Mon, Oct 28, 2002 page20

• Plain sailing in Hualien inspires local windsurfers

  NATURAL RESOURCE `Hualien is just like Hawaii' according to some local sailors and windsurfers at the latest race to grace the country's calendar of regattas and sailing events

  • By David Frazier / STAFF REPORTER
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  Hualien wants to promote sailing. The organizers of the first annual East Coast Tourism Cup Invitational, which drew around 200 sailors from all over Taiwan, felt it was pretty urgent to get this message across.

  "You can help us write an article," they told me about a hundred times. I thought it was pretty obvious that that's what I was doing, spending two days at a regatta with a camera and a notepad.

  Apparently, this urgency about promoting sailing had something to do with the desire to develop new types of tourism in Hualien.

  "There's no industry here and it's beautiful. It's like Hawaii," one of them told me. This isn't altogether true, but I liked the logic that any unindustrialized place with natural beauty is like Hawaii.

  Unfortunately the 30km stretch of highway connecting Hualien and its resident natural wonder, Taroko Gorge, is little more than a series of mineral processing plants, whose massive conveyor belts, towers and other steel works seem to get in the way of every ocean view.

  The same mountains that give Hualien its majestic scenery serve as a giant rock quarry for marble, gravel and constituents of cement, in short, an industrial and economic base for the region.

  But the mineral industry hasn't made Taroko any less awe-inspiring and hasn't left oceans and rivers polluted.

  Away from the rock piles, in fact, Hualien is still impressively scenic. The huge harbor works which stretch 1.3km out to sea have also created a section of flat water perfect for small boat sailing. The regatta was a good idea.

  It was also successful. Participants' T-shirts carried club slogans like "Think Windsurfing, Think of Changhua" and "Fulung Sail Service System."

  The best sailors from every club in Taiwan were there, including Hsin Jin-lung (辛金龍) and Guan Shin (官欣), the windsurfers that represented Taiwan earlier this month at the Asian Games. Both of them finished last in South Korea, seventh out of seven, but we' ll get to that later.

  "This is a big race," said Hsing, a 33-year-old sailor from Penghu who will next month compete against the world' s best in the third ever Adecco Penghu Pro-Am. Hsing won the men's formula board division.

  Formula boards are windsurfing boards that are very wide, offering easy stability and light work for the sailor. It was an unusual choice for Hsing, who usually sails short, thin boards with small sails in the overpowering winds of Penghu.

  "One big reason [I entered formula board] is that it had the best prizes," he admitted shortly before carrying away his new NT$36,000 Kinetic brand formula board. But the moral of the story is not so much about mercenary greed as about how to promote specific classes of sailing.

  Hsing has been windsurfing for 17 years. He works for the Penghu County government teaching windsurfing. He estimates he's in the water at least 200 days a year.

  Australian Alex Mowday, who has organized all three Penghu Pro-Ams, described him and a few other Penghu sailors, "In terms of board speed, they're right up there with the world's top pros. They just lack the head to head competition experience."

  Hsing didn't do well at the Asian games because he had to use a kind of board he would never otherwise use, a bulky, long type designated by Olympic rules. In Penghu he normally sails a 270cm board with a sail of 4m2 to 5m2 , the kind of rig that lets the world's best sailors deal with blasting winds and pull huge aerial stunts.

  At the Asian Games, Hsing was on a 372cm board with a 7.4m2 sail, a set-up for the not-so-intense winds common to the world outside Penghu.

  "It was very physical," he said, and then he shrugged. "We' re more recreational. They [the other Asian Games sailors] are more specialized," which is any easy way to see things when you' re past your prime, sail a more fun class of board and live in one of the best windsurfing spots on the planet and your competitors don't.

  But many in the Chinese Taipei Sailing Association hope for better future results in international competition.

  That's why they're sponsoring regattas and major support has come from county governments in Penghu and Hualien who have regional aims as well as the national Tourism Bureau.

  And what's encouraging, both for national pride and the growth of environmentally aware sports- like sailing, is that plenty of young sailors are taking part.

  A dozen boys and girls competed last weekend in the Optimist class, a dinghy class limited to those between eight and 15 years of age.

  When I asked Chang Zi-lung, the 11-year-old who took first in the boy's category, what he thought of the regatta, he just smiled and simply replied, "it was a lot of fun."
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