A breeze was coming from the northeast. The sails on the Road Runner were up and the rigging was adjusted. Quietly, the boat moved forward and out of the harbor near Fulung.
"We are now using the mainsail and soon, when we get out of the harbor, we might have to raise the jib to adjust to the wind direction," said the captain of the boat Huang Ling-shiao (
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
A lot of work needs to be done adjusting the rigging and sails, even on a 6.6m-long mini keel boat such as the Road Runner. But Huang enjoys it. The sight of giant, sculpted rocks along the northeast coast, the shiny, green mountain and the sea stretching toward infinity, decorated with the the dots of small sailboats in the distances soothes away all his stresses.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
In Taiwan, not many people get to enjoy sailing for leisure unless it's windsurfing, or on Laser sailboats. It is not because people cannot afford a yacht, it is because of the perplexing restrictions and regulations and the lack of well-equipped harbors that prevents people from enjoying the pleasure of sailing, according to Chan chih-hung (
Both Huang and Chan's boats are registered as fishing boats instead of yachts, to get around the tiresome regulations and restrictions.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Huang shares mooring space with fishing boats and this creates a constant worry for him. His boat tends to get damaged more by the sea water and it's harder to drag onto the shore.
When typhoons come the boat is most most vulnerable, as the hull and the mast are easily damaged. While all fishing boats find shelters in boathouses, his boat is usually the only one left in the water.
"I have been sailing for the past 30 years, yet the people I'm most afraid to deal with are officials from the Port Administration Bureau," said a maritime professor who preferred anonymity.
Applying for a license for a yacht takes at least seven to eight examinations and takes an average of two years to acquire.
One needs to find a space to anchor the ship before applying for a license. "But all the harbors are owned by the government. It is very difficult for civilians to get an anchor space," the professor said.
At present, Taiwan has just two harbors suitable for yachts. One is in Lungdong, Taipei County, and the other is the Hobihu yachting harbor in Kenting. However, the one in Lungdong is full and yacht owners criticize it for being too small and dangerous for bigger boats to anchor in. As for Hobihu harbor, it charges NT$10,000 to NT$15,000 a month for anchorage.
Sailors such as Chan and Huang aim to sail their boats around the world, a common dream for anyone owning a boat. "But the law regulates that we can only sail up to 5 nautical miles, unless there are exceptional cases," Chan said.
In 1998, Nelson Liu (
Yachting is indeed rare in Taiwan. Keelung is the second busiest commercial harbor in the country and one of the island's four international harbors (the others are Kaohsiung, Taichung and Hualien); but according to officials at the Keelung Harbor Bureau, Keelung only sees two or three foreign pleasure craft a year.
"In Taiwan, we still lack basic concept of attending to foreign leisure boats," Chan said.
"In location, Taiwan is a perfect traffic hub for international cruises, especially in Penghu, Tainan and Kaohsiung. These are great locations for yachting harbors," Chan said.
On the government side, things have begun to change, slowly. The National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports set up a special task force last year promoting water sports and endorsing more international sailing competitions to be held in Taiwan.
A new Yachting Law (
"Developing yachting is an unstoppable trend. We have been behind many countries for more than 10 years. At least, it's a beginning," Chan said.
Yachting facts:
Taipei City Sailing Association promotes large sailboat cruises, call (02) 2365 0890.
Fulung Sailing Service Association, call (02) 2499 1375
Taipei County Sailing Association, call (02) 2922 9360
Penghu County Sailing Association, call (069) 264 216
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist