Moorings, Marina Berths and Hard Standing Spaces

What is as easy to find in Hong Kong as the three things above? Hens teeth is the answer.

The Club has 123 hard standing spaces for Class boats spread out over the three Club Houses. 46 marina berths at SC and 295 moorings over our four mooring locations.

• The Marina is FULL.

• The Hardstanding spaces are FULL.

• The moorings, for everything over 7 metres, are FULL.

• The waiting list for the marina is 158 members and the waiting list for the moorings is 427 members.

The member who has been waiting longest for a multihull mooring has been waiting since 2009. The longest a member has been waiting, at present, for a monohull mooring is since 2012.

Yet there is nothing the Club can do to get new moorings. The HKSAR Marine Department, MadRep for short, is in charge of all moorings in HK. In response to public demand, or at least when a question was asked in Legco, MadRep graciously allow moorings to be put down in Hei Ling Chau Typhoon Shelter. I hear voices say where is HLC TS? So here it is marked on the chart. The Typhoon Shelter is just South West of the prison on the island.

As members may notice there is no mini or double decker bus route that calls nearby, nor the MTR. Taxis are hard to get and there is only one being that is able walk there. It will also be a while before the new Lantau Metropolis has been reclaimed to make it easy to get there, but then as the TS itself is on the reclamation plans there will be no more moorings there anyway. In the meantime installing a mooring there is a very expensive business, unless of course you own your own crane barge; there is no water or fuel available and as for security please see the answer to the first question above. Kai Do’s are available from the nearby islands; after all the lazzi fare spirit is still alive and well in HK; but I personally have not tried to arrange one.

But why go so far from the Club I hear you ask, there are empty moorings in the Causeway Bay TS! Yes you are correct; but they are all spoken for MadRep advises us. All are allocated and, more importantly, being paid for. MadRep cannot force people to actually use the moorings apparently. If it were Public Housing not being used I am sure something would be done really quickly.

Being a Club on a Private Recreational Lease, we have as much chance of being allocated new moorings as, yes you guessed it, finding the answer in question one above.

For Class boats we often get asked why can we not have more boats stored at Middle Island? KI and SC are chock a block but there is space over in MI. The answer is yes there is space; until a typhoon comes along. Then, especially if there is a visiting Class over there, all the hard standing space is required to securely tie down all the boats, in an West East direction, on the concrete hard standing.

So what can the Club do about the situation? Not a great deal is the unfortunate answer. Altering the slipway a tad at KI, to make an additional platform, to house a few more boats is being looked at but the proximity of the tunnel under the hard standing is proving a stumbling point. We are trying to use the sparse resources we have as efficiently as we can. We have a rule that states that without the approval of the Marine Sub Committee all boats should be within two meters of the designated length of the mooring. Members with Boats on moorings and hard standing are being written to asking why the boat has not been used as per bye-law 19.4. 19.4 was introduced several years ago and states: a. Members owning Vessels occupying a mooring or marina berth are required to make use of their Vessels by leaving the mooring regularly. The definition of ‘regularly’ shall be set by the General Committee. b. If the Marine Office believes a Vessel has not been used as required, the Member will be contacted and asked to provide an explanation for the lack of use to the Marine Sub-Committee. c. If a Vessel has not been regularly used, and unless dispensation is granted by the Marine Sub-Committee, an additional fee will be levied. The level of this additional fee will be determined from time to time by the General Committee.

The General Committee has defined regularly as six times in a six month period, which is quite generous when there is racing almost every week for Class boats, and the additional fee as an additional 50% of the mooring fee. The word Mooring covers marina berths and hard standings as well.

The above ruling was suspended whilst the demonstrations were taking place and it was difficult to travel to the Club Houses and during the Covid pandemic when Government regulations would not allow racing to take place. The rule has been re-enacted since the beginning of the Class Racing Season in September 2022.

As such the Marine Office are sending out letters to members who have not used their boat the required number of times to ask them why the boat has not been used. Some excuses are quite entertaining, some are taken with a bucket of salt and some are genuine. The Class boat figures are derived from the racing records. Boats on moorings are based on sampan usage, the amount of growth on the hull, halyards that have turned green with mould, twisted mooring ropes, extremely dirty hulls and decks etc.

At the time of writing, in February, we have had five moorings returned to us at Shelter Cove, one at Middle Island and four class boats are paying an extra 50% on top of their normal hard standing fee. Sixteen more Class boats will be written to after the MarCom meeting in March for not sailing the required amount of races.

Meanwhile, the RHKYC Charity Foundation would like to thank all the members who are, and will be paying these penalty fees, both for not using their boats and for mooring alongside in breach of the pontoon regulations, as all penalty fees are paid to the Charity.

BTW. There is another answer to question one but that involves a rocking horse and this is a family publication.

Happy Mooring, for those fortunate enough to have one.