buying a hobie cat

Its illegal to own a boat in china unless you are a fisherman

Perhaps you could track down a French guy called Sebastian, he used to work closely with Hobie Cats here in Zhuhai. He still lives and works her but for a different company now. Perhaps he could give you an experts 'heads up' on the facts, or give you a clearer heading.

__________

Oh, btw, some curious facts...
1. "The waters at Chengshanjiao Promontory is one of China's major sea passages and fishing grounds. Annually 150,000 ships pass or fish there, of which 60 percent or more are foreign vessels." source: http://english.people.com.cn/english/200012/01/eng20001201_56603.html

Hmmmm, foreign vessels, now most of that 60%+ would surely be commercial vessels, but what about private yachts and motor cruisers? Are they , not allowed to cross into Chinese waters?

2. "Recreational Boat Market in China
Summary
Table 2: Recrational Boat Imports, 2001 to 2004 (Millions of US Dollars)
Table 3: Imports from United States of Recreational Boats, 2002 to 2004 (Millions of US Dollars)
Table 4: Imports by Country of Yachts and Other Pleasure Vessels, 2003 to 2004 (Millions of US Dollars)
Marina Projects- “Build the marinas, the boats will come
Shanghai"
source: http://www.internationalbusinessstrategies.com/page/IBS/PROD/34660509?re...

Hmmmm! that's an aweful lot of money (Millions of Dollars) in recreational boats, especially since we're only talking about "Imports.' Makes you kind of wonder about the domestic production, doesn't it? Oh, 'recreational,' that's not "fishing" right? Must be something fishy here then, this report can't possibly be right, right?

Perhaps I need to take a more indepth look around... (I've been known to be wrong before...)

one more for the road...
3. "Steve Xie, Grand Leisure president, says "Pleasure boating is just catching on in China," he said. "This is a young market with enormous potential."
source: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f23/new-marina-development-in-china-...

regards,

T. Tempest. DCA
____________________
"I'd love a thousand words in a foreign language." Tang Yuchuan

+1 for Doc :)
JJ

Thanks Doc for your time and info. I'll ask JJ if he knows this Sebastien...

Correction: Sebastian used to sail Hobie Cats. In Zhuhai he use to work on very large ($2M+) catamarans as an engineer. I talked to him recently, and he mentioned that he knew of someone who had just bought a Hobie Cat in Hong Kong.

One of the intriguing problems we thought about was that if you had such a boat, where would you moor it? Launch ramps are pretty rare, especially for river launches, and tying up to mooring bouy in the water, or pegged to a river bank somewhere, could be risky: from a security point of view.

regards,

T. Tempest. DCA
____________________
"I'd love a thousand words in a foreign language." Tang Yuchuan

Hi Doc,

The owners of Sands Bar in Jida have already told me I could leave it there. (they already have 2 used 470's)

Great stuff! So are they passive boats, the 470's, (i.e. spend most of the time on the beach) or do they get a bit of recreational use? Do you know if they hire them out? I'd love to go for a sail again, it's been too long!

regards,

T. Tempest. DCA
____________________
"I'd love a thousand words in a foreign language." Tang Yuchuan

actually, they've been left on the beach for a very long time... I first thought of repairing them because they're not in such a bad condition, but it seems they're missing a lot of equipment, so I kind of went for the lazy way out and started looking for a hobie cat...

We could go and check them out again if you want. My number is 13928191110

Francis.

hobie cat Hong Kong
Hi Guys,
Bluefin sea sports is the distributor Hobie Cat @ HK. They probably can tell you how difficut it is to get the cat to Zhuhai.
I am waiting for the answer from the customs regarding the dinghy sailing around Zhuhai. I'll keep you updated as son as i get something to communicate.
Regarding the 470's on the beach, we can get a second hand equipment from the olympic sailors in 08/2008 for they usualy prefer bargaining their sails with locals rather than taking them back to their country. Or ask Shenzhen sail makers to send a quotation.
xibu

Thanks for the tips Xibu.

I was actually planning to buy a hobie cat from the hobie club in HK at first (http://www.hobie.com.hk/), but it does seem quite complicated to get the sailboat into China, so I'd much rather settle on buying one here...