“China Boating”, a magazine on yachting life style in China, interviewed Mr. Cowen Chiu in the latest issue, which covered some of the details of our project “The Baroque on Lamma” (BoL). Mr. Chiu is an outstanding expert in sailing in Asia: he is the Chairman of Windsurfing Committee of Asian Sailing Federation, President of Windsurfing Association of Hong Kong and Commodore of The Hong Kong Sea School. Being a witness and an influence on the development of sailing activities in Hong Kong, there is no doubt that he is one of the most suitable spokespeople for our city’s sailing industry. During the interview, Mr. Chiu pointed out that Hong Kong has its own geographical advantage and has been an Asian Sailing Centre which attracts different types of yachts and sailing events, just like surfing fans love to visit Gold Coast in Australia.

However, no new marina has been built since 1990s. Overcrowded docks and long waiting lists for berths resulted, and this discouraged people from buying boats, severely hindering the development of the industry. Mr. Chiu added that yachting industry in Hong Kong is further handicapped by a lack of facilities. With all these constraints, Hong Kong is just unable to hold major international sailing events like Volvo Ocean Races and Clipper Around The World Race. As a result, Mr. Chiu concluded, a new and well-equipped harbour would be necessary for holding international regatta events.

BoL is definitely the solution to the above problems. According to Mr. Chiu, BoL would provide 500 berths with draft of 5 to 20m and is capable of docking superyachts of more than 100m long. Furthermore, the marina of BoL would be a world-class marina that will provide state of the art facilities which make world-class yachts and large-scale international regatta events in Hong Kong possible and bring immense economic benefits to Hong Kong.

Mr. Chiu, very familiar with the yachting Industry and understands better than anyone else (like me) about the difficulties the industry is currently facing, is obviously in a better position than others to introduce the situation. Hong Kong has its own geographical and natural advantages, but without suitable facilities and development, it would be impossible to maintain Hong Kong’s status as an Asian Sailing Centre. To become a real Asian Sailing Capital, more work has to be done!

Hong Kong can be more than just “Asian Financial Centre”.Most of us here in Hong Kong would love to see Hong Kong becoming more energetic and diversified, especially when it comes to being readily accessible to a large sea.