Every number on a Komodo liveaboard specification derives from one input: the operating profile. Decide guest count, trip length, dive intensity, season and cruising range first, and draft, tankage, generator size, compressor capacity and engine power follow from it arithmetically. Specify equipment before profile and you will buy a boat that is simultaneously over-built and under-capable.
Start with the operating profile
Write down five things before anything else. How many paying guests per trip. How many nights a trip runs. How many dives per guest per day. Which months you will operate and whether you will run through the west monsoon. And how far you will range — inside the park only, or out to Sumbawa, Alor, Banda and Raja Ampat. Those five answers generate almost every specification number below.
Cabin count and layout
Guest count is a commercial decision with regulatory consequences. Small boutique boats in this market commonly run six to eight cabins; larger dive platforms run ten to sixteen berths or more. Crossing a passenger threshold changes your safety equipment schedule and crew certification requirement, so the number must be settled before the interior is framed — see Komodo National Park compliance.
Layout principles that survive contact with real guests: keep guest cabins out of the engine room bulkhead where possible, put the noisiest machinery under circulation space rather than under a bed, give every cabin its own bathroom on any boat charging premium rates, and design the salon so it works as a briefing space with a screen and a dry table. Crew accommodation is not an afterthought — high crew turnover destroys service quality faster than any equipment failure.
Draft: the most consequential number
Draft decides which anchorages you can sell. Shallower draft opens up more of the inner bays and reef-edge sites; deeper draft gives better directional stability and lets you carry more fuel and water lower in the hull. In practice most Komodo liveaboards live in a fairly narrow band, and the right answer comes from listing the specific sites you intend to overnight at and checking their charted depths and swinging room against your intended ground tackle scope. That list should exist before the lines plan is fixed.
Propulsion, power and range
Specify installed power against the worst case, not the average: holding schedule against a four to six knot tidal stream with a full load. Underpowered boats do not merely arrive late, they miss slack water at the dive site, which is the product you sold. Range follows fuel capacity, consumption at transit speed, and the itinerary — a boat that only works Labuan Bajo round trips needs far less tankage than one running to Alor or Raja Ampat, and every extra tonne of fuel is a tonne of payload and a change in trim.
Redundancy deserves a decision rather than a default. Twin engines cost more and complicate the engine room, but a single-engine boat with a failure in Selat Lintah at spring tide is in a genuinely bad position.
Manoeuvring gear
A bow thruster is effectively mandatory for a boat that berths regularly at Labuan Bajo and anchors in current. Size it against the vessel’s windage and the stream you will manoeuvre in, not the minimum table value. A stern thruster is worth considering on larger hulls. Anchor and mooring gear should be specified for the current and depth of the park’s anchorages, with adequate scope, a windlass sized for retrieving under load, and a plan for the sites where anchoring is restricted and mooring is required.
Stabilisation
Decide whether your comfort problem is at anchor, underway, or both, because the answer changes the technology. Gyroscopic units need structural foundation and electrical capacity but avoid hull penetrations. Fin systems generally perform better underway but need penetrations and hydraulics. Passive rigs cost little and only help at anchor. Retrofit constraints are covered on the refit page; on a new build you have far more freedom and should use it.
Dive systems
Compressor capacity has to fill the whole guest load between dives without running continuously through the night. Size it against guests times dives per day times average fill volume, then add margin for nitrox and for the days when everyone dives everything. A second compressor is low-cost insurance against a trip-ending failure in a place with no service support. Specify bank storage, filtration and, if you offer nitrox, the membrane or partial-pressure arrangement and its ventilation. Tank racks, rinse tanks with real drainage, and camera-table power and lighting are part of the same system, not deck decoration.
Fresh water and sanitation
Watermaker capacity is set by guests plus crew, litres per person per day, and the honest expectation that guests will shower after every dive. Size for full occupancy on a hot week with one unit down, and carry enough tankage to survive a watermaker failure without ending the trip. Sanitation is a park compliance issue as much as a plumbing one: holding tank volume and treatment must match guest count and trip length, and discharge is regulated — see the compliance guide.
Electrical generation
Generator sizing is the calculation most often got wrong, in both directions. Add up the real simultaneous load — air conditioning at afternoon peak, compressor, watermaker, galley, refrigeration, lighting, entertainment — then decide the split. Two smaller generators that let you run one at a sensible load factor for most of the day beat one large unit that spends its life lightly loaded and wet-stacking. Solar and battery capacity can genuinely remove the overnight generator run, which is the single biggest guest-comfort upgrade available on a dive boat.
Safety, fire and redundancy
Specify fire detection and suppression by zone, engine room fixed suppression, escape routes from every guest and crew space, life-saving appliances for the certified passenger count plus crew, bilge alarms and pumping capacity with redundancy, and communications that work where the mobile network does not. This is where cost-cutting is least defensible and most common.
Turning the specification into a contract
Once the numbers are settled they become the technical brief that yards quote against — see new-build project management. Indicative budget ranges for each of these systems are on the cost and timeline guide. To discuss a specification, email sales@komodoluxury.com or WhatsApp +62 811-3823-875.
Frequently asked questions
What draft should a Komodo liveaboard have?
Draft should be derived from the specific anchorages you intend to overnight at, checked against charted depths and swinging room at your intended scope. Shallower draft opens more inner-bay and reef-edge sites; deeper draft improves directional stability and lets you carry fuel and water lower. Fix the site list before the lines plan.
How do I size the dive compressor for a liveaboard?
Multiply guests by dives per day by average fill volume, size the compressor to complete that within the surface intervals rather than running all night, then add margin for nitrox and heavy-diving days. A second compressor is standard insurance because there is no service support at sea.
How much generator capacity does a Komodo dive liveaboard need?
Add the genuine simultaneous load — air conditioning at afternoon peak, compressor, watermaker, galley, refrigeration, lighting — then split it across two units so one can run at a sensible load factor most of the day. A single oversized generator spends its life lightly loaded, which causes wet stacking.
How many cabins make a liveaboard commercially viable in Komodo?
Boutique operations commonly run six to eight cabins and premium pricing; volume dive platforms run larger berth counts at lower rates. The constraint is that passenger count drives safety equipment and crew certification requirements, so it must be settled before the interior is framed.
Do I need twin engines for Komodo?
It is a decision worth making explicitly rather than defaulting. Tidal streams in the park straits can exceed six knots, and a single-engine failure in a narrow strait at spring tide is a serious situation, so redundancy carries real operational value here.
Talk to the build desk
Send the vessel details or the operating profile you want to run and we will tell you what has to be established before a number means anything. Quotations in USD. Construction, repair, refit and vessel-sale contracts are issued by PT Komodo Galangan Nusantara.