About Sumbawa Liveaboard: how the guide is written and our interest

By Sumbawa Liveaboard Editorial Desk

Sumbawa Liveaboard is a specialist maritime brand under Juara Holding Group: an English-language guide to liveaboard trips around Sumbawa, and a request desk. The Editorial Desk writes every page and names its sources. The site itself is not a contracting party, and requests sent here can lead to a contract with our companies, a fact we state openly.

What is Sumbawa Liveaboard?

It is two things in one place. The first is a guide for people about to spend real money on a Sumbawa liveaboard along the north coast, from the whale shark bay at Saleh to the islands of Moyo and Satonda. The second is a desk that answers questions and takes requests. We are not a government body, a classification society or a law firm, so nothing here should be read as a ruling or as legal advice.

Every page carries the byline of the Sumbawa Liveaboard Editorial Desk, and no individual is named. Judge the pages by their sources, which you can open and read yourself.

Routes, rates and departure dates that appear on this site belong to the operators we name. We do not publish a fleet, a departure calendar or availability of our own, and reading a page here reserves nothing. Where you see an operator's trip described, it is there so you can compare it.

How do we choose and date sources?

We start from who is in a position to know, and we label every claim accordingly. An operator knows its own itinerary and its own terms, and it also wants your booking, so we repeat its words with its name attached. A ministry's legal database can tell you whether a decree exists. A traveller can tell you what one boat looked like on one trip, and no more than that.

Precision about labels matters here too. UNESCO lists Saleh-Moyo-Tambora as a biosphere reserve, nominated in 2019, and we call it that and nothing grander. The provincial government describes the Moyo Satonda park as established under Ministerial Decree SK.901 of 2022, so we use the status and the decree it gives.

Dates work the same way. Published figures carry the month we last read them, and a date goes with the source wherever it changes the meaning. A good example is the count of whale sharks in Saleh Bay. Konservasi Indonesia reports 174 individuals identified through monitoring up to 2025, while an older table in its own study lists a lower figure from data ending years earlier. The older number was not wrong. It was older, so we give the newer one and say what period it covers.

Three things we leave out. We do not use pages we know to belong to our own group as evidence for a claim. We do not publish reviews or ratings of specific boats, because we have no way to verify them. And when we cannot open or match a source, we do not repeat its claim, however often it appears elsewhere.

What do we do when sources disagree?

We print the disagreement. Picking the more convenient number would make a page read better and serve you worse. If you know that two sources differ, you can ask a seller the sharper question.

We also keep two rules that follow from this. We do not build a combined range out of two different sources, because the resulting range would be something neither source said. And if something is simply unknown, we say that we have not found a source for it. The peak-month conflict is a good test of an honest seller: ask which months a boat recommends, then ask what that advice is based on.

What is our commercial interest?

A request sent through the desk can lead to a contract with the companies listed in the next section. Read our advice knowing that we may benefit if you act on it. Any fee and payment terms are stated in the offer before you agree to anything.

We handle that conflict in two ways. First, our own offers get no special treatment on these pages, and our boat comparison checklist tells you to put our offer through the same questions as anyone else's. Second, we tell you not to pay on the strength of this site alone. A page here is a starting point, and the document that counts is the written offer.

Which companies issue contracts?

The site itself is not a contracting party. Depending on the work, a contract comes from one of three companies under the group:

• Brokerage, central agency, charter marketing and commercial representation contracts are issued by PT Komodo Bahari Nusantara.
• Construction, repair, refit and vessel-sale contracts are issued by PT Komodo Galangan Nusantara.
• Boat-management contracts are issued by PT Komodo Vessel Management.

Check that the company named on any document you receive matches its role here, and that the work location is stated in the offer where it applies. If a document comes to you under the brand name alone, ask for the company's name before you go further. The disclaimer page carries the same details in short form.

How do we correct mistakes?

Tell us, and show us the source. Prices change, operators rewrite their pages and rules get updated, so some of what is printed here will go out of date. The fastest correction has three parts: the address of the page, the sentence you think is wrong, and a link to something better.

If the new source holds up, we change the page. If it conflicts with what we already cite, we print both and name each, as in the table above. Operators are welcome to correct their own details too, and we will take a statement from them the way we take any seller's statement: with their name on it. We quote no reply time here. You can reach us through the contact page, which also explains what to include in a message.

Some topics we keep open on purpose. Take the whale shark rules: where we have not read the binding text of a regulation, we say so, and we report only the published summaries. If you hold the official text, it is among the corrections we would most like to receive.

What else do readers ask about this site?

Who writes the guides on this site?

The Sumbawa Liveaboard Editorial Desk. Pages carry the desk's byline and no individual names, so you should judge each one by the sources it links to.

Does this site publish its own departures?

No. Routes, rates and dates shown here belong to the operators named beside them. Only a written offer from one of the companies above would commit anyone to a trip.

Can your companies benefit from a request I send?

Yes. A request can end in a contract with them. Keep that in mind as you read, and compare any offer from us with one from another seller.

Do you publish reviews or ratings of boats?

No. We cannot verify them, so we report what sellers state with their names attached, and we give you questions to test those statements.

Can I ask you to correct a page?

Yes. Send the page address, the sentence and a better source by WhatsApp or email, and we will weigh it the same way we weigh any other source.

Which sources support this page?

• Indonesian marine ministry legal database: Decree 18/KEPMEN-KP/2013
• West Nusa Tenggara provincial government: Moyo and Satonda national park
• UNESCO: Saleh-Moyo-Tambora biosphere reserve
• Important Shark and Ray Areas: Saleh Bay factsheet
• Konservasi Indonesia: Saleh Bay whale shark report 2025
• Kompas: people and whale sharks in Saleh Bay
• Mongabay: whale shark satellite study and Saleh Bay, May 2026
• Komodo Resort: Sumbawa liveaboard page
• Konservasi Indonesia: whale shark tourism study (PDF)
• Amanwana: Whale Shark Experience trade guide (PDF)
• Wikipedia: Satonda Island
• Hydrochemical study of Satonda Crater Lake

How do I reach the desk?

Questions about sources, corrections and requests all go to the same desk. Tell us which page you mean. WhatsApp +62 811-3941-4563 or email bd@juaraholding.com.