Sea Stories: Hong Kong to Makow Club

17 Jan 24: 

Sea Story* from Doug about a friend: 

"During his Royal Navy career, the Young Royal Navy Officer (YRNO)** always owned a sailing boat, usually ones he'd designed and built himself. I can recall him telling me about one of the boats that he had as deck cargo on one of the ships he commanded (rank has it's privileges).

The ship was in Hong Kong harbour and there was an unwritten challenge, to sail a boat across the Straights from Hong Kong to Makow and back, something regarded as strictly forbidden by the authorities. Salty Dog and another Officer decided to take on the challenge, they sailed across the Straight to Makow, but a Chinese patrol ship spotted them and started a chase, his sailboat had a Bermudan rig, but the top of the mast was curved aft, it was something a bit experimental at the time, but had been found to improve performance, all to do with airflow and sail profile etc.  His boat was fast and the weather was perfect for sailing, he managed to outrun the Chinese patrol boat, enter Makow Harbour and dropped the sails and hide among the many Sampans and Junks. The patrol boat cruised past without seeing him, as soon as it was out of immediate vision, they hoisted the sails and shot out of the Harbour, luckily the wind had picked up and was in the right direction, the patrol boat came about and resumed the chase, but was unable to keep up with his boat, let alone catch them. So they entered the exclusive "Hong Kong to Makow Club" with a great story to tell.

YRNO told me that he couldn't believe the Chinese didn't notice the curved mast among the straight masts of the Chinese boats, but was probably saved by a lot of weed growth on the Chinese patrol boat hull, because he certainly wouldn't have been able to outrun a Royal Navy Patrol boat.

That was his first involvement with a curved spar rig."

*The difference between a fairy tale and a sea story...a fairy tale begins "once upon a time" while a sea story begins "This is no shit."

**Names redacted to protect the adventurers.