Costs: Buy your own food, and find your own way there. I’ve never paid anything, although the phone calls get expensive when you’re in HK and someone decides to buy sails, electronics, etc and get you to collect them and carry it all back through the airport.
Nice. Great to see this going on. I’m from Taiwan, but learned to sail on Long Island Sound. I’ve wanted to see the sport develop in Taiwan, and it’s good to see some traction. What kind of boat are you sailing, stragbasher?
Jibe, ho!
BAH, when do you get back here? I’m sure you’d be welcome. We currently sail a J/120 and a custom 43’ ocean racer. There’s a J/24 and a Melges 24 in storage too.
Anyone else?
I’d like to visit this winter, but work may prevent that. Last (and only) time I sailed in Asia was a race at the (formerly Royal) Hong Kong Yacht Club. Much more organized over there.
[aside]Actually the Royal is still on the English name of the club, but not on the Chinese name[/aside]
Anyone know where I can go sailing? I have spent abit of time on boats but never figured out what to do, or indeed how to do it. My Chinese is limited to buying Japenese pens but not German cars, so I need an English speaking sailing instructor.
And I heard an interesting rumour that sailing is illegal in Taiwan??? (misuse of question marks, yes I know)
Hi!
I am female Taiwanese Canadian and have been racing in Canada and US for 2 years now. I started sailing in my teens and just recently got into racing. I’ve been looking for sailing info in Taiwan for sooooo long. I’ll be moving to Taipei this November.
I sail albacores and catamarans. I don’t know what kind of boats you guys are sailing but as long as it floats on the water, I’ll bring my websuit and some hard liquor.
I finished my bronze 4, so I can teach up to that level, if necessary.
What’s the sailing season in Taiwan? In Toronto, it’s May - Oct.
Please, someone, take me sailing! Tell me when and where to sail!!!
Did you ask how to become a member? And where is Fulong beach? Is it anywhere near Taipei? I would love to sail as well. Been searching for a while. I race in Canada and the US. Thanks!
Yilan, but you can go by train, less than 2 hrs out. Visited the sail club, did not look big.
There’s a sailing club that races lasers in Xinzhu, but that’s also nearly 2 hours out of Taipei.
Hi, I’ve sailed and raced in Canada for over eleven years. I also worked as a coach for three summers. I would be glad to do some coaching if anyone is interested. I speack english and french. You would have to find the boat though.
Hi Jenn, Where did you sail out of? And what kind of boat did you sail?
If you are bilingual, I assume you sailed in Quebec? You actually visited the club? Cool, I’ve been to Yilan and travelled around that area but didn’t see that at all. So, you sail they sailed laser. Is that a laser 1 or 2? Meaning 2 people boat or one. Also, how small is a small fleet? Approximately 5 boats? 10? And do you know how to join? I’m just so desperate to sail. hahahaha
kellohitty, you can ask Jenn those questions via PM (use the PM button at the bottom of Jenn’s posts).
Oops, did not find it…
But found this, this, and this instead.
It seems that Laser 1’s are somewhat normal here.
I am considering to start again myself, once my work situation gets a bit cleared up.
Update: I gave up sailing on the boats described above a few months ago. Anyone with sailing exp can PM me and I’ll put you in touch with the laoban, but I got sick of the fucking around. I believe they have managed to get out of the harbour three times since May. So I’m not sailing at the moment.
To the best of my knowledge there are currently seven keelboats in Taiwan, two of which are foreign-registered. I have a friend who has a Sun Odyssey 47 in a yard here. We hope to get her in the water and out for a trial sail before the end of October. I doubt I can invite anyone at the moment as the guest list is already full. I don’t know what will happen in the future as we are trying to solve the issue of licensing.
Basically, no-one can own a boat in Taiwan without a good reason. This is to prevent unauthorised contact with the other China, so ‘pleasure-boating’ is not normally considered to be a good reason. You usually have to be licensed as a fishing boat or something, which means that your boat has to be Taiwanese-owned, Taiwan-registered, and operated by a Taiwanese. Then you get a license to operate from a specific port, which needs the goodwill of the local authorities. Every time you leave port you have to go through a coast-guard check, submit paperwork, and hand over your ID. Things are supposed to be changing, but you know how it is.
Foreign boats need to get a special permit just to enter Taiwan, and must have a good reason for doing so. Unless you can get permission to go elsewhere you are confined to one of the four international ports, which don’t have facilities for anything smaller than 10,000 tons and may charge you the same rate. On the face of it it’s impossible to bring a boat here, but in reality it’s just an overwhelming nightmare. A visiting Russian boat managed to live in a fishing port here for several months a few years back, so it is possible.
There are Hobies operating out of LongDong, close to Fulong. I don’t know anything about how they operate. Has anyone been down there to talk to them? I believe there’s also dinghy sailing out of XinJu and somweher near KenDing too. Does anyone know anything?
Finally, I’m trying to buy a boat in Japan right now. The owner has stopped replying to my emails and I’m sitting on a ticket to Tokyo. If I get it it will need delivering 1300+ sea-miles, and then I’ll have all the same licensing issues to deal with. Yes, I know. I’m nuts.
Really finally, on the north coast, at least the weather is a problem too. We used to lose half of our scheduled sailing days to big winds and/or waves. It gets more feasible to sail if you have an experienced crew, albeit not especially comfortable, but with a bunch of novices on board it’s just too dangerous most of the time.
Hope this answers any questions.
I windsurf and I’ve been to the club in fulong a couple of time.
The club is pretty nice. It’s a private club with a membership fee. They’ve got Opti’s, lasers and hobies. They don’t really know how to rig any of these up properly and the members can be a bit snooty (they got that part of the yatch club right 
)
The bad part of fulong is that the wind sucks. In the winter its onshore and big surf and in the summer the wind get blocked by the mountains meaning you have to offshore to get wing.
For windsurfing Taiwan is one of the greatest spots in the world. Check out. jasontsai.com or flying-fish.com.tw There are good instructors too. Another place to go is windsurf-penghu.com. You can sail 49’ers there and every year the AsiaCup professional windsruf tours stops there. And the wind is mind blowing
If you need some contact numbers, pm me
When I visited the water park in Longdong (there’s two actually, this was the one at the South end of the bay) they said you can go on boat rides in the Summer, and I’m pretty sure they meant sailing boats. I don’t knwo whether or not htis is what you heard about.
Brian
There’s an article in today’s Taipei Times on the current state of sailing in Taiwan.
[quote]A new Yachting Law (遊艇法) may also get rid of restrictions and improve harbor facilities. It is being proposed in the Executive Yuan this year.
Yachting facts:
Taipei City Sailing Association promotes large sailboat cruises, call (02) 2365-0890.
Fulong Sailing Service Association, call (02) 2499-1375
Taipei County Sailing Association, call (02) 2922-9360
Penghu County Sailing Association, call (069) 264-216[/quote]
Bloody about time. I have a neighbor, who has had to give up on getting his 60ft Hallberg Rassey in, as he was a foreigner. He then looked into getting it registered here under his Taiwanese wife’s name… Well, they had to bring it in as a fishing vessel, and then another set of byzantine rules and regulations applied… so they had to give up in the end.
Anyone remember Andy Haddow? He used to sail boats out of Taiwan (when they still made them here) for pickup in HK. He was a wild man. This was about 20 years ago…
Maoman, thanks for the link. I take issue with this bit:
Longdong IS tiny, but there was space for three or four keelers to tie up in along the deepwater quay the last time I was there. No protection come typhoon time tho’.
Hobihu? 10-15,000 may sound like a lot, but it’s not massively unreasonable compared to other countries with similar costs of living.
Why didn’t they mention BiSha, next to the ocean university outside of Jilong? It’s roomy, empty, deep enough for a long keel, and there were two yachts moored there the last time I looked.
Otherwise not a bad article. Should have mentioned the dozen boats that came in from Japan in May tho’.