Red tape, high cost: can Hong Kong’s new yacht scheme chart a smoother course?

Retired harbour pilot Alex Yu Chi-leung sailed his 50-foot wooden yacht, Bowline, from Causeway Bay in Hong Kong to Dongao Island in Zhuhai under a new cross-border yachting scheme last week, but bureaucratic hurdles and shallow waters tempered the excitement of the leisure trip.

It was Yu’s first voyage under the scheme, but it could also be his last unless mainland Chinese authorities improve certain requirements.

“If the procedures are simplified – because right now they are too numerous, complicated and ambiguous – then I will come back again,” he said.

“If I have to do a massive round of work just to sail for one or two days, I might as well sail in Hong Kong.”

He added that he would rather take a commercial ferry to Dongao for a holiday.

Still, the 66-year-old veteran mariner gave the voyage a score of 60 out of 100 and viewed it as a worthwhile test run.

Yu was among 139 participants aboard 16 yachts from Hong Kong and Macau that sailed to Dongao under the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau individual yacht scheme. Launched in June, the scheme allows eligible Hong Kong and Macau vessels to enter designated Guangdong waters for tourism.