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Amangati finishes its first European season this month and crosses for a Caribbean winter. The ship Aman built first is still in the Flores Sea, made of wood, with three cabins.

Amandira is 52 metres of Pinisi. The hull came from Konjo shipwrights in South Sulawesi, working a tradition that predates the drawings by about five hundred years. Aman completed the boat in 2014 and put it into service in 2015.

The fleet behind it is older. Aman Voyages began on the shores of the Flores Sea in the 1990s, with small craft kept so that guests at Amanwana could get around Moyo Island. The boats grew. By 2009 the group wanted something that could reach Raja Ampat and the Banda Sea, and decided the shape it needed already existed.

The build

Deirdre Renniers did the interiors, working between Cape Town and Singapore. Michael Kasten handled the naval architecture. The two of them spent five years with Aman and the Konjo builders, which is why the finished vessel reads as one object rather than a hull with rooms dropped into it.

Renniers has described the aim as following the traditional architecture of the boat without copying it, in a contemporary and understated register. What that produced is dark timber, brass, and very little else.

The Master Cabin sits in the stern with above-water views, a king bed, a sofa, a writing desk and a bathroom with twin vanities. Two Deluxe Cabins take the port and starboard sides on the same terms. Six people, and that is the guest list.

Two further cabins hold single bunks and their own bathrooms. Aman gives these away once the first three are booked and charges only for what the occupants eat and drink. It is the one corner of the group where an extra body costs almost nothing.

Dragons

The Komodo expedition runs five to seven nights. Rinca supplies the trekking and the dragons. Sabayor supplies the reefs, worked over by white tip sharks, Napoleon wrasse, turtles and manta rays. At Makassar you snorkel alongside the mantas instead of looking down at them.

Amandira photographed from the air at anchor in turquoise water off a green island in the East Indonesian archipelago, courtesy of Aman

Amandira at anchor in the East Indonesian archipelago · Courtesy of Aman

A PADI-certified diver sails with the boat and builds the plan around whoever is aboard, beginners included. Crystal and Castle Rocks at Gili Lawa Laut are the sea mounds. Batu Monchu Bay brings dolphins in with the mantas. Satonda has a volcanic lake, and trees full of bats to kayak beneath.

Evenings go to Wainilu, north of Rinca, for an afternoon dive and a barbecue on the sand after dark. The boat overnights near Pink Beach. At dusk the bats come off Komodo in a column that reads like smoke.

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Aman spent five years designing a boat whose shape had been settled five hundred years earlier.

The Splendid Edit

The rest

Four other itineraries exist. Amanwana runs seven days from Labuan Bajo to the tented camp on Moyo Island. The Spice Islands expedition crosses the Banda Sea to seven small islands that once held the world’s only nutmeg. Alor takes eight days or more into the least visited part of East Nusa Tenggara. Raja Ampat is the diving one.

Any of them can be hung off a stay at one of Aman’s five Indonesian properties: Amandari and Amankila in Bali, Aman Villas at Nusa Dua, Amanjiwo on Java, Amanwana on Moyo. The boat is the connective tissue.

UNESCO added Pinisi boatbuilding to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2017, two years after Amandira went into service. Rock art in Kobori Cave on Muna puts seafaring in Sulawesi back four thousand years. Aman charters the far end of that line by the week.

The Splendid Edit — Hotel Facts
The vesselAmandira, a classically styled 52-metre Pinisi available for private charter. Based in the Indonesian archipelago, West Nusa Tenggara.
BuiltHull by Konjo shipwrights of South Sulawesi. Completed 2014, inaugurated 2015.
DesignInteriors by Deirdre Renniers, of Cape Town and Singapore. Naval architecture by Michael Kasten. A five-year collaboration with Aman and the builders.
CabinsOne Master Cabin in the stern, two Deluxe Cabins port and starboard, all king-size with sofa, desk and twin-vanity ensuite.
Bunk cabinsTwo single bunk cabins with ensuites, complimentary once the first three cabins are booked, charged per person for food and drink.
VoyagesKomodo, five to seven nights. Amanwana, seven days from Labuan Bajo. Spice Islands, across the Banda Sea. Alor, eight days or more. Raja Ampat.
On boardPrivate chef and waitstaff, a PADI-certified diver, and equipment for diving, snorkelling and kayaking.
HeritagePinisi boatbuilding was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2017. Aman Voyages began on the Flores Sea in the 1990s.

Vessel length, build and inauguration dates, designer and naval architect, cabin configuration and voyage detail from aman.com, accessed 18 October 2026.

Photography courtesy of Aman — © Aman, Amandira

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