Frequently Asked Questions

A yard-side coordination and supervision desk working on the Bira and Tanjung Bira foreshore in Bulukumba Regency, South Sulawesi. It plans and supervises timber-hull work: haul-out and slipway slots, refit and restoration, hull repair and caulking, condition surveys, and supervised new-build project management.

It does not own a slipway, sell vessels or operate charters. Read more about the Build Desk.

At the south-eastern tip of the South Sulawesi peninsula, in Bulukumba Regency. Land access is from Makassar, typically a five to six hour road transfer. By sea it sits where the peninsula meets the Flores Sea, with Selayar to the south-west. Practical detail is in the article on approaches and logistics.

Construction, repair, refit and vessel-sale contracts are issued by PT Komodo Galangan Nusantara. Boat-management contracts are issued by PT Komodo Vessel Management. Brokerage, central agency and charter marketing contracts are issued by PT Komodo Bahari Nusantara. Separate contracts, separate fees, separate ledgers.

None are claimed on this site. Where a project requires class involvement, flag documentation or an independent licensed surveyor, those are arranged through the appropriate bodies and identified as theirs. See class, flag and documentation.

No. Bira works on a foreshore system — ways, rollers, cradles and shoring on the beach — rather than a graving dock or lift basin. It suits traditional timber hulls and makes tide and season planning central to every programme. The sequence is described under haul-out and slipway.

Within the limits of the ground and the ways, yes. The controlling factors are draught, displacement and keel form rather than construction material. The depth of skill here is in timber, and where another material would be better served elsewhere you will be told so.

A wash, inspect and antifoul cycle is days. Plank, frame or fastening work extends that to weeks, because timber must be worked dry, replacement stock may have lead time, and the take-up period after relaunch has to be planned for.

Yes. A hull dried on the hard takes water until the planking swells and the seams close. Ingress should fall steadily and be diffuse along the seams. Water traceable to one point is a defect, not take-up — see relaunch and take-up.

The drier months for anything that opens the hull. Short maintenance cycles are much less season-sensitive. The reasoning is set out in planning a haul-out window.

No blanket price list is published, because a meaningful figure depends on the vessel and the scope. Quotations are issued in USD after a written scope and, where structure is in question, an inspection of the hull.

Because the scope is not knowable until the hull is opened. A fixed figure quoted beforehand is either padded for the worst case or will be revised upward later. Staged pricing is the honest structure — see reading a yard quotation line by line.

A written variation with a description, a photograph of the reason, a price and your approval. Every timber refit generates them, because opening a hull reveals what a survey could not. A project producing none is usually absorbing variations silently, to appear as a final-account surprise.

Enough that discovering more work does not force a bad decision, and ring-fenced against being spent on upgrades while the hull is open. See budgeting a timber hull refit.

The desk provides owner-side supervision and project management — specification, material acceptance, milestone inspection, photographic evidence and payment gates. Physical building is carried out by yard teams on the foreshore. See new-build supervision.

Yes, and most owners do. Weekly written notes against scope lines, dated photographs from consistent positions, a running change register and immediate escalation of anything affecting cost or completion. See supervising a new build remotely.

At decision points: the haul, the opening inspection, and any milestone gate. Visits at other times are pleasant but rarely change an outcome.