Five questions before you pay a deposit: is there a life jacket for every person on board, are the life rafts serviced and in date, does the vessel hold current sailing clearance from the harbourmaster, what is the guide-to-guest ratio, and is there oxygen and a first-aid kit with someone trained to use them? An operator who answers all five without hesitating is an operator who has thought about it.
Indonesia’s liveaboard market runs from purpose-built dive vessels with formal safety management down to converted cargo boats with a compressor bolted to the deck. The price difference between the two is smaller than you would expect. The difference in what happens when something goes wrong is not.
This is a traveller’s checklist, not a legal guide. We have deliberately avoided citing specific regulations, because the ones we could not verify precisely are the ones most often quoted wrongly online.
What should you ask before paying a deposit?
| Item | What to ask for | A good answer | Red flag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Life jackets | How many on board, for how many souls | One per person plus spares, with locations named | “Plenty” / “of course” with no number |
| Life rafts | Capacity and last service date | Total capacity exceeds max souls; service date given | Vague, or capacity below full complement |
| Fire extinguishers | Number, locations, inspection dates | Galley, engine room, deck, cabins; dates current | Cannot say where they are |
| Bilge alarms and pumps | Are they fitted and tested | Alarms in each compartment, tested regularly | Blank response — a serious one on a wooden hull |
| Sailing clearance | Whether the vessel clears with the harbourmaster each departure | Yes, per departure, with names on the manifest | “We just go” |
| Crew certification | Captain’s qualification, engineer, divemaster ratios | Specific and answerable | Deflection to “very experienced” |
| Oxygen and first aid | Onboard O₂, kit contents, trained crew | Emergency O₂ unit and named first-aid-trained crew | No oxygen on a dive boat — walk away |
| Communications | VHF, satellite phone, backup | Both, plus a stated emergency protocol | Mobile phone only |
| Insurance | Passenger liability cover | Confirmed in writing | “You should get your own” as the whole answer |
| Weather policy | What happens when conditions are bad | Written policy on reroute, delay and refund | “We always go” — the worst answer on this list |
You do not need to ask all ten aggressively. Ask three at random and listen to the texture of the reply. Operators who run tight vessels answer these instantly, often with more detail than you wanted.
Why does the life-jacket count matter so much?
Because it is the cheapest signal of a whole attitude. Life jackets for every person on board, plus survival craft with enough capacity for everyone, is the baseline expectation for any commercial passenger vessel. It is also easy to skimp on and impossible to fix at sea.
Ask for a number rather than a reassurance. “We carry 26 jackets for a maximum of 20 guests and 8 crew, in the deck lockers and under the saloon benches” is a real answer. “Of course, don’t worry” is not.
The same applies to the safety briefing on boarding day. If nobody shows you where the jackets are, where the muster point is and where the rafts are stowed, that is information about the operation, not just an oversight. Our safety and compliance page sets out what we consider the minimum.
What does sailing clearance mean, and why do departures sometimes wait?
Indonesian commercial passenger vessels operate under registration and seaworthiness oversight, and departures are cleared through the harbourmaster (Syahbandar) with a passenger manifest. In practice this means your name goes on a list, the vessel files to sail, and clearance is granted or delayed.
That is why a departure occasionally sits at the pier for an hour longer than scheduled. It is also why your passport is checked at the gate rather than waved through. A boat that leaves without clearing is saving itself an hour and exposing you to a vessel that nobody knows is at sea.
Ask the question simply: do you clear with the harbourmaster for every departure, and is my name on the manifest? The answer should be yes and yes.
How do you judge crew rather than kit?
Equipment is checkable. Judgement is harder, and it matters more. Three proxies work reasonably well.
Guide-to-guest ratio. On a current-driven destination like Komodo, small groups are a safety feature, not a luxury one. Ask the ratio, and ask whether groups are split by ability.
Tenure. How long has the captain been on this route, and how long has the crew been with the operator? High turnover in a small crew is a warning sign about the operation behind them.
Willingness to say no. Ask directly: when did you last cancel a dive or change an itinerary for conditions? An operator who cannot recall an instance in a place with Komodo’s currents is either newly established or not paying attention. The difficulty gradings that drive those decisions are set out in our site-by-site current guide.
What should a weather cancellation policy look like?
A fair one accepts that the sea has the final vote and does not make you pay for that twice. Look for: a stated right for the master to reroute or delay for safety; a defined position on partial refunds or credits if a trip is cut short; and no clause that transfers all weather risk to you while also promising a fixed itinerary. Those two things cannot both be true.
Trip cancellation and dive-specific medical cover are your side of the same arrangement — requirements are covered in health and insurance for Komodo liveaboards.
Frequently asked questions
Are Komodo liveaboards safe?
The well-run ones are, and the market contains both kinds. Safety here is a function of the specific vessel and crew rather than the destination. The checklist above separates them faster than reviews do.
What certification should a liveaboard captain have?
Ask the question and expect a specific answer rather than a category. An operator who can name the captain’s qualification and the engineer’s role has thought about crewing; one who answers “very experienced” has not.
Should there be oxygen on board a dive liveaboard?
Yes, without qualification. Emergency oxygen and a first-aid kit with crew trained to use them are non-negotiable on any vessel running scuba operations. No oxygen means no booking.
How many guides should there be per diver?
Smaller is better in current, and the ability to split groups by experience matters as much as the raw ratio. Ask both questions — ratio, and whether they run separate groups by ability.
What if the operator refuses to answer these questions?
That is your answer. These are routine questions for a professional operation, and the reaction to being asked tells you more than the reply. Our methodology page explains how we assess vessels ourselves.
Does a wooden phinisi hull mean a less safe boat?
Not inherently. Wooden phinisi and steel dive vessels both range from excellent to poor. What matters is maintenance, bilge monitoring, survival craft, crew and clearance — the same list either way. The construction trade-offs are compared on our boat specs and cabin comparison page.
Choosing a vessel
Specifications, deck plans and cabin layouts for the boats on this route are compared on the boat specs page, and the crossing itself is described on the Bali to Labuan Bajo 8-day crossing page.
Departures on this route are operated by Komodo Luxury, part of Juara Holding Group, sailing Bali and Labuan Bajo since 2015. Ask us any of the ten questions above and you will get a specific answer: WhatsApp +62 811 3823 875 or email sales@komodoluxury.com.
Published for the 2027 season. This is a traveller’s due-diligence checklist, not legal or regulatory advice. Requirements and enforcement change — verify current standards with the operator and relevant authorities.
The full checklist we run on every boat before it appears on this site is published as our Komodo liveaboard vetting framework.