Ship building - stock photo

Constructing a traditional phinisi sailing ship alongside a river mouth beside the main coastal highway in June 2004, South Kalimantan province, outside Banjarmasin city, Indonesia. Once constructed, the boat can be easily launched from its construction site without requiring additional transportation to the water's edge. The entire boat is handmade from local timbers and will ply the waters mostly around Borneo and Sulawesi islands including the Java Sea. The phinisi is a traditional Indonesian two-masted sailing ship and still is used widely by the Buginese and Makassarese, mostly for inter-insular transportation, cargo and fishing purposes within the Indonesian archipelago. 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.