Phinisi safety equipment to ask about before you book, with Gammara's printed list as the example

I have not boarded Gammara. This is a desk review of the equipment list in the boat's 2026 brochure, set against the harbour authority's guideline, and I checked both on 3 November 2026. Where I write printed, it is printed. Where nothing is printed, I say so and leave the gap empty.

A safety list is easy to admire and hard to test from a screen. So this page turns one into questions you can send before a deposit leaves your account.

Gammara serves as the worked example because its list is short, plain and quoted in full. The same questions fit any boat in the park, from a speedboat to a 30 m phinisi, and they cost a guest nothing to ask.

If I had boarded the boat, this page would say what I touched and measured. It does not, so it says only what the paper says.

Here are the items the brochure names, each with my reading.

• 2 life rafts, each rated for 15. That is 30 places for 12 guests. The crew needs places too, and the brochure prints no crew number, so I do not finish the sum.
• Life jackets. Printed, with no count and no sizes.
• Life buoys. Printed, with no count.
• Fire extinguisher. Printed in the singular. Ask how many and where they hang.
• Oxygen tank. Printed. Ask who on board is trained to use it.
• First-aid kit. Printed, with no contents list.
• Radar, GPS navigator, VHF radio, echo sounder and compass. Printed as the navigation and radio set.

The guest list is 12 and the boat has 6 cabins of 2 berths each, so the berths match the capacity.

Paper from the authorities sits beside the brochure. Detik reported on 14 October 2024 that the harbour authority's guideline for tourist boats asks for life jackets sufficient for every passenger and a safety demonstration before departure.

On 23 July 2024 Detik reported that e-boarding barcodes at the main piers help stop boats carrying more passengers than permitted. The permitted passenger number is the one that counts, and it can differ from the bed count. Ask for the licensed figure and compare it with the 12 guests Gammara publishes.

A sailing approval, called SPB, comes from the harbour authority after it checks the weather forecast and the vessel. A boat without one does not sail. Ask whether the approval is issued per trip and request the date of the last technical check.

A list shows what is aboard. It does not show whether the item works, is in date or sits where a frightened person can reach it in the dark.

So the useful questions are about counts, service dates and training. How many jackets are aboard, in which sizes, and where are they kept? When were the rafts last serviced? Who has first-aid training, and has the crew run a drill this season?

Some items I will not infer. A beacon for emergencies and a defibrillator are worth asking about, and the Gammara brochure prints neither, so I do not say the boat has them. The same goes for a doctor or a nurse aboard.

One concession: a short printed list does not mean a weak boat. Many boats print no list at all.

Copy these into a message. A well-run boat answers them in writing.

• How many life jackets are aboard, in which sizes, and are there child sizes?
• How many extinguishers are aboard and where are they fixed?
• When were the two life rafts last serviced, and where are they stored?
• Who is trained to use the oxygen tank and the first-aid kit?
• What is the licensed passenger maximum on the current sailing approval?
• Is there a safety briefing before we leave the harbour?
• Do you carry an emergency beacon and a defibrillator?
• What happens to our booking if the boat cannot sail?

For the last question, our published answer is a boat of the same or higher class on the same date at no extra cost, or a full refund. We normally transfer the refund within 2 x 24 hours once its conditions are met.

If you have time for three questions only, I would ask these, in this order. They are the ones a good boat answers fastest, and the ones a poor answer spoils most.

• Jackets. The count against the licensed passenger maximum, and the sizes. The harbour authority's own guideline starts here.
• Rafts. The service date. Gammara's two rafts offer 30 places, and a date is more useful than a number.
• Papers. The licensed passenger maximum and the latest sailing approval.

Everything else follows from a boat that answers those three plainly. I would hold back a deposit from one that does not, and I would write down the date and the name of whoever replied.

Keep the replies with your booking, next to the invoice and the cabin plan. They are the nearest thing to an inspection that a guest can do from home.