a yacht going astray in china

A yacht going astray in China (6)

I believe the answer is:

' china ' is the definition. (historical name for China) ' a yacht going astray in ' is the wordplay. ' going astray ' is an anagram indicator. ' in ' indicates putting letters inside. ' yacht ' anagrammed gives ' cathy '. ' a ' put into ' cathy ' is ' CATHAY '.

(Other definitions for cathay that I've seen before include "China - antique" , "Name for China in medieval times" , "Old name for China with a feline to start" , "China long ago" , "Ancient China" .)

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A Yacht Going Astray In China 6 Crossword Clue

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• International

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March 27, 2024 - Baltimore Key Bridge collapse

By Kathleen Magramo , Antoinette Radford, Alisha Ebrahimji , Maureen Chowdhury , Elise Hammond , Tori B. Powell and Aditi Sangal , CNN

Our live coverage of the Baltimore bridge collapse has moved here .

Here's what you should know about the Key Bridge collapse

From CNN staff

Officials recovered the bodies of two construction workers who were on Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed early Tuesday morning after a 984-foot-long cargo ship collided into a pillar.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore called the collapse Wednesday " a global crisis ."

"The national economy and the world's economy depends on the Port of Baltimore. The port handles more cars and more farm equipment than any other port in the country," Moore said.

Here's what you should know:

• The victims: The six people who are presumed dead were from Mexico Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, according to Col. Roland L. Butler Jr, the superintendent of Maryland State Police. Two bodies were recovered and have been identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes from Mexico and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera from Guatemala. The two workers were filling potholes on the bridge and were later found trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water, Butler said. The FBI is handling notifying the victims' families, Butler said.
• Recovery efforts: Authorities are pausing search efforts for the four other workers who are presumed dead, because additional vehicles are encased in concrete and other debris, making it unsafe for divers, Butler said. Once salvage operations clear the debris, divers will search for more remains, he said.
• The investigation: The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the fatal incident, according to the agency's chair Jennifer Homendy. During a Wednesday news conference, Homendy said there were 21 crew members and two pilots on board the Dali cargo ship when it crashed into the bridge. She also said a senior NTSB hazmat investigator identified 56 containers of hazardous material, and that some containers are in the water. The agency received six hours of voyage data from the ship and the investigation could take 12 to 24 months to complete, Homendy said. She emphasized that NTSB will not analyze information collected or provide conclusions while on scene of the collapse.
• Looking forward: Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said rebuilding the bridge will not be "quick or easy" but that it will get done. He said there are four main focus points ahead: reopening the port, dealing with supply chain issues until its reopening, rebuilding the bridge and dealing with traffic issues until the bridge is rebuilt. Biden  pledged the full support  of the federal government in the response and recovery efforts. His administration has already conveyed a sense of urgency to open up federal funding to remove debris and ultimately rebuild the bridge. Maryland has submitted a request to the Biden administration for emergency relief funds "to assist in our work going forward," Moore said Wednesday.

It's almost impossible to place people on the bow of ship due to the unstable structure, fire official says

 From CNN's Sarah Engel

Baltimore City Fire Chief James Wallace said Wednesday that the cargo ship's bridge structure and containers at the bow remain unstable.

"It's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, and very dangerous, to place people on the bow of that boat right now," Wallace told CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

"Naturally, we're still very cognizant of the fact that there are hazardous materials on board the vessel itself," Wallace said, alluding to the National Transportation Safety Board saying earlier that 56 containers were carrying hazardous materials.

Wallace said his team is relying heavily on aerial recognizance, including drones. "That's the only way we're able to see in," he said.  

He added that the aerial surveillance has "been able to really assure us right now we have no [chemical] reactions on board." 

"It's just utter devastation," NTSB chief says of the bridge collapse site

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, called the site of the Key Bridge collapse "devastating."

"It's pretty devastating, certainly, seeing not just what's going on with the cargo containers, but just looking at what was a bridge span — three bridge spans that is pretty much gone. It's just utter devastation," she said at Wednesday evening's news briefing.

She added that she is thinking of families who lost loved ones and those who are waiting to reunite with their lived ones.

NTSB interviewed the Dali's captain and some other crew members today, agency chief says

The National Transportation Safety Board has interviewed the ship's captain, his mate, the chief engineer and one other engineer today, according to Chair Jennifer Homendy.

The two pilots on board the Dali at the time of collision will be interviewed tomorrow, she added.

Cargo ship's voyage data recorder is basic when compared to an airplane's, NTSB chair says

From CNN's Tori B. Powell

The voyage data recorder on the cargo ship Dali was a "newer model" but is considered basic when compared to that on an airplane, according to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.

"But it is very basic compared to say, a flight data recorder, where we would have 1,000 parameters," she said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The NTSB chief investigator Marcel Muise added:

"It's not a ship-wide system recorder, so most of the sensors that are being recorded are from the bridge. So things like GPS, the audio, rudder feedback, rudder commands are recorded on there. But not engineering, the temperature of each cylinder, power distribution sensors."

There were no tug boats with Dali at the time of the collision. That's normal, NTSB chief says

There were no tugs with Dali when the cargo vessel collided with Baltimore's Key Bridge, which is normal protocol, according to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.

Remember: At 01:26:39 on Tuesday, Dali's pilot made a general very high frequency (VHF) radio call for tugs in the vicinity to assist, the NTSB investigator Marcel Muise had said.

"The tugs help the vessel leave the dock, leave the port and get into the main ship channel. And then they leave. Once it's on its way, it's a straight shot through the channel. So there are no tugs with the vessel at the time. So they were calling for tugs," she said.

NTSB chair says she saw some containers that were carrying hazardous materials in the water

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said she did see some of the 56 containers that were carrying hazardous materials in the water.

When asked how many

When asked how many containers of hazardous materials were in the water, Homendy said:

"I did see some containers in the water, and some breached significantly on the vessel itself," she said. "I don't have an exact number, but it's something that we can provide in an update."

Homendy said that a preliminary report should be out in two to four weeks.

This post has been updated with more quotes from Homendy.

Bridge did not have any redundancy, unlike the preferred method for building bridges today, NTSB chair says

Baltimore's Key Bridge did not have any redundancy, which is included in the preferred method of building bridges in the present day, according to National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.

"The bridge is a fracture critical," she explained. "What that means is if a member fails that would likely cause a portion of, or the entire bridge, to collapse, there's no redundancy. The preferred method for building bridges today is that there is redundancy built in, whether that's transmitting loads to another member or some sort of structural redundancy. This bridge did not have redundancy," Homendy said.

There are 17,468 fracture critical bridges in the United States out of 615,000 bridges total, she said, citing the Federal Highway Administration.

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A yacht going astray in China Crossword Clue

Understanding today's crossword puzzle.

Today's clue is "A yacht going astray in China" and the answer for this clue today is "CATHAY". Let's explore why this clue has this answer:

1. "A yacht going astray" - This part of the clue indicates that we are looking for a word related to a yacht or boat and, additionally, implies a deviation or being off course.

2. "in China" - This part of the clue provides a specific location that relates to the answer.

When we think about a word that represents a yacht or boat and has a connection to China, the term "CATHAY" fits perfectly.

CATHAY is an archaic name for China that has historical and literary references. It was commonly used in English literature, specifically during the Middle Ages, to refer to the country. Explorers and traders would often use this term to describe the region during their maritime voyages.

The word "CATHAY" encompasses both the notion of a yacht or boat (maritime connection) and its association with China. Hence, "A yacht going astray in China" is a clever clue leading to the answer "CATHAY".

Definition of "CATHAY"

the name by which China was known to medieval Europe.

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A new dawn: Inside China's rising superyacht market

China emerged as the great new hope for superyachting after the 2008 crash. One spectacular false dawn later, could it finally be taking off?

If 1421 was the zenith of China’s long yachting history, when legendary eunuch admiral Zheng He purportedly led his “treasure fleet” of hundreds of junks around the world (in the process, according to one historical account, discovering America 70 years before Columbus), 2013 could be considered the nadir. For that was when President Xi Jinping – only months into office – began a crackdown on “tigers and flies”, a euphemism for those government officials and businessmen (the genres blur in China) whose greed and corruption had begun to stir public anger.

Part of his anti-corruption crusade was an eye-watering 44 per cent import tax on luxury goods and a clampdown on lavish hospitalities and personal spending. Ostentatious symbols of wealth – fast cars, lavish banquets, his-and-hers diamond-studded Rolexes, Learjet jaunts, $20,000 gift-wrapped bottles of Rémy Martin and 50-year-old Moutai rice wine, and, of course, superyachts – became highly conspicuous and drew the wrath of the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

“We must uphold the fighting of tigers and flies at the same time, resolutely investigating law-breaking cases of leading officials and also earnestly resolving the unhealthy tendencies and corruption problems which happen all around people,” Xi said at the time. Dozens have been investigated, arrested and jailed, including top ministers – so many the Qincheng maximum security prison in Beijing for disgraced senior Communist Party officials ran out of cells last year, according to credible reports. Orders for status-symbol trappings dropped off a cliff; Western luxury retailers and manufacturers saw exports nosedive.

The yacht market was especially devastated. It’s far harder to hide a superyacht than a diamond ring or a Porsche, after all. Prior to the crackdown, China’s boating sector had been inching its way towards some kind of momentum after its once illustrious sailing heritage, having been all but erased along with much of the country’s four millennia of history during Chairman Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, was resurrected for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Then the financial crisis struck the West, and China, with its seemingly armour-plated economy and near-double-digit growth, emerged as the great Eastern hope for leading yacht brands. Into the Chinese market sailed an international fleet of brokers and builders. The 14,500-kilometre coastline, stretching from the Bohai Gulf in the chilly north to the Gulf of Tonkin in the tropical south, was eyed as a prime playground for China’s new billionaire class, which grew to 338 individuals in 2017, according to data company Wealth-X. Estimates put the number of millionaires in the country at more than 1.5 million. China was about to go boating again.

Exhibitions were hastily organised, rendezvous booked and property developers broke ground on scores of prestige marinas, charging top-dollar membership and mooring fees, many starting at ¥1 million (£110,000) a year. Local boatyards followed, laying keels of copied foreign and home-grown designs, some in joint ventures with overseas shipyards, many without.

The image-conscious Chinese super-rich responded in kind and started buying foreign-branded trophy boats at up to three times the market price, and moored them in the expensive marinas. Cost was not an issue. What mattered was so-called “face” or mianzi: the projection, and protection, of one’s reputation and social standing. In the West we call it ego.

A 2012 report by the China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association found that there were 3,000 yachts of all sizes in China, and estimated that this figure would rise to 100,000 by 2020, in a market worth €10 billion. The international boating industry was washed along by this giddy, irrational wave of hyperbole. Across the board, orders for smaller superyachts went from zero – zoom! – skywards.

Local yards benefited. After years of being ignored by the domestic market, in 2010 Chinese yard Heysea received eight orders for its 82 model before it had even finished the mould. A year after the financial crash in the West, meanwhile, China recorded sales of ¥4.15 billion (£450 million), according to local media reports. “After 2008, the yacht market took off because the West’s financial crisis had negligible impact in China,” says Sunseeker Asia’s Gordon Hui from his office in Hong Kong. Jona Kan, from Australian yard SilverYachts , adds that demand suddenly grew for superyacht dayboats on which Chinese businesspeople could entertain clients.

But Icarus had flown too close to the sun. Within a couple of years, the world’s financial woes started to penetrate China’s economic model. Jobs were slashed and inflation was on the rise. Yet for the wealthy Communist Party cadres and their tycoon chums, it was business as usual. The restive masses looked expectantly – and threateningly – to Beijing to bring such conspicuous consumption to heel. President Xi responded with a dragnet that claimed scores of high-profile scalps, sending the message loud and clear: in-your-face luxury would no longer be tolerated.

Brokers’ phones stopped ringing, builders’ order books took a hit and showrooms became wastelands. All of those contacted by Boat International for this article echoed almost verbatim the sentiment expressed by Sunseeker’s Hui: “After more than three years of the anti-graft policy, the Chinese boating market has come to a halt, with a 95 per cent drop-off in sales. It has been all but dead since 2015.”

Sunseeker , bought in 2013 by China’s fourth-richest man, Wang Jianlin, has closed two of its three dealerships in mainland China. At one point, China accounted for 15 per cent of Sunseeker’s global sales. “Now it’s less than five per cent,” says Hui. Several Chinese yacht builders have gone bankrupt as hefty value added tax and duties on imported parts such as engines rendered operations unviable. Marinas have battened down the hatches, slashing their prices by half to avoid the fate of Xiangshan Yacht Club in Fujian province; billed as Asia’s largest marina when it opened, it went bust in 2014.

Yet to solely blame the anti-corruption drive and the global financial crash for China’s slumbering boating market is misguided. Prior to Xi’s clean-up, there had been attempts to build a culture of private boating after the former leader Deng Xiaoping launched economic reforms in 1981. But those attempts failed, says Hong Kong-based yacht broker Mike Simpson, of Simpson Marine, one of the region’s biggest boat dealers. Simpson agreed the import tax on foreign boats has had a near fatal impact, but he says there were already major hurdles to developing the fledgling market. “We have to remember China is relatively new to boating,” says Simpson, who set up his company in Hong Kong in 1983. “It’s been developing in fits and starts. An obvious curb on its development has been the import ban on second-hand boats, which was there before the luxury goods tax.”

He adds: “The last two to three years have been pretty desperate. I don’t think anyone has made money. Everyone’s been spending money just to stay in business in China over the past few years.”

The lack of a boating culture is also commonly cited as one reason that’s holding back the Chinese market. In the West, yachting is all about relaxing fun in the sun, a weekend jaunt from one marina to a secluded cove or island, or for sailing boat owners, the thrill of stealing an opponent’s wind during a regatta. In China, owning a yacht has been all about the optics, or “face”, and viewed by the public as the exclusive preserve of the ultra-rich. But even among this demographic, interest is limited. According to Wealth-X, just two per cent of all Chinese UHNW individuals own or even have an interest in yachting, compared to 6.7 per cent globally.

“The perception among the Chinese is that boating is for the very wealthy,” says Rocky Wang, chief representative of Burgess in China. “Many Chinese have yet to grasp what boating is all about. Boating culture remains in its very early stages. Yachting is very new to them. Those Chinese who think about buying yachts continue to do so with mainly a business objective in mind. Buyers are business owners, investors and entrepreneurs, who use the yachts as dayboats to entertain, rarely overnighting on board.”

Of the 200 yachts in the southern boom city of Shenzhen, where Deng Xiaoping launched China’s opening up and reforms half a century ago, about 70 per cent never leave the yacht club. Instead, they serve as venues to host wealthy clients and government officials; one pontoon legend has it that some boats were bought without engines because their owners never entertained the idea of going to sea.

In China, building a $30 million marina with a plush clubhouse and spa is the easy part. Not so easy is attracting the essential supplemental services: repair yards and chandlers, navigation aids, charts, a coastguard service willing to assist the stranded sailor, sail training schools and so on. A lack of trained Chinese crew is also a major problem. In China there are an estimated 60,000 sailors, mostly of school age, attending small sailing centres and learning in dinghies. Crews experienced enough to handle a 60-metre-plus seagoing vessel are a rarity. “Chinese yacht owners must, therefore, import foreign crews with the expertise to maintain and sail boats, and this comes with visa application headaches,” says Simpson.

Then there is the maddening red tape. China guards its coastal waters like a hawk; try to sail a nautical mile off Qingdao beach or a cable or two up the coast from Sanya and you’ll have patrol boats stuffed to the gunnels with uniformed boarding parties bearing down on you demanding papers; a day’s sail is treated like an invasion or a desperate escape with state secrets.

“It’s true,” concedes William Ward, CEO of the biannual round-the-world Clipper Race, which during its last edition stopped twice in China, in Sanya in the south and Qingdao in the north. “The government protects the inshore waters as it would an inland military installation. It’s overbearing, there’s too much red tape, and you just don’t need that. You need to be able just to hop on your boat, slip your lines and head out for some safe fun and relaxation, just as we can in the UK, or in the Med and everywhere else,” he says.

Then there’s China’s geography. Part of the appeal of cruising is exploring idyllic archipelagos or mooring off a chic seaside town. Only in the south, around the island of Hainan, can you find good cruising with accommodating marinas. Even then, as Ward recently experienced, just heading out for a day’s jaunt demands official clearance to slip your lines, which may or may not be granted.

Little wonder those Chinese who own a superyacht, or are still in the market for one, seek to moor their pride and joy outside China, in places like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, while the ultra-wealthy look to the US and the Med.

Not for the first time, there might be signs of a new dawn appearing for China’s boating market. In April, the Pride Mega Yachts shipyard in Yantai, China, rolled out the spec-built 88.5 metre superyacht Illusion Plus , which later appeared at the Monaco Yacht Show. She’s now listed for sale , asking $145 million. If she sells well, it will be a sign of faith in Chinese yacht building.

Chinese conglomerates are once more seeking to own international superyacht brands. China Zhongwang, the world’s second-largest producer of industrial aluminium extrusion products, recently acquired a controlling interest in Australia’s SilverYachts, which builds high-speed, fuel-efficient superyachts from high-grade aluminium. The yard’s commercial director, Jona Kan, says the boatbuilder will soon announce the acquisition of a shipyard in the Pearl River Delta.

Sunbird, a Chinese conglomerate with five shipyards including a large commercial facility, added IAG Yachts to its varied portfolio in 2015, and turned out to solid reviews the 42.7 metre  King Baby , the largest fibreglass motor yacht ever produced in China.

Heysea Yachts, founded in 2007 and one of China’s largest yacht builders, was a new entry in the Boat International Global Order Book’s Top 20 builders in 2018 and holds its place in this year’s report. Chairman Allen Leng says the company is seeing more interest from domestic buyers because it is adapting to local tastes, by placing the galley down below and including more living and entertainment space, with fewer cabins. “There is an increased number of Chinese clients who better understand the culture of boating and the lifestyle it offers; that boat ownership is more than having a floating platform for business and to boost one’s image,” says Leng. “More Chinese customers are accepting that China-made yachts offer quality and the same after-sales service as foreign brands. We’re also noticing a demand for smaller yachts, which shows the link between sailing and sport and leisure, and that boating is not just a rich person’s pursuit.”

Horizon Yachts says its product range, including new projects such as the FD series, are proving popular with Chinese clients, who are becoming more sophisticated in their tastes. “For example, a buyer in Shanghai or in Sanya will moor their yacht in a yacht club and let the club manage it. In the past five years, we have delivered a 120ft [36.5 metre] superyacht and 145ft [44.2 metre] superyacht, both to clients in Shanghai,” says Horizon Yachts’ chief marketing officer, Lily Li.

Simpson Marine’s Mike Simpson estimates that around 50 per cent of yachts being bought in China are now locally built. “The standard is improving,” he says. “Sometimes you have to do a double-take when you see yachts coming: you think it’s a well-known foreign brand. Then you look again and it’s actually a locally made boat.”

Sunseeker’s Hui also expresses modest optimism. “I think the market overall is getting better, albeit slowly,” he concedes. “I can say 70 per cent of our 2015 to 2018 customers are mainland Chinese with overseas-listed companies. But their boats are all outside China.”

Grassroots sailing and crew training recently received a much-needed boost. In April, the UK’s then deputy ambassador to China, Martyn Roper, and the president of the Chinese Yachting Association, Qu Chun, signed deals to open three training centres to bring Chinese seamanship up to British standards. The centres will offer the UK’s Royal Yachting Association courses. In the UK, seven per cent of the population goes boating. If the same percentage could be replicated in China, that would mean 80 million people taking confidently to the water.

Simpson says a new initiative called the Greater Bay Area development scheme is seeking to unify nine mainland coastal cities to allow yachts licensed in Hong Kong and Macau to cruise in the good southern cruising areas around Hainan without paying a hefty tax. And there is quiet and determined diplomacy afoot calling for Beijing to relax and standardise coastal regulations. Ward, the Clipper Race CEO, says he has been speaking to officials at city and provincial levels who understand the benefits of rationalising China’s sailing industry and its associated tourist trade. “I have spoken with many officials and they get this point. They understand the [stifling red tape] situation, and they’re passing these concerns up to Beijing, that leisure sailing is a different culture and is good for local and regional business,” he says.

There are signs of a cultural shift, too. At the 2018  Shanghai Boat Show , many of the exhibitors were proposing something different – more accessible yachting, with small fishing boats and cruisers standing cheek by jowl with the bigger craft, says Delphine Lignières, co-founder of the Hainan Rendez-Vous. “Contrary to myth, many Chinese enjoy watersports, including sailing and fishing. What I have seen now is more and more people boating on inland freshwater lakes in smaller-sized boats.

“That’s where I see the market developing this time, with smaller recreational boats being bought for use on lakes, rivers and estuaries. This will help establish a boating culture, and over time, the boats will again get bigger and bigger. And not in such a conspicuous way.”

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Superyacht Times: How Hong Kong could ignite a yachting boom in China

The relationship between China and superyachts is curious – but it might not be for long. Per capita the country has the second-highest concentration of billionaires, trailing closely behind the United States and far outpacing anywhere else in the world. If we include Hong Kong and Macau into the mix, then there are a recorded 698 members of the highest wealth percentile that call the nation their home. Wealth’s not just concentrated at this top strata either, as ten percent of the world’s millionaires also reside in China – the country has the second-largest economy in the world.

It’s also a yachting paradise with thousands of islands to explore, miles of sandy beaches, plenty of thriving cities and diverse fauna and flora. There has been a growing enthusiasm for yachting, especially since the turn of the century, and some heady predictions were made with some expecting the number of local yacht owners to exceed six figures.  

An ambitious estimate when we consider that just ten years ago there were only 3,000 Chinese-owned yachts of all sizes, so expecting an increase of 97,000 was a tad optimistic. This is not to downplay the steep curve that has taken place, far from it. Since the turn of the century, Yachting was growing in popularity in China and new clubs were springing up all over the coastline– Qingdao International Yacht Club and Silver Channel Sailing Club, to name just two – while the more well-established clubs saw their memberships swelling.

There were also a number of sporting events, regattas and conventions opening their doors for the first time, the China Cup International Regatta, held in Shenzhen being a point in case as it was the first-ever international big sailing event to be held in China, which kicked-off in 2007 and has been held annually ever since.

“When I first arrived here, around 30 years ago, the sailing scene was mostly expat, say 70 percent expat to 30 percent Chinese sailing,”  Suzy Rayment, Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Superyacht Association ( APSA ), told SYT . “Now the ratios have flipped and it's 70 percent Chinese with 30 percent expat sailing, and we see a lot of locals from Shenzhen come to Hong Kong to sail for the weekend. That was until 2019 when the borders were closed in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.” 

While yachting has continued to grow in popularity in Hong Kong and southern China, interest in superyachts hasn’t been as strong. Momentum for larger pleasure vessels got hindered – politically that is. Bloomberg wrote a damning report back in 2019, painting quite the macabre portrait of the superyacht sector in China. Not without reason either as Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party, was waging a war against opulence, building stigma against showcasing wealth, and slapped on some heavy-weight taxes on luxury commodities to hit back financially too. Owning a superyacht is arguably the most ostentatious plaything and they’re not easy to conceal. At the time, Gordon Hui, former head of Sunseeker Asia, reported to Bloomberg that “since the early 2000s he’s shuttered three dealerships in China and hasn’t sold a yacht for use in China since 2015.”

A gulf emerged between the growing interest of yachting and the uprate in ownership in China post-2012; however, ironically, at the time of Bloomberg’s publication things began changing in China and with the Chinese yacht market as the pandemic reignited the desire for superyachts. With lockdown measures and border closures, people all over the world were looking at ways to enjoy their time with their families safely and away from the crowds – China was no different.

A major thorn in yachting’s side though is that “the country hasn’t developed a proper maritime infrastructure, making it can be a logistical nightmare to cruise,” Rayment said. But the story is different for Hong Kong. As of the 8th December 2016, the Hong Kong Marine Department finally relaxed the rules for visiting yachts and their crew, as a result of lobbying from the Asia-Pacific Superyacht Association ( APSA ), which was spearheaded by Colin Dawson,  (ex-chairman of APS). The yachting ecosystem is certainly blooming and Hong Kong is acting as a stronghold, a steady footing to invigorate interest in maritime leisure. Being a special administrative region, Hong Kong is excluded from the heavy levies imposed on luxury goods and it benefits from having deeper relationships with the European and US counterparts of the yachting industry.

Adding more might to the region is the fact that it’s a gorgeous area to cruise with more than 250 islands to explore. “During the pandemic with restricted mobility, yacht owners were exploring their native waters and reminded how nice Hong Kong actually is for yachting,” Rayment said

Mike Simpson, Founder & CEO of Simpson Marine, also saw this, “Asian and Asia-based expatriates, all wanting to enjoy local cruising grounds as regular travelling patterns are restricted due to the Pandemic. Yachting has come to be seen as a safe haven and a way to escape from the harsh realities of life ashore in these challenging times.” Eric Noyel, Founder of Asia Marine & Managing Director of Fraser Asia, saw this trend reflected in sales. “Hong Kong has been crazy for the last two years. 500 new boats arrived – mostly Italian and American – and were sold in the city. There have been record sales across the board for yacht brokers in Hong Kong. I’d say that we’ve had the equivalent of 20 years’ worth of sales in the last two years.”

The Hong Kong Boating Industry Association estimates that there are close to 10,000 registered leisure marine vessels (the majority of which will be vessels under 24 metres) and, according to a yacht market study published by Global Industry Analysts, by 2026 China is expected to have a yacht market that sings to the tune of $1.2 billion. Some major players have pledged to bolster their presence in Asia as they look to capitalise on this growth. Massimo Perotti, CEO of Sanlorenzo, for one, said in a recent press conference that he expects Asia to be a much larger market in the near future. 

China has a way to go through to support this. But it seems as though the cultural stigma is dissipating. Hong Kong has definitely played a role in this as the local taste for yachting has continued to grow over the years, and has just gone through a period of acceleration. There is a big hindrance for the region, mind: an underdeveloped yachting infrastructure.

“We need more marinas, repair and refit yards, and better local crew training but we also need regional governments to understand the potential of this amazing industry and to provide their support in facilitating cross-border cruising with friendly tax, immigration, and operating regulations for superyachts,” Simpson wrote in the APSA Guide 2021.

The Chinese yacht market has potential and could be a major industry in the coming years and is definitely a region to watch, but it does need work. While the Global Industry Analysts’ prediction of $1.2 billion certainly causes for celebration – it’s still just half of the current US yacht market, albeit a more mature market, but with a similar demographic of billionaires. If the Global Industry Analysts are correct with their predictions, then the Chinese market will be around €10 million less than Germany in 2026. This is not to dismiss the growing market as there is scope for acceleration.  “Not all Chinese millionaires and billionaires are going to buy a yacht, but they're getting more and more exposure. Even if they’re not buying a yacht, their friends might be.”

Written by Alexander Griffiths 12 April 2022 | 22:00 (AEST)

Reprinted courtesy of SuperyachtTimes.com

https://www.superyachttimes.com/yacht-news/hong-kong-yachting-boom

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China’s Yacht Market: Opportunities and Challenges for Foreign Players (updated)

China appears well-positioned to become a prominent yacht market, given its 14,484km-long coastline and a class of millionaires expected to cross the 20 million mark by the mid-2020s. Despite this, however, sales have been disappointing i n the last 3-5 years due to high import tax and the inability of manufacturers to respond to Chinese client demands. In this article, we provide a general overview of China’s yacht market and discuss the differences in business outlook according to key stakeholders, ranging from optimism over market growth potential or concerns about limited domestic prospects . We also discuss the recent entry of Chinese capital in the industry and how Chinese companies are manufacturing for non-China markets. Finally, we look at opportunities for foreign investors in China’s boat market, including prospects for small and mid-cap companies, and showcase the success cases of Italian companies.

UPDATE: O n August 18, 2 0 22, the Ministry Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), together with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the Ministry of Transport (MOT) , and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT), jointly released on the Guidelines on Accelerating the Development of Cruise and Yacht Equipment and the Industry (Guidelines) , clarifying China’s roadmap for the development of the yacht industry through 2025. More details are provided below .  

While North America and Europe remain in the lead as the world’s largest yacht consumers, the Asia-Pacific region has rapidly become one of the fastest-growing yacht markets.   The yacht market in Asia has been skyrocketing post-pandemic, with increased purchases and a growing interest in sailing – sparking what industry experts define as a ‘boom’. On the one hand, countries like Taiwan and China have increased their market share with new builds by locally-based shipyards. However, boat sales to the region are also on the rise.

As of 2021, Asian ownership of superyachts over 40 meters in service accounted for 5.8 percent of the global superyacht fleet. The number of Asian-owned yachts has progressively increased, from 91 at the beginning of 2016 to 109 at the start of 2021.    Countries like Singapore have become active once again in the yacht sales ad brokerage market s after a slow period  during the pandemic that triggered international and regional border closures.   

In China, heightened living standards have led to the increasing demand for luxurious consumer goods, including in the boating industry. According to the China Transport Association’s Cruise Yacht Branch, the total number of yachts in China will increase from 38,100 to 163,510 between 2020 and 2025.   

China’s yacht market: an overview    

Few geographical regions offer the superyacht sector as much room for expansion as the Chinese market does. China has a vast and increasing pool of potential superyacht purchasers, although the country is still in the early stages of yachting growth in terms of domestic infrastructure and ownership. It could still be the right time for such a high-potential market to flourish due to factors like the increase in the country’s per capita purchasing power and that of its ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) population.    

A 2021 wealth report revealed the 10 countries with the highest increase in their UHNW population in 2020 – the so-called ‘top 10 riders’ – with China leading the group at 16 percent growth. Furthermore, in 2021, China surpassed the United States to become the world’s first country with over 1,000 billionaires. The research highlighted that, despite the trade war and the pandemic, China was able to add 259 billionaires to its list, surpassing other nations like the US, India, and Germany.  

With a large number of prospective consumers, China’s relatively new market is even more attractive for foreign businesses. New yacht manufacturers, brand sales agents, yacht customers, private clubs, and exhibits have sprung up throughout the country in recent decades. Meanwhile, China’s boat manufacturing keeps rising steadily, from 29,100 units produced in 2011 to 48,300 units in 2015. China’s yacht industry is estimated to reach US$15.1 billion in 2027, accounting for 17.8 percent of the worldwide market and growing at a CAGR of 3.9 percent between 2020 and 2027.  

Less stringent regulations demonstrating the government’s commitment to the sector  

Many positive government efforts linked to the yachting industry and maritime activities, in general, have lately been enacted, and China is seeing a trend of loosening regulations. At the outset of this decade, two regulatory bodies – the Ministry of Transport and the Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) – announced new, more liberalized criteria and standards for yacht registration and overseas-yacht entry/exit procedures.   

More limitations on boat ownership have been abolished in recent years, and clear maritime traffic legislation has been adopted. The increase of the navigability range, the streamlining of the examination/approval processes, and the inclusion of non-resident yacht registrations are the three most recent major amendments to the rules. These key developments show the government’s commitment to the sector’s growth.  

Also, as wealthy Chinese yacht owners spend about 10 percent of the yacht’s value on maintenance, a large portion of this wealth is reinvested in the local economy. This not only is a great boost for regional GDP but is also in line with the government’s will of shifting its economy away from production to consumption. It has likely prompted Chinese officials to ease the cumbersome registration process for importing a yacht into the country, as well as the requirements for traveling between provinces. Yachts registered in Hong Kong and Macao, for example, were allowed to sail in China’s Pearl River Delta beginning 2018. The first cross-border sailing program has also increased boat orders in the Chinese Mainland by 20 percent to 30 percent.     

Accordingly, The State Council Office evaluated the Guidance on Tourism Industry Acceleration and drafted a National Tourism and Entertainment Outline (2013-2020) in which measures were taken to improve the infrastructure for yacht marinas and cruise terminals, as well as encourage the growth of tourism products.   

Yacht market more prosperous in certain regions than others: The case of Hainan Free Trade Zone   

The yacht business in Hainan Province flourished in 2021 – the Sanya Yachting Association revealed that Sanya, China’s tropical island and premier destination for luxury tourism, hosted almost 160,000 yacht trips, up 47 percent compared to 2020. Moreover, by the end of 2021, the number of new yachts registered reached 323, surging 202 percent year on year.  

This increase is partly due to the Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port (“the Masterplan”) that was released in June 2020, which stipulates that by 2025, there will be no tariffs on the island’s import of ships for transportation, tourism, and other purposes. Import tariffs, the value-added tax, and the consumption tax will all be waived for foreign exporters – which will effectively cut prices for foreign-made products.   

Success stories: Italian yacht businesses in China  

With 407 projects and super-yachts totalling 14,994 meters in development in 2021, Italy continues to top the annual report issued by the nautical newspaper ShowBoat International. Azimut-Benetti, Sanlorenzo, and Ferretti Group occupy the first, second, and third place, respectively. 

Despite having eight well-known brands, six shipyards, and over 170 years of history, Ferretti Group is today the only rival in its business to provide a comprehensive range of yachts ranging in size from 8 to 95 meters, and it is very active in China’s yacht market. After defaulting in 2009, the company was bought in 2012 by SHIG–Weichai Group, a large Chinese machinery manufacturer that currently controls 75 percent of the Italian shipbuilder.   

Following the acquisition, the company focused on growing into new markets. It made a great impression in the Asia-Pacific region in the first quarter of 2020, selling about US$73 million and negotiating two new dealership agreements for the distribution of its yachts in Malaysia, Cambodia, and Laos.   The Italian shipbuilder now has offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, as well as a fully equipped after-sales facility, to meet the needs of its customers in the region. It also inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sanya Central Business District (SCBD) to collaborate with the government on the development of the local industry and China’s yacht market in general.

Other than larger and well-established companies, opportunities are there for everybody. According to Giovanni Lovisetti , Senior Associate on the International Business Advisory at Dezan Shira & Associates’ Milan Liaison office , “while huge companies can approach Asian markets by themselves – such as Fincantieri, who has already established a presence in Hainan – several smaller companies are just waiting for the right stimulus to take the first step towards Asia.” This might be the right time for them to step in.   

Roadblocks to the development of China’s yacht market   

High import taxes on foreign boats are one of the primary hurdles to the development of China’s yacht sector. The country has a 43.65 percent tax on boats – although recently reduced to 38.1 percent for motor yachts and 35.6 percent for sailing yachts above 8 meters. Furthermore, since the beginning of the government’s Anti-Corruption Campaign in 2012, potential customers have been reluctant to flaunt their wealth, preferring to keep a low profile and avoid public scrutiny.  

Another considerable barrier to Chinese high-income individuals buying private boats in the Mainland, is the lack of well-equipped marinas, ship repair yards, spare parts suppliers, and all other necessary (and expensive) infrastructure for yacht upkeep and mooring.  

Lastly, in 2015, China strengthened its regulations for yachts travelling in its national waters, restricting the number of passengers onboard to a maximum of 12 people – which made it impossible to arrange large parties and gatherings on board since the crew alone counts six members. Furthermore, China’s southern shoreline land is a particularly difficult marine zone due to ongoing territorial conflicts with neighboring states.  

As a result, several of the world’s most prestigious shipbuilders, like Sunseeker and Ferretti Group, have shuttered their showrooms in Mainland China or eliminated the country from their core target markets, despite their Chinese ownership. Regardless, those companies continue to sell boats to Chinese customers for delivery outside of the Mainland.  

Understanding the Chinese market and its cultural context  

Four purposes for boats are sailing, sports, leisure, and entertainment. For wealthy Chinese buyers, the latter would be the most common option. Given that the high-income Chinese population has little interest in sunbathing, the primary aim of these luxury boats in the contemporary setting would be to serve as a business frontier for hosting meetings, parties, and other business-related events. Yachting, however, has a bad cultural connotation as compared to other activities in a wealthy society.

According to market research, affluent Chinese people like golf, swimming, spas, and yoga as leisure activities, since they are well-known in Chinese culture for providing health benefits , and are thus appealing. Yachting, on the other hand, does not provide comparable physical benefits in the traditional Chinese context. Such cultural premises are fundamental when considering the gap between target customers and the industry culture.  

All things considered, it is not impossible for Chinese customers to shift their perspective since the country’s shopping habits and tastes are fast changing because of the ongoing rise of HNWIs. This means that tastes are subject to change and may be molded if an industry pursues them aggressively. In reality, a lack of brand familiarity and awareness provides first-mover brand opportunities.  

The future of China’s yacht industry    

All in all, between financial crackdowns and setting up zones such as Hainan FTZ, what is the right space for the yacht market to develop?   China’s financial crackdowns continued throughout 2021, with Beijing slamming for-profit education, tanking Ant Financial and Didi IPOs, or bringing the entertainment and gaming business under control, and harnessing local digital titans. As a result, in the era of “Common Prosperity,” it’s worth considering whether China’s yacht market can take off and grow.  

Yet, the central government’s desire to boost consumption and encourage tourism (including yacht tourism) creates unprecedented potential for the boat sector in the coming years, at least for small-to-mid-sized boats. The formation of the Hainan Free Trade Zone and the development of a new port have the potential to turn the island into a hub for China’s yacht culture. The number of registered boats in Sanya has increased from 10 to 500 in the previous decade alone, and yacht rental services have grown in popularity in China, enhancing yacht culture among both the Chinese middle and high-income classes.  

Further, according to the Guidelines on Accelerating the Development of Cruise and Yacht Equipment and the Industry (Guidelines) jointly released by the MIIT and other ministries on August 18, 2 0 22 , there are four development goals to achieve in the yacht industry by 2025: improving the design and construction capacity, refining the foundation of the equipment industry, expanding the demands in the consumer market, and strengthening cooperation and talent cultivation. Sanya is expected to be transformed into a home port for international cruises, outlining several international first-class cruise tourism destinations. Priority is attached to the development of water tourism resources in areas such as the Circum-Bohai Sea Economic Zone, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the coastal city cluster that links Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang, the Hainan Free Trade Port, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Pearl River-West River Economic Belt, and the Grand Canal Cultural Belt. Meanwhile, Hainan is encouraged to pilot a yacht leasing business. The Guidelines also called for building teams of professional talents along the whole industry chain, covering the design, construction, operation, and management of cruises, yachts , and tourist passenger ships, as well as related tourism services and legal consulting.  

Catering to specific needs

With China’s yachting culture still in its infancy, yacht makers should concentrate on meeting the expectations of Chinese clientele, from emphasizing the design of entertaining rooms to making it easier to hire superyachts on a short-term basis. The scarcity of skilled Chinese Mandarin-speaking specialists and Chinese designers, on the other hand, is stifling the growth of China’s boat sector. Foreign shipbuilding businesses should tailor their offerings to the demands and preferences of Chinese boat buyers, keeping in mind lifestyle and cultural preferences.

For example, Chinese yacht owners seldom spend the night on board and prefer boats with leisure and recreational amenities like KTV (karaoke) rooms. Catering to such needs, which are specific to the Chinese clientele, is an essential part of challenging cultural differences and securing a spot in such a promising market.  

This article was first published on June 21, 2022 and last updated on September 29, 2022.

China Briefing is written and produced by Dezan Shira & Associates . The practice assists foreign investors into China and has done so since 1992 through offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. Please contact the firm for assistance in China at [email protected] . Dezan Shira & Associates has offices in Vietnam , Indonesia , Singapore , United States , Germany , Italy , India , and Russia , in addition to our trade research facilities along the Belt & Road Initiative . We also have partner firms assisting foreign investors in The Philippines , Malaysia , Thailand , Bangladesh .

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US-Chinese military talks resume on safety in the air and at sea after a nearly 2-year break

U.S. and Chinese defense officials have met for the first time in nearly two years to discuss unsafe and aggressive ship and aircraft incidents between their militaries in the Pacific region

WASHINGTON -- For the first time in nearly two years, U.S. and Chinese defense officials met this week to discuss unsafe and aggressive ship and aircraft incidents between the two militaries in the Pacific region, restarting a dialogue that Beijing abruptly ended in a dispute involving Taiwan .

The meeting, which was Wednesday and Thursday in Hawaii , came as Washington and Beijing work to expand communications between the two world powers and ease escalating tensions. Military-to-military contact had stalled in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communication after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the self-governing island China claims as its own.

The thaw in relations between the two countries got a kick-start last November when U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. About a month later, Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart in a video call — in the first senior military-to-military contact since the Pelosi visit.

Other top-level talks have continued, including a call earlier this week between Biden and Xi, and a visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that began on Thursday.

The resurgence of senior military leader discussions includes the relaunch of routine engagements, including the China-U.S. Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting, which was this week in Hawaii , and the bilateral Defense Policy Coordination Talks, which were held earlier this year.

The maritime meeting is focused on unsafe and unprofessional incidents involving the U.S. and Chinese militaries while the coordination talks focus on broader policy issues. This week's meeting included personnel from Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Pacific Air Forces and the People’s Liberation Army. This is the first time since 2019 that the meeting was held in person; there was a virtual meeting in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to officials, this week's meeting included about 18 senior military and civilian officials from each side. The U.S. and China delegations each brought up several specific incidents over the past several years that they believe raised operational safety concerns, and the group discussed them.

"Open, direct, and clear communications with the PLA - and with all other military forces in the region - is of utmost importance to avoid accidents and miscommunication.," said the head of the U.S. delegation, Army Col. Ian Francis in a statement.

Francis, who is the director for Northeast Asia policy at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said the U.S. is encouraged that the People's Liberation Army is honoring its commitments to the maritime agreement.

Two U.S. officials said that they've seen a reduction in the number of unsafe incidents by Chinese military aircraft and ships over the past several months. They said the meeting was a way to make sure that the trend continues and that overall safety is increased in the region for troops who operate there. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings are private.

The U.S. has consistently viewed military communications with China as critical to avoiding any missteps between their armed forces and to maintaining a peaceful Indo-Pacific.

Pelosi became the highest-ranking American lawmaker to visit Taiwan since 1997, when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich traveled there. Her visit sparked a surge in military maneuvers by China. Beijing dispatched warships and aircraft across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, claiming the de facto boundary did not exist, fired missiles over Taiwan itself, and challenged established norms by firing missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

During the following two years, U.S. military officials repeatedly objected to a range of unsafe intercepts by Chinese aircraft in the Pacific and other dangerous incidents.

Last October, the Pentagon released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of U.S. warplanes by Chinese aircraft in the previous two years. And military officials said the number was more than the total amount over the previous decade — a trend they called concerning. In one instance last year, a Chinese pilot flew within 10 feet (3 meters) of a U.S. Air Force B-52, which was conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace.

China’s defense ministry, meanwhile, has criticized the U.S. for what it calls interference in both Taiwan and the South China Sea, charging that American arms sales to Taiwan are making the situation more dangerous.

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China and Hong Kong: superyacht market dynamics

As china’s billionaire population hits record numbers, the industry is still trying to grow this budding market….

There are few geographical markets that present the superyacht industry with the same opportunity for growth as the Chinese market. Still at a relatively early stage of yachting development, in terms of domestic infrastructure and ownership, China certainly has a large, and growing, pool of potential superyacht buyers. Knight Frank’s 2021 edition of The Wealth Report recently set out its list of top-10 risers – the 10 countries that saw the biggest increase in their UHNWI population in 2020 – revealing that China saw the largest increase, at 16 per cent.

Furthermore, according to Hurun Report’s Hurun Global Rich List 2021 , China has outpaced the United States to become the first country in the world with more than 1,000 billionaires. The publication reveals that, at the beginning of 2021, China had 1,058 billionaires with their wealth denominated in US dollars. “Despite the trade war with the US, China adds 259 billionaires and becomes the first country with more than 1,000 known billionaires, surpassing other countries including the US, India and Germany,” the report says.

In light of the region’s growing billionaire population, the recently-published The Pacific Superyacht Report   explores the current dynamics at play in the Chinese superyacht market from a buyer perspective, as well as the potential that China and Hong Kong present to the superyacht industry.

“There is definitely an upward trend in the superyacht market in China, as the wealth of the mainland Chinese increases,” says Joe Yuen, of Lodestone Yachts. “The Chinese tend to purchase new superyachts from production yacht dealers, but now you see more and more Chinese buying semi-custom or full-custom superyachts through professional yacht brokers. The production yacht dealers have done well with their marketing in the region, and you are also beginning to see larger semi-custom superyachts cruising in the harbours.” 

When talking about the Chinese superyacht market, it is important to distinguish between the Hong Kong market and mainland China market. As Rock Wang, Feadship’s Asia representative, explains, “Hong Kong is already a very mature yachting market, so there isn’t much potential for growth. While mainland China is already very active, it will be growing rapidly in the next 10 years.” 

The reasons for these two markets being at two very different stages of yachting development are well documented. While Hong Kong may have a longer history of a yachting culture than mainland China, the most obvious barrier to the growth of the domestic Chinese market is its weighty import duties on foreign yachts, compared to tax-free Hong Kong.

“The matter of taxation has been a major limiting factor,” says Mike Simpson, managing director of Simpson Marine. “There is a very high import tax on yachts, it has been 43.65 per cent, but that has recently been reduced to 38.1 per cent on motoryachts and 35.6 per cent on sailing yachts over 8m [at the time of writing]. The tax has been a big deterrent for a lot of people – when you are spending a large amount of money to buy a yacht, no one is very happy about spending nearly 50 per cent more for the privilege of bringing it into, and flagging it in, China.”

For Simpson, however, the biggest barrier to the growth of the domestic market is the perception that superyachts in China are going to attract a lot of attention. “Currently there are only about 30 yachts over 30m in southern China altogether (excluding Hong Kong), so any new yacht is going to stand out, and this is not always very welcome. Normally, the wealthy try and keep a low profile,” he continues. “There is plenty of wealth in China, but there is a fear of attracting attention by any obvious displays of wealth.”

“There is plenty of wealth in China, but there is a fear of attracting attention by any obvious displays of wealth...”

In both the Hong Kong and mainland China markets, buyer habits differ depending on the size sector they are buying into, and whether they are buying for domestic or overseas use. According to Wang, because the majority of marinas in Hong Kong offer berthing up to 35m, both the 30-35m new-build and brokerage markets in Hong Kong are very active, with most clients keeping their boats in Hong Kong and using them as day or weekend boats for local cruising. For the larger size sectors, however, clients tend to enjoy their boats overseas due to the berthing limitations of Hong Kong’s marinas.

Wang observes further intricacies in the 35m-plus sector depending on size range, with Hong Kong clients generally preferring to buy new over second-hand. “Buying a yacht is more expensive in the 35-60m size range, so clients spending this much money tend to want something new,” he explains. “About 60-70 per cent of these clients will choose a new build. Most clients also don’t want to wait too long for their yacht, but thankfully many shipyards offer production or semi-custom models in this size range, which shortens build time.” 

According to Wang, this preference for ‘something new’ augments even further in the 60m-plus market. “The vast majority of clients want a new-build when buying a yacht over 60m,” he adds. “Every yacht of this size has a very specific personality and, because of this, many of the clients I have worked with feel that a second-hand yacht of this size does not and would not belong to them.”

In terms of the market in mainland China, there are other dynamics at play. With government restrictions on the import of second-hand yachts older than one year, as well as a lack of brokerage agencies and surveyors to advise clients on second-hand purchases, there is virtually no second-hand brokerage activity within China, even in the 30-35m sector, where berthing is easier.

However, the mainland Chinese ownership in the 35m-plus market is similar to that of Hong Kong. “Except that the mainland Chinese prefer to buy new builds even more than Hong Kong clients,” he says. “It is the Chinese mentality; if they are spending 20-30 million euros, they want something new.”

In terms of market potential for the superyacht industry, the Chinese market is huge in the same way that the country’s population is huge and, in light of the country’s rapidly growing population of UHNWIs, Wang is very optimistic about the future potential of the market in mainland China. He puts it simply: “It’s human nature. When you have a lot of money, you want to enjoy life and yachting is one of the best ways to enjoy life.”

“From the crew to the brokers and designers, every sector of this industry is lacking Chinese professionals...”

Despite this optimism, Wang believes that there are certain changes that could be made in order to help stimulate growth. One barrier is the scarcity of Chinese representation in the industry. “From the crew to the brokers and designers, every sector of this industry is lacking Chinese professionals,” he says. “As an international community, we should look to find Chinese talent. If there were just 15 to 20 Chinese brokers, the market would change. Shipyards also need to have marketing material in Chinese because the majority of Chinese clients feel more comfortable reading Chinese than English. It is something very basic that the industry can do today that will have a significant impact in the future.”

Simpson agrees that a lack of qualified local crew is certainly a limiting factor to the growth of the Chinese market. “Owners accept that they will have to hire qualified foreign crew for now, but many Chinese owners don’t speak English and they would rather have at least some crewmembers who can communicate with them in their own language,” he says, adding that optimism lies in the MCA-approved Galileo Maritime Academy, Thailand. The Academy offers training courses to the Asia region, which will help to get more local crew trained up and qualified to work on superyachts in the future.

More infrastructure to attract visiting yachts would also help to give the superyacht industry more visibility in China, and possibly attract the attention of qualified buyers. “When there are more marinas and professional crew, this will help increase the popularity of superyachts,” concludes Yuen. “The Chinese government is also promoting various types of tourism, including yacht tourism, in the Free Trade Zone of Hainan Island and The Greater Bay Area. I hope this will bring more charter yachts to the Far East.”

This article appears in full in the recently-published The Pacific Superyacht Report . For complimentary digital access to the magazine, please click here.

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Baltimore bridge crash brings scrutiny to contaminated fuel, an 'open secret' in shipping

Shortly after midnight on Feb. 6, the Dali cargo ship spent five hours fueling up at the Port of Zhangzhou in China. It refueled in the Chinese city of Zhoushan three days later, and again in Busan, South Korea, on Feb. 20, according to transponder and satellite tracking data reviewed by NBC News. 

Fuel is one of the areas of inquiry for investigators probing the cause of the power failure that preceded the Dali crashing into and toppling the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore this week, according to federal safety investigators.

Contaminated fuel is believed to cause scores of ships to lose power and propulsion every year, but the incidents rarely come to light, experts say. That’s because the ship malfunctions almost always occur in the open sea, where crews can deal with them without incident.

The data reviewed by NBC News provides a snapshot of the Dali’s fueling activity before it reached the East Coast. The data did not register any fuel stops on the boat’s journey through the Panama Canal, to New York, Virginia and Baltimore — though some experts who spoke to NBC News believed that it would have had to fuel in one of those places.

The Dali’s fuel stops in Asia were confirmed using data from the United Nations’ Long-Range Identification and Tracking system (LRIT), which tracks ships based on satellites and other reports. That data, restricted from release to the public, was provided by a source with access to the system who shared it on the condition that they not be identified. NBC News also confirmed the Dali’s route and fueling stops using Automatic Identification System data reported by the ship and provided by MarineTraffic, a maritime analytics company.

The LRIT and MarineTraffic data does not include details on the type of fuel the Dali received, its origins or its quality, but it does provide the first information on where the Dali picked up the fuel it may have been using as it left Baltimore, according to experts who reviewed the data on NBC News’ behalf. The fuel it received before February likely would have been gone by the time it reached Baltimore, the experts said. 

To be sure, other factors could have caused the system failures ahead of the March 26 crash, and the National Transportation Safety Board has said it’s just beginning its investigation. But the incident has in general focused attention on a little-known problem that falls into a gray area where oversight is limited and the purveyors of faulty fuel rarely face accountability, legal and maritime experts say.

“It’s an open secret that fuel contamination issues plague the industry with most of the incidents going unreported or not resulting in any substantial damage to the vessel or property or life,” said James Power, a New York maritime lawyer and former merchant marine and engineering officer on American ships.

Power has represented several ship owners whose vessels were damaged by contaminated fuel. The vast majority of such incidents don’t result in catastrophic harm to property or the vessel itself, he noted. 

“Those situations are rare, but are foreseeable results when an industry lacks self-regulating mechanisms to identify contaminated fuel before it is sold, put on board the vessel and consumed in the vessel’s engines,” Power said.

Fuel contamination not only puts ship crew members at risk, but also can cause pollution and damage the reputations of shipping companies, said Steve Bee, group commercial and business development director for VPS, a testing service that provides information to more than 12,000 vessels around the world and issues alerts on contaminated fuel. The Dali, he said, was not a client.

Contamination isn’t confined to any geographic region or supplier, Bee said: “It can happen anywhere, anytime.” 

He said VPS hadn’t issued any recent fuel contamination alerts in China or South Korea. 

A spokesman for the Danish shipping giant Maersk, which chartered the Dali, declined to comment on whether fuel may have been a factor in the accident.

“Regarding fueling, we are closely following the investigations conducted by authorities and the vessel operator as well as conducting our own investigation,” the spokesperson, Kevin Doell, said in an email. 

Synergy Marine Group, which operates and manages the ship, and Grace Ocean Private, which owns it, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, said at a news conference Wednesday that investigators would take a sample of the fuel and test it for contaminants, as authorities work to determine the cause of the crash. 

The U.S. Coast Guard referred questions to the group of agencies handling the response to the crash, which did not respond.

Port officials in Zhangzhou and Zhoushan did not immediately respond to questions. 

Busan port authorities said they wouldn’t have information about issues with fuel. The Korea Coast Guard’s Southern Sea Division told NBC News it had received no reports of fueling-related incidents this year. 

The LRIT system that showed the Dali’s movements tracks all commercial vessels over 3,000 gross tons. The details on fuel delivery come from a report that is signed by both the delivery ship and the receiving ship, which goes to the government of the country where the transfer took place, as well as the flag state of the ship that received the fuel, and is then automatically added to the LRIT system.

A spokeswoman for the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency that regulates international shipping and runs the LRIT, declined to comment on specifics of the Dali investigation.

She said fuel oil quality is regulated under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, also known as MARPOL, which states that fuel should not include harmful added substances or chemical waste. It also covers fuel oil sampling, she added. 

Member states are required to notify the International Maritime Organization of incidents, she said.

But the system has major gaps, experts say. 

“What constitutes an incident is murky,” said Jonathan Arneault, the CEO of FuelTrust, a Houston-based company that uses artificial intelligence to trace the provenance of marine fuel.

“It’s usually defined as harm or risk to safety or environment,” he said. “If the ship doesn’t meet that threshold, it’s not reported. So the member state has nothing to report.”

Arneault said the supply chain for ship fuel, also known as bunker fuel, is maddeningly opaque and few countries have strong laws on fuel management.

While water is a common contaminant in fuel, it is rarely enough to cause a major system failure. Heavier, more corrosive particulates are a more likely culprit, experts say.

Fuel contamination is often unintentional, but there have been cases of unscrupulous fuel providers diluting their product with cheaper substances to increase supply and maximize profits. 

“They can do a lot of weird things for money,” said Thomas Roth-Roffy, a former NTSB marine investigator who retired in 2016. 

But he said the power failure on the Dali could very well have had nothing to do with the fuel or fuel system. 

“As the diesel engine has hundreds of components subject to failure, there are many possible scenarios that could cause the engine to malfunction,” he said.

Arneault suspects that the Dali may have been running on fuel at the bottom of its tank — where a heavier contaminant would have settled — when the power went out. He believes the fuel is to blame because security video captured the lights on the Dali flicking off and on a couple of times, and black smoke billowing from its stack, or chimney, before the Singaporean vessel slammed into a bridge support.

“It’s likely not just an engine problem because the generators go out,” Arneault said, noting that the generators likely would have been using the same fuel. “That indicates it’s probably a fuel issue.”

What caused the ship to lose power isn’t the only open question. According to some experts, the Dali would have needed more fuel to make it to Sri Lanka, its planned destination when it hit the Key Bridge, but the available tracking data does not confirm any fuel deliveries in New York or Baltimore.

When fuel is delivered to a ship, a sample is sent for lab testing before it is supposed to be used to fire an engine. However, those tests don’t examine all of the possible contaminants. Arneault said he thinks the tests should be expanded, but they are already costly and there is little enthusiasm among ship operators for such a change.

Although most incidents involving bad fuel go unreported, they do occasionally spark industry warnings, investigations and legal battles.

In 2018, about 200 ships were affected by fuel contaminated with a chemical used to make epoxy. Some experienced power loss. Testing companies traced the fuel to Houston, Panama and Singapore. Researchers said at the time that the contamination was a symptom of an opaque supply chain that allowed a “witch’s brew” of additives — a sign of a looming crisis. 

Four years later, in 2022, Singapore authorities reported an outbreak that affected nearly three dozen ships, 14 of which suffered loss of power and engine problems, according to researchers. An investigation later named two suppliers, one in Singapore and the other in China, as the source. One had its license suspended.

Last year, the U.S. Gulf Coast was stricken with contaminated fuel that disrupted the engines of 14 vessels, some of which lost power and propulsion while at sea. VPS traced the dirty fuel to Houston and Singapore.

Arneault said the contaminated fuel incidents that get media attention represent only a fraction of those that actually occur. He tallied more than 120 such cases last year and at least 460 in 2022 based on private incident databases and information he received from fleet managers. 

“For more than 50 years, people in the ship fuel market have tolerated small losses,” Arneault said, “or even small-scale fraud, thinking these issues were too minor to worry about. But the last five years have taught us that even these ‘minor’ problems can lead to huge risks and big costs.”

Rich Schapiro is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Jon Schuppe is an enterprise reporter for NBC News, based in New York. 

Susan Carroll is the senior enterprise editor for NBC News, based in Houston. 

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An increasing number of people in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, are taking to the high seas on leisure cruises.

Once an activity for only the elite, sailing is now becoming an affordable sport for many.

"It has become really popular. Lots of people can afford it now. About 10 years ago, it would cost around 5,000 yuan ($764) to sail in a boat like this for three hours. But now, the price has dropped to around 2,000 yuan," captain Zhang Hongfa told CGTN.

Apart from soaking up the sun, you can also get some hands-on experience on these cruises.

With a 32,000-kilometer coastline, China is an ideal destination to become a leading yacht market.

For years, the development of a sailing culture in China has been hindered by many factors – a lack of dock infrastructure, a shortage of sailing boats and a crew to maintain them. However, with more support now from the government, such as pilot free trade zones (FTZs), there are signs the yacht industry could soon realize its potential.

"Ten years ago, there were less than 10 yachts in Sanya. Now we have 500 yachts registered in the marine bureau. In 2019, we had 100 yachts available for rent, and by 2020 we had more than 200. So we think that rental services will become more popular in China," said Yan Yaya, president assistant of China Visun Real Estate, which runs one of the biggest yacht companies in China.

"The policies in Hainan Province are great. We want to become a free trade island. Maybe in two or three years, if you buy a yacht in Sanya, you'll be exempt from a lot of tax, so it'll be cheaper than it was 10 years ago," she added.

As part of the plan to boost tourism, Hainan will become a pilot zone for the innovation and development of the yacht industry, after the central government's move to make Hainan a free trade zone. 

Yachts have been highlighted in the sweeping new policy, covering everything from shipping and technology to finance. Companies established within the Hainan Free Trade Zone will be taxed at only 15 percent.

For ordinary people who want a taste of the elite lifestyle, their ship has certainly come in!

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Within a vast and humid hangar in southern China, workers in blue overalls, face masks and straw hats scale the hull of a 108ft superyacht that will soon be completed. The factory once catered for local demand but many boats made here are now bound for Australia, Thailand or Europe.

The drive for exports by Heysea, one of China’s largest yachtmakers, is a sign of how companies are adapting to a downturn in China’s domestic yacht market, once seen as a great prospect for the global industry.

“The domestic market is not good,” says Allen Leng, Heysea’s chairman. “We are going overseas because of a lack of certainty in the Chinese market.”

The company sold about 20 super-yachts in 2012, the height of a yachting frenzy when international boatbuilders and brokers flocked to China for lavish shows where thousands of vessels were sold to a growing business elite.

At about the same time, two Chinese companies acquired European yachtmakers Ferretti and Sunseeker , which were both in trouble following the global financial crisis. The year after, according to Chinese media reports, the domestic industry had sales of Rmb4.15bn ($630m).

But the market was driven by companies snapping up boats to act as venues to host wealthy clients and government officials. A culture of private yachting failed to emerge.

That made the sector an obvious target for the crackdown on corruption championed by President Xi Jinping.

Legitimate corporate clients still exist — Heysea was planning to host potential buyers from property group Evergrande when the Financial Times visited — but they have shrunk dramatically. Several Chinese yachtmakers went bankrupt in the downturn, according to Mr Leng. Now sales are a quarter of what they were at the peak and the company expects to sell five superyachts this year.

“It was like a high-speed train that stops because, eventually, it has to stop,” says Delphine Lignières, co-founder of Hainan Rendez-Vous, a leading Chinese boat show.

Some of China’s largest boat makers, such as Sunbird, have switched to building tourist boats or coastguard ships, which are used to assert China’s contested territorial claims in the South and East China seas. Heysea says it is selling more vessels in other Asian and Pacific markets — including one to an Australian client who wanted pole-dancing equipment aboard. “It seemed a little lowbrow,” says Mr Leng.

There are signs the domestic market is beginning to recover. A tech boom centred around the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has created a market, he says. “Now our clients are more diverse and the proportion of genuine yachting enthusiasts has increased  . . . but the overall number is still small.”

The same market is being chased by start-up Moana Yachts, which has been battling the industry downturn. Its co-founder Chris Wang, who studied boat design in New Zealand, strides across the deck of one of the company’s catamarans, sold for about $1m at a private marina near Shenzhen. “A lot of companies went bankrupt. But that was a chance for us,” he says.

The company has sold several boats this year to customers working mainly in finance and technology. “There is a change from companies to individuals who want to take family holidays,” he adds. The catamaran features a karaoke system, generally seen as a must-have for Chinese customers.

At the height of China’s yachting boom, “the [buyers] didn’t care about cost, they just wanted face. They would pay three times over the market price for foreign brands. It was highly irrational,” says Moana Yachts’ fellow co-founder Huang Jun.

Looking out at boats moored at the marina, Mr Huang says: “There are about 200 yachts here and about 70 per cent will not leave the yacht club. They were bought for face, and then buyers realised they had no use for them.”

Now the market is “more rational”, he says, “people actually want to use their boats.” But there is still a need for businesses to entertain customers. “Customers have a desire for face, they need the interiors to look good.”

Sales in China are hampered by a 44 per cent tax on imported motor yachts. Domestic manufacturers also pay hefty value added tax and duties on imported parts such as engines.

We want to move [yachting] from being an elite to a middle-class thing Allen Leng

On top of this tax burden, China lacks superyacht berths. Even for smaller boats, costs in private marinas remain prohibitively high. Chinese property companies rushed to build marinas during the boom, hoping to snap up corporate customers to pay mooring fees up to Rmb1m ($150,000) a year.

But with the downturn, that model has come under strain. The Xiangshan yacht club in the province of Fujian, billed as Asia’s largest, went bankrupt in 2014. Others have cut their prices by as much as half in recent years.

“We need public marinas built by the government,” says Heysea’s Mr Leng, echoing a widespread industry view that China should encourage sailing and its associated tourist trade as part of a drive towards a more consumption-based economy. “The government is paying attention,” he adds. “We want to move [yachting] from being an elite to a middle-class thing.”

There is uncertainty, though, over whether the Communist party will support the yachting sector while the latter retains an association with corrupt elites. “It will never be a mainstream thing,” Mr Leng admits, citing official statistics that there are only a few thousand registered yachts in mainland China.

Government rules that limit to 12 the number of passengers, including staff, are also stifling growth in the charter market. “Patrol boats come to check the numbers. That’s why people buy boats and ship them to Thailand, where they can do anything,” says Mr Wang.

Mike Simpson, a broker based in Hong Kong, says: “Owners are now moving their yachts to Thailand, which is a popular Chinese tourist destination and other parts of Southeast Asia where they may have business interests or a second residence. For some who can afford a larger superyacht, the Mediterranean is an option.”

For now, it appears, the future of Chinese yachting lies largely outside China itself.

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China's Wang Yi says direction of U.S.-China ties in danger of going 'astray'

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BEIJING — China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken on Saturday that the direction of U.S.-China relations was in danger of being further led “astray” due to a problem with the United States’ perception of China.

“Many people believe that the United States is suffering from an increasingly serious bout of ‘Chinaphobia’,” Wang was quoted as saying in a statement released by his ministry, following his meeting with Blinken on the sidelines of a G20 gathering in Bali, Indonesia.

Wang also said the United States should cancel additional tariffs imposed on China as soon as possible and cease unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies, in an exchange that the statement characterized as “in-depth” and “candid.”

Additionally, the U.S. side must be cautious in its words and deeds when it comes to Taiwan and must not send any wrong signals to “Taiwan independence” forces, Wang said.

According to the statement, the two sides also exchanged in-depth views on “the Ukraine issue,” without giving details. (Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Risk assessment for yachting tourism in China using dynamic Bayesian networks

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Writing – original draft

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation School of Public Administration & Humanities, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, Liaoning, P.R. China

Roles Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft

Roles Investigation, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

• Yunhao Yao, 
• Xiaoxing Zhou, 
• Merle Parmak

• Published: August 23, 2023
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607
• Reader Comments

Scientific evaluation of yachting tourism safety risks (YTSRs) is crucial to reducing accidents in this sector. This paper is based on the data of 115 yachting tourism accidents in China’s coastal areas from 2008 to 2021. A fishbone diagram and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were used to identify the risk factors of yachting tourism from four aspects human, yachting, environmental, and management risk and to construct an evaluation index system. To perform dynamic evaluation, a dynamic evaluation model of YTSRs was built using dynamic Bayesian networks (DBN). The results indicate that human factors, such as the unsafe behavior of yachtsmen and tourists, are the primary risk factors; the risk is higher in summer than in winter, and the Pearl River Delta region has a greater risk of yachting tourism. It is suggested to improve the normal safety risk prevention and control system of yachting tourism, to advocate for multi-subject coordination and co-governance, and to improve the insurance service system so as to provide a guarantee for the safe and healthy development of yachting tourism in China. The findings provide theoretical and practical guidance for marine and coastal tourism safety management, as well as the prevention and control of YTSRs.

Citation: Yao Y, Zhou X, Parmak M (2023) Risk assessment for yachting tourism in China using dynamic Bayesian networks. PLoS ONE 18(8): e0289607. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607

Editor: Chaohai Shen, East China Normal University, CHINA

Received: May 31, 2023; Accepted: July 22, 2023; Published: August 23, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Yao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: This paper was supported by the economic and social development research project of Liaoning Province in 2023 (grant number: 2023lslybkt-015), the basic research project in central universities (grant number: 3132023346).

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

There is no uniform or precise definition of yachting tourism in the international context; for example, neither the documents and manuals for tourism statistics [ 1 ] nor the Encyclopedia of Tourism [ 2 ] offer an official definition of yachting tourism. Terms such as nautical tourism, marine or marina tourism, and leisure or recreational boating are commonly used as synonyms [ 3 ]. Yachting tourism should be considered part of the broader concept of nautical tourism [ 4 ], which is a particular form of tourism that uses watercraft or yachts for leisure activities; these include not only sailing, yacht cruising, rowing, kayaking, water skiing, and windsurfing activities, but also water-friendly activities such as surfing, fishing, swimming, recreational diving, and island exploration [ 5 ]. Yachting tourism in this paper is a narrow concept in China’s official “Yacht Safety Management Regulations,” which refer to vessels equipped with mechanical propulsion power for sightseeing, leisure, and other recreational activities. Previous research has focused on the economic, social, and ecological impacts of yachting tourism [ 6 , 7 ], market segmentation [ 3 ], consumer behavior [ 8 ], and yachting tourism development strategies [ 9 ]. However, in the context of the increasing popularity of yachting tourism in China, few studies have examined safety issues in yachting tourism activities [ 10 ]. Since the safety of yachting tourism is related to the healthy development of the entire yachting tourism industry, this paper focuses on the risk factors affecting the safety of yachting tourism in coastal areas of China.

Safety is the prerequisite and primary purpose of all tourism activities. According to the United States (U.S.) Coast Guard’s Recreational Boating Statistics 2021, the U.S. Coast Guard recorded 4,439 accidents in 2021 in which 658 people died, 2,641 were injured, and recreational boating accidents caused approximately $67.5 million of property loss. According to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in the United Kingdom, a total of 8,868 rescues took place in 2021, with an average of 35 people being rescued every day. In China, although the newly revised “Maritime Traffic Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China” and the “Yacht Safety Management Regulations” provide for the safety management of yacht tourism activities, the reality is that there are still a large number of safety accidents. For example, the China Cruise and Yacht Industry Association (CCYIA) collected insurance statistics for 1,335 yachts in recent years, and the percentage of accidents that occurred was as high as 6% [ 11 ]. In the face of growing yachting tourism activities, it is important to systematically research the safety risk assessment of yachting tourism and the corresponding management strategies.

Currently, researchers are focusing on assessing one element of yachting risk management [ 12 ]; for example, using principal component analysis (PCA) to determine how much personal behavior and normative beliefs affect how recreational boaters use buoys [ 13 ], or establishing the extent to which coastal weather parameters affect the safety of coastal marine activities [ 14 ]. Scholars are also investigating the availability of equipment such as lifeboats, rescue boats, and safety buoys at swimming beaches [ 15 ]; they assert that policies and regulations mandating the wearing of life jackets are important tools to promote safety and reduce drowning deaths [ 16 , 17 ]. Requiring a minimum age for boat operators and offering boating courses in public schools have also had significant effects on reducing boating accidents [ 18 ]. In addition, some scholars have used a software called ArcGIS that uses the geographic information system (GIS) and cluster analysis to determine the distribution of marine tourism accidents in order to predict the high accident areas and common causes; they found that most accidents occurred during summer and peak tourist season due to mechanical problems caused by poor maintenance and carelessness [ 19 ].

Although previous studies help to identify the factors affecting yachting tourism safety and they provide specific management countermeasures for particular causes, they lack a comprehensive evaluation of the risk factors, which makes it difficult to identify key influencing factors and to propose targeted measures [ 20 ]. Further, in terms of research methodology, prior studies have used a large number of statistical and field survey methods; the results are mainly static which can only reflect the risk situation at a certain point in time and are not practical for dynamic risk analysis with environmental changes [ 21 ]. Thus, based on past studies, this paper introduces DBNs to evaluate YTSRs in coastal areas of China. This study not only comprehensively evaluated various risk factors, but also realized dynamic, ongoing evaluation of evolving characteristics over time.

In order to meet the research goals, this paper collected information on 115 cases of yachting tourism safety accidents in China’s coastal areas from 2008 to 2021, and used dynamic Bayesian theory to build and test a dynamic assessment model for YTSRs. First, YTSRs were identified through a fishbone diagram. Second, AHP was used to build an evaluation index system. Third, the risk of yachting tourism safety in coastal areas was divided into four quarters by employing DBNs. By multiplying the probability of safety risk events with potential losses, the dynamic evaluation outcomes of YTSRs were obtained. Countermeasures and suggestions for prevention and control of YTSR were then presented. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 contains a detailed literature review. Section 3 presents the primary research methods and data sources. Section 4 describes risk identification and indicator screening, as well as a dynamic evaluation model. Section 5 discusses the results. Finally, conclusions and insight are provided in Section 6.

Literature review

Risk is a measure of uncertain outcomes and embodies the possibility of loss caused by risk factors to a disaster-bearing entity [ 22 ]. Tourism safety risks are possible, and the severity of risk-causing factors in tourism activities (which threaten tourists’ lives and property), as well as the process of screening and determining risk-causing factors, is a process of identifying sources of risk. The purpose of yachting tourism is recreation; not only the attributes of a boat, but also other water-based activities that involve yachts. Identifying risk factors includes four aspects: human, yachting, environmental, and management risk. Human factors are manifested in the occurrence of accidents due to defects in human psychological and physical qualities. The yachting factor entails the seaworthiness of the yacht itself and the configuration of its equipment. The environmental factor includes the meteorological and sea state environment, as well as the navigation context of yachting [ 23 ]. The management risk factor, which refers to the responsibility of each management subject, is not clear; there is cross management and the management blank phenomenon [ 24 ].

In terms of human factors, Lucrezi et al. used a structured questionnaire survey and collected data on diving centers and identified the risks affecting divers’ safety behavior from the level of safety awareness, including diving knowledge and attitudes towards the use of safety equipment [ 25 ]. As for yachting factors, Mentes and Helvacioglu used a design failure modes and effects analysis (DFMEA) to determine the failure elements, effects, and causes of yacht bilge water systems from the perspective of yacht system design [ 26 ]. Regarding environmental factors, Ferrari et al. defined beach hazards as elements of the beach and surf context that expose people to danger or injury, including rip currents, wave breaking, engineered structures, and slope stability [ 27 ]. Chen et al. identified the potential risks of coastal recreation activities as hydrodynamics and water quality in the surf zone based on two major categories of coastal recreation hazards summarized by the World Health Organization (WHO) [ 28 ]. Park et al. considered the marine environment to pinpoint the risks of yachting operations rooted in maritime traffic congestion [ 29 ]. As for management factors, Chen and Bau distinguished factors that affect beach safety from the standpoint of beach managers, including protective facilities and services provided by the beach [ 30 ]. These studies show that YTSRs are wide-ranging and require careful consideration of the degree of impact of different risks.

Researchers have primarily evaluated YTSRs based on two ways of thinking. First, the importance of risk factors is evaluated by calculating weights, and fuzzy hierarchical analysis (FHA) is the leading research technique. Chen and Bau used FHA to assess factors such as beach protection and management, facilities, and maintenance to identify priority factors and effective beach safety management [ 30 ]. Through FHA, Davila-Lamas et al. established the relative importance of parameters such as tide, temperature, wind speed, solar radiation, and bathymetry [ 31 ]. Davila-Lamas et al. synthesized all parameters via the fuzzy logic method to obtain a beach safety index to assess the safety of tourism activities in coastal areas [ 31 ]. This approach is grounded in fuzzy theory and is used to deal with uncertainty; it can also reduce decision-makers’ subjectivity so that accurate and significant factor weights can be found [ 32 ].

The second way is to estimate the hazard level of risk factors by calculating the probability of risk occurrence. Ferrari et al. determined the degree of coastal hazards by calculating a hazard index rooted in the basic principles of probabilistic theory for an appropriate combination of beach risk factors [ 27 ]. Xiao, Luo, and Li used Bayesian networks (BNs) to evaluate the safety risks of seaplane operation processes [ 20 ]. Ye et al. evaluated the risk of natural hazards in tourist areas by analyzing the exposure of tourism resources and tourism infrastructure, the vulnerability of residents and tourists, and computing the probability of occurrence of various risks and their potential losses [ 33 ]. These studies can identify key risk factors in a certain field, but the findings are mainly static, and scholars have been unable to carry out dynamic and continuous evaluation of risk factors over time.

YTSRs assessment is based on the identification of risk sources using a quantitative method to evaluate the possibility of different degrees of safety risks and their consequences. Yachting tourism has obvious seasonal characteristics. DBNs can consider uncertain information and risks, and make prediction and diagnostic analyses over time, which are widely used in the risk analysis of maritime accidents [ 34 ]. For example, Fan, Zheng, and Luo employed a BN model to examine the effectiveness of port state surveillance inspections and to gauge the level of ships’ safety at different times [ 35 ]. Jiang and Lu developed a DBN model using accident statistics and Markov chains to estimate dynamic contingency risks in marine waterways [ 36 ]. Khan et al. applied a Bayesian network risk assessment model by obtaining the prior probability distribution of ships in multiple locations in Arctic waters and performing a dynamic assessment of ship navigation risks [ 37 ]. Another study by Khan et al. used a dynamic Bayesian network method to estimate the dynamic collision risk of ship traffic in the Barents Sea [ 38 ]. The DBNs used in this paper not only integrates the advantages of static BNs, but also have a higher dynamic data processing capability [ 39 ], which can effectively reduce the uncertainty in the information fusion process and inference at different levels [ 40 ]. Hence, this paper introduced DBNs to achieve a dynamic and continuous safety risk evaluation of yachting tourism.

Materials and methods

In this paper, a fishbone diagram and the AHP were used to identify and determine the security risk factors of yachting tourism. Further, DBNs and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method (FCEM) were employed to build a model to evaluate the security risks of yachting tourism in China’s coastal areas. The technical roadmap of the method is shown in Fig 1 .

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.g001

Fishbone diagram

A fishbone diagram allows one to discover the root cause of a problem, representing the relationship between the outcome and the cause, and is a cause-effect analytical tool [ 41 ]. With the gradual in-depth study of influencing factors, a fishbone diagram can systematize the complex causes of accidents. We first analyzed the factors that have the greatest impact on the safety of yachting tourism, and then started from broader reasons to find out the medium-level reasons and small-level reasons. Finally, we detected and determined the main reasons.

AHP is suitable for organizing and analyzing complex decisions [ 42 ]; decomposing a decision problem into its components helps to establish a hierarchy of criteria to determine the importance of each indicator. The main steps for determining the weights of each indicator of the safety risk index system in yachting tourism are as follows: (i) The structure model of the AHP is established according to the relationship between the elements. (ii) Several experts are consulted to construct a pairwise judgment matrix of risk types. (iii) The hierarchical single and total ranking weights are calculated. Consistency checks are run and inconsistent acceptance is considered only when Consistency Ration (CR) < 0.1.

FCEM aims to determine the weight vector W through a statistical survey or hierarchical analysis, and to establish the affiliation degree of the risk evaluation index set C to the risk evaluation level set V by using the affiliation degree vector Q. Based on the evaluation index system, we calculated the potential loss of yachting tourism risk events using expert scoring and hierarchical analysis via a second-level FCEM. FCEM calculates risk loss in 5 key steps:

• The evaluation grade set V = { V 1 , V 2 ,…, V n } is established and expressed by the severity of yachting tourism risk events.

DBNs are based on BNs, adding constraints of time attributes to form a network structure model that can reflect the evolution of events over time [ 43 ]. A BN model is shown in a directed acyclic graph formed by combining probability theory with graph theory, which contains a certain number of nodes and arcs [ 44 ], reflecting the causal dependencies between the nodes. For an edge connecting two nodes, the starting node is called a parent node and the ending node is called a child node. In BNs, nodes represent random variables, and directed arcs represent conditional dependencies between link nodes, which are described by dependent probability tables, and the dependent probability change process is consistent and stable for all time segments [ 45 – 47 ]. The time segment refers to a BN under different time intervals in a DBN, and the interval’s length depends on the event’s evolution. A DBN is a directed acyclic graph describing the probability relationship between time series variables; it consists of an initial network and a transition network.

For a BN graph, if the set of random variables is noted as X = { X 1 , X 2 ,…, X n }, represents the corresponding node in the graph, Pa ( X i ) denotes the set of parents of node X i . X i at the moment t is denoted as X i [ t ]. In Bayesian network theory, a BN is a directed acyclic graph containing the joint probability distribution over X . Each node X i with the same parent Pa ( X i ) is conditionally independent of nodes that are not children of X i from each other.

A DBN model extends this formulation to model stochastic processes with a time factor. The DBN of the joint probability distribution, built on the time trajectory of the stochastic process, consists of two components: a priori net B 0 , with the joint probability distribution defined over the initial state X [1]; and a transfer network B → , defined by the transfer probability P ( X [ t +1]| X [ t ]) on the variables X [1] and X [2] (holds for all).

Data source

We collected information on 115 cases of yachting tourism safety accidents in China’s coastal areas from 2008 to 2021. This sample size is consistent with the essential volume of yachting tourism safety accidents in coastal parts of China. For example, scholars have collected data on 920 marine tourism safety accidents in China’s coastal regions between 2010 and 2021, of which approximately 100 were related to yachting tourism [ 48 ]. Scholars have also assessed the safety risks of seaplane tourism using data from 110 seaplane accidents that occurred between 2010 and 2016 [ 20 ].

The case data are primarily derived from official reports and formal yachting websites, so they have a certain level of authenticity and dependability. The data sources include: (1) accident reports and related reports on yachts on the websites of government departments such as the China Maritime Service and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; (2) accident reports and related news on portals tied to the yachting industry (such as https://www.yachter123.com/ ); (3) research papers and news reports about yachting tourism in literature databases such as the China Knowledge Network and the Wanfang Database, which we used to supplement the information. As for basic statistical information on the cases, regarding regional distribution, the Bohai Rim region accounted for 22.61%, the Yangtze River Delta accounted for 21.74%, the Pearl River Delta region accounted for 27.83%, and the Hainan province accounted for 27.83%; In terms of period distribution, the spring (March, April, May) accounted for 20%, the summer (June, July, August) accounted for 40%, the autumn (September, October, November) accounted for 21.74%, and the winter (December, January, February) accounted for 18.26%. The distribution in terms of region and time is more in line with the current status of Chinese yachting tourism activities.

Results and discussion

We identified the risk influencing factors using the four elements of accident causation theory: (1) unsafe human behavior, (2) unsafe machines, (3) adverse environmental impact, and (4) lack of management [ 20 , 49 , 50 ]. A fishbone diagram can effectively analyze the significant, medium, minor, and lesser causes that endanger yachting tourism safety, and detect and identify important factors.

As shown in Fig 2 , the risk of yachting tourism safety involves human, yachting, environmental, and management risk aspects, and involves a complex system of these four kinds of risks interacting. Human factors of yachting tourism include yachtsmen and tourists’ behavior and safety awareness. Yachting risk factors include the seaworthiness of the yacht and its equipment configuration. Environmental risk factors include the natural and navigable environment of yachting. Management risk factors include the registration and supervision of the yacht by the maritime department, as well as the daily supervision and maintenance of the yachting company. A yachting company refers to the yacht marina, club, or other yachting tourism core enterprises engaged in the operation and maintenance of yacht vessels. Tourism companies refers to enterprises engaged in yachting tourism operation services to recruit and receive tourists, providing sea itinerary arrangements and other business services.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.g002

Furthermore, the index system of safety risk evaluation in yachting tourism is built and empowered using scientific, systematic, targeted, and practical principles. From October 2021 to May 2022, we conducted field interviews and questionnaires with six experts from yachting ports/clubs, tourism enterprises, maritime departments, and research institutes. To calculate the weights of safety risk factors in yachting tourism, we used the AHP. First, we screened four significant causes and 16 medium causes to determine the framework of yachting tourism risk factors based on the identification order of the fishbone diagram and expert interviews. Second, we built a hierarchy for the identified risk factor framework, and we judged the relative importance of the selected factors through pairwise comparison of the questionnaire. The index system of safety risk evaluation in yachting tourism and the weights are shown in Table 1 , which provides the theoretical basis for the subsequent safety risk evaluation for yachting tourism based on DBNs.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.t001

A risk of yachting tourism safety is the probability of a hazardous event occurring during a specific period for yachting tourism and the potential loss it causes. Therefore, the quantitative risk calculation method applied in this paper is r = p × d .

In the form, r is the risk value of the event, p is the probability of the hazardous event occurring, and d is the consequence of the accident as the potential loss. In this paper, the potential loss refers to the number of casualties and property damage in yachting tourism activities. The DBN model determines the probability of hazardous events in yachting tourism. The potential loss can be obtained through accident statistical analysis and FCEM [ 51 ]. As shown in Table 2 , we refer to the accident class classification criteria in the Statistical Approach to Water Traffic Accidents (2021), and we determined the severity of hazardous events based on risk-consequence guidelines, expert surveys, and scholarly studies [ 52 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.t002

The construction of a DBN includes the structure and parameter aspects. In this paper we obtain the structure according to the 3-level indicator system [ 20 ], and we obtained the parameters using both expert experience and the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm [ 53 ]. The specific steps are as follows:

The node variables are determined. A Bayesian network structure was constructed based on the results of the identification and screening of risk factors ( Fig 3 ). The BN structure has 16 root nodes, four intermediate nodes, and one leaf node. The single-leaf node (C) represents a yachting tourism safety accident. According to the classification standard of accident level above, the status of yachting tourism safety accident (C) is set as “minor,” “serious,” “more serious,” “very serious,” and “fatal” to describe the severity of the accident. The occurrence of safety accidents in yachting tourism involves four risks: human (C1), yachting (C2), environment (C3), and management risk (C4), each of which has a “yes” and “no” status. A “yes” status indicates that the accident was related to this risk, while a “no” means it was not. The four main risks are, in turn, made up of 16 fundamental risk events (C11, C12,……). These events are denoted by root nodes with two states, where “yes” means that a risk event has occurred, and “no” means that no risk event has occurred.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.g003

The network topology is determined. A DBN is formed by adding time slices to the BN base. The human geographic environment in yachting tourism is complex, and the characteristics of seasonal changes are apparent. The nodal variables present different states on different time slices, eventually forming a dynamic structure that changes over time. As seen in Fig 4 , C/T(1) represents the state of the yachting tourism safety incident at the first time slice and C/T(n) indicates the state at the nth time slice.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.g004

The conditional probabilities of significant nodes are obtained. The DBN parameters were obtained through two steps. First, the prior probability table and the conditional probability table were given directly by the same six experts mentioned above. The problem scope, the elicitation process, and the fundamental theory of DBN were introduced in detail to each expert to guarantee that they understood the objective of this process [ 54 ]. A consensus on the DBN parameters was reached. The next step was parameter learning. We input the 115 yachting tourism accidents that took place from 2008 to 2016 into the parameter learning EM algorithm to obtain the final prior probability table and the conditional probability table. Without the first step, parameter learning can also work, but the expert experience in the first step provides the prior knowledge needed for parameter learning, and thus makes the DBN model more accurate and practical.

The results are calculated. Based on the results and parameters of the DBN model, the probability of hazardous events in yachting tourism ( Table 3 ) and the likelihood of its risk factors ( Fig 5 ) were calculated using Netica 5.18. Based on the four busy periods divided, the first time slice is T (March, April, May); the next time slice is T+1, and so on.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.g005

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.t003

Among the four time films (see Fig 5 ), the probability of human factors is the highest, all reaching about 0.6, of which unsafe driving and unsafe behavioral factors play the most prominent roles, with the probability being about 0.5. In addition to human factors, the probability of yachting factors is the highest at T1, T3 and T4, all of which are more than 0.5. The unseaworthy factor is the most obvious, and the probability is about 0.4. The probability of management factors at T2 is the highest, which is 0.423; among them, the yachting company management plays the most prominent role, and the probability is 0.354. Thus, human factors are the primary risk factors, mainly unsafe driving and unsafe behavior factors. Yachting factors mostly unseaworthy factors, have the second greatest impact. Management risk factors primarily yachting company management factors, have the third greatest impact. Environmental factors have the least impact.

Using the equal spacing method, we further classified the safety risk level for yachting tourism into four levels low, medium, higher, and increased risk [ 47 , 55 ] as shown in Table 4 .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.t004

There are obvious differences in the spatial and temporal distribution of YTSRs, and the risk levels in different regions are constantly shifting with the change of seasons (see Table 5 ). First, in the Bohai Rim region, the risk value in summer reaches 0.073, which is a “higher risk”, while in other seasons the risk value is below 0.055, which is a “lower risk”. The Bohai Rim region is only at greater risk in summer and lower risk in other seasons. This is due to the construction of infrastructure, such as yacht marinas and berths around the Bohai Rim region behind other regions [ 11 ], as well as the temperate monsoon climate. The winter temperature is low, below 0°C [ 56 ], which is not suitable for recreational water activities. Second, in the Yangtze River Delta region, the risk values change most significantly throughout the year, from high to low, in order of 0.098, 0.076, 0.057 and 0.052, reflecting risks in spring, autumn, summer and winter respectively. The Yangtze River Delta has abundant resources and perfect infrastructure that attracts many yachting tourists. It is during the spring travel season that the number of yachting tourists reaches its peak and the risk is greatest. Third, the risk value of the Pearl River Delta region reaches 0.071 in summer, which is "higher risk", and the risk value of Hainan region reaches 0.09, which is " great risk" in winter. These areas are "medium risk" during other seasons, when the risk value is between 0.056 and 0.070. The Pearl River Delta and Hainan regions are at medium and high risk all year round, mostly due to their low latitude, mild climate in all seasons, rich marine tourism resources, and perfect yacht infrastructure [ 11 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.t005

Conclusions

At present, the research on safety risk assessment in yachting tourism is primarily based on identifying sources of risk, which are only evaluated from the aspects of human, yachting, environmental, and management risk factors. As for research methods, research has only evaluated the importance of risk factors by calculating weight, or estimating the degree of harm of risk factors by calculating probability. However, few studies have comprehensively assessed the four factors of human, yachting, environmental, and management risk factors from a holistic perspective. The evaluation results are mainly static and can only reflect the risk situation at a certain point in time. We comprehensively evaluated four risk factors human, yachting, environmental, and management risk—by means of the AHP and DBNs, and we identified the chief risk factors affecting yachting tourism safety. At the same time, we performed a dynamic evaluation of YTSRs. Our main conclusions are as follows.

First, we discovered that China’s YTSRs are complex and diverse, primarily consisting of four major risk categories: human, yachting, environmental, and management risk. Each risk category contains four risk sub-categories. Human risks include unsafe behavior and lack of awareness among drivers and tourists. Yachting risks include the seaworthiness of the yacht and its equipment configuration. Environmental risks include the natural environment and the navigable environment. Management risks are mostly concerned with the situation of the four management bodies of yachting tourism. A YTSRs is formed by the mutual influence and interaction of these four types of risks, and effectively dealing with the relationship between them is key to preventing and controlling risks [ 49 ].

Second, there are noticeable spatial and temporal distribution differences in the safety risks of Chinese yachting tourism, with greater risks in the south than the north, and higher risks in summer versus winter. Therefore, it is necessary to dynamically prevent and control risks based on time-sharing, zoning, and situational changes [ 28 ].

Third, the primary safety risk factors for yachting tourism activities are human factors, such as yachtsmen [ 25 ]. Yachting tourism is not only a tourism activity, but also a leisurely sport, so we should improve the skills training of yachting tourism practitioners, popularize yachting safety knowledge, and raise tourist safety awareness.

The control of yachting tourism safety risks is a complex project that requires the active cooperation of all parties. We therefore offer the following recommendations: (1) The transportation and maritime departments should improve the specific rules and regulations of yacht registration, inspection, navigation, and safety that do not correspond to the current actual situation, and differentiate yachting tourism management from other types of ship management. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, marine fisheries, meteorology, and other departments must actively collaborate in terms of tourism market safety supervision and risk prediction. At the same time, due to the different types of safety risks of yachting tourism (risk management has cross-regional, cross-departmental and decentralized monitoring characteristics), it is necessary to strengthen the deployment of rescue and security resources in high-risk areas. It is important to rely on big data and electronic information technology to create an intelligent command and control platform for yachting tourism in high-risk time zones and to achieve dynamic monitoring of illegal yachting. (2) To ensure the safe development of yachting tourism activities, yachting clubs and other enterprises must improve their management capabilities, strengthen daily supervision of yachts and ship maintenance, ensure safety skills training for yacht drivers, distribute and regular publicity on yacht safety and anti-pollution knowledge. (3) Tourism enterprises and coastal scenic spots should be provided to tourists for safety and services, such as installing warning signs in dangerous waters and assisting with life-saving personnel and equipment, as well as providing yachting tourism information and consultation, travel insurance, and other services. (4) Furthermore, tourists should take the initiative to learn about yacht safety and avoid risky behaviors while yachting. In particular, self-driving tourists should ensure that they are proficient at driving and can save themselves and help each other.

To date, researchers have developed a variety of tourism safety risk assessment methods. The Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy (FHA) method is often used to calculate the risk index affecting the safety risk factors of yachting tourism [ 30 , 31 ]. The disadvantage of this method is the subjectivity of the evaluation result and problems in dealing with uncertain information in the analysis [ 34 ]. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) [ 57 , 58 ] is often used to calculate the probability of maritime accident risk factors, but its evaluation results cannot reflect real-time dynamic information [ 59 ]. The dynamic evaluation model of YTSRs proposed in this paper can predict and diagnose YTSRs over time. This model can not only to identify the main risk factors, but also to reflect the probability of occurrence of each risk factor in different periods and thus to provide dynamic evaluation results. Therefore, this study not only enriched and expanded the content and methods of yachting tourism research, but also provided stakeholders with practical guidance for the formulation of policies and plans to effectively control and reduce risks in the development of yachting tourism.

However, this study is not without its limitations. Firstly, the size of the data on yachting tourism accidents is relatively small due to a lack of public government statistics, and the information on each accident can only reflect the casualties and a portion of the property damage. The information does not fully account for the harm done to other tourism facilities and marine pollution. As a result, the risk evaluation model only considers the number of casualties and property damage. The accuracy of the evaluation outcomes could be improved in subsequent research by increasing accident data and collecting comprehensive accident information. Secondly, we used DBNs to calculate the probability of safety risk factors in yachting tourism at different times, but their sensitivity has not been analyzed. This is because the probability gap of each risk factor at different times is small; it is of little significance to analyze the sensitivity, and the sensitivity analysis of a DBN requires introducing special algorithms with high computational complexity [ 60 ]. Hence, future research can deepen the learning of DBNs on the premise of collecting a large sample of data, and identify key risk factors using diagnostic reasoning and sensitivity analysis of DBNs, in order to provide scientific support for relevant departments so they can formulate effective security risk prevention and control policies.

Supporting information

S1 file. case information statistics..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289607.s001

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