualty handling if the boat dives — see dive deck design for Komodo liveaboards.
- Anchoring procedures for the specific sites you will work, where currents run hard.
- Guest-facing service routines, so the first charter is not the rehearsal.
What should be in the handover document pack?
- Registration and ship certificate, tonnage measurement result, class and safety certificates.
- As-built general arrangement and key drawings; the stability booklet.
- Equipment manuals, serial numbers and warranty documents for all machinery.
- Recommended spares list and initial spares inventory.
- Maintenance schedule and the yard’s defect-period terms in writing.
- Sea trial report and the closed snag list.
This pack is an asset. It shapes your first insurance placement, your class relationship and, eventually, your resale — a buyer’s surveyor will ask for it. Build the maintenance calendar straight off it using our annual maintenance programme.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the delivery voyage from Sulawesi to Labuan Bajo?
It is a multi-day passage across the Flores Sea from the Bulukumba yards, with duration depending on route, weather and the boat’s 10–12 knot cruising speed. Plan it as a proper passage with fuel margin and shelter options, not a transfer.
What happens if the boat fails its sea trial?
Items go on the snag list, get rectified, and the affected tests are re-run. This is exactly why retention exists and why final payment should follow trial success rather than a calendar date.
Who pays for the delivery voyage?
It depends on the contract and should be explicit: fuel, crew, insurance and any port costs are real money. Agree responsibility before signing, along with where handover legally takes place.
Can I take guests on the delivery voyage?
We advise against it. Certification, insurance and crew familiarity may all be incomplete, and the delivery is a testing exercise. Sell your first charter after handover, not during it.
How long before the first charter should the crew join?
Early enough to attend trials and the delivery if possible, and at minimum one to two weeks of familiarisation and drills before guests. Crew who learn the boat on a paying charter learn it expensively.
Talk to the team
Komodo Boat Construction is operated by Komodo Luxury, part of Juara Holding Group, in Komodo marine tourism since 2015. We run trial protocols, snag lists and delivery passages for owners as part of a full new-build program.
WhatsApp: +62 811 3823 875 · Email: sales@komodoluxury.com