True Bearing

State-of-the-art trappings meet traditionally built pleasure craft for tropical cruising in the remote reaches of Indonesia

- Sanjay Surana

Three young Britons move to Singapore to work. They head to Indonesia for their holidays: kite-surfing in North Sumatra, bumping along tracks in South Lombok on dirt bikes, surfing off West Sumbawa, and mucking around on boats in East Nusa Tenggara. Smitten, they toss in their jobs to focus on projects in Indonesia, among them building a yacht. But not just any yacht – a 31-metre contemporary version of a phinisi, a traditional Indonesian boat, that took a team of 40 craftsmen three years to build.

Working on a remote beach in South Sulawesi, where the craft originated, and without plans, the artisans used traditional techniques, such as bending ironwood over an open fire.

Co-founder Erik Barreto and his partners launched Rascal and their private charter business in March last year, taking groups of up to 10 guests on voyages to Komodo National Park and Flores, in the Lesser Sunda Islands, and to pristine Raja Ampat, off the north-west tip of West Papua.