Greetings from Sunny China

[Jon Sims]

Hello.

New here.. just imported a C&C 25 to Ningbo and have been sailing around a bit during the winter. Turgid water and strange looks from people! Not many sailing boats in China.. Very interesting reactions from the "officials."

[Talbot]

Originally Posted by Jon Sims

Very interesting reactions from the "officials."

Perhaps you should have had your boat junk rigged

[Pelagic]

Welcome Jon... would love to see some pics

[Southern Star]

Greetings Jon and welcome to the forum. That's a long way from home for a C&C - where was she imported from?

Brad

[Jon Sims]

Yes.. she's traveled a bit.. Put her on cargo ship at New York.. Trucked her over from Chicago.. Took six months for the ship to get here.. Customs and government officials really did spit the dummy on this one.
She's 1976 and frankly the most fun I've had in a little boat ever. I've been sailing her around the 2,000 or so islands in the archipelago (zhoushan) since october. She's out the water now for some TLC.

[Jon Sims]

Yep... added a few piccies for you.. Will take some better ones when she goes back in the water next month.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Since the Chinese have now seen a C&C 25 should we be seeing them for sale at WalMart soon? If so, I'll bet they'd be rather inexpensive.
Just kidding of course.
I'll bet you're having a great time there.
regards,

[Jon Sims]

There is a fledgling boat industry here. Mostly gin palaces and ribs but a couple companies making sailing boats. Very very expensive. Walmart seems to be everywhere here. I don't have the money to buy a new boat and the C&C seems to be a great little weekender with a bit of get up and go. Very cheap too at $5,000.oo though the shipping and customs charges added another $15,000 to that!!!!
I would really like to build up a wee fleet of these boats. We used to call these things a dinghy with a lid but actually I'm quite impressed with this boat. I really seems to be the best fusion of dinghy sailing and cruiser/racing.

[LunaSeaFlorida]

wecome to the site.
How neat, all the way from China!I didn't see the link for your pictures. Post again please. Most important, are there a lot of pirates there and do you feel safe when sailing?
Sailing abroad is definetely an advanture.YOu'll have to tell us some of your stories.

[Jon Sims]

No pirates in China.. They are too busy smuggling.. China actually is probably one of the safest countries to be in the world.

[Jon Sims]

I've been sailing over 40 years. Sailing abroad mostly around europe. No long distances, but in this time really nothing exciting to talk about. Only two things really. Nasty broach wind against tide off Start Point, south west england.. Half filled the boat with water. You are lulled into a sense of safety when running before the wind as it is warmer and you don't feel the wind. Nearly lost the boat.. I was delivering it.. ooops.. My girlfriend who had never been sailing before asked me after the broach.. "Was that fun?" Out of the mouths of babes eh!!!!
So there was that.. a couple of hurricanes, and I beached my boat once. That is it. Apart from that.. just plain sailing. I've been really lucky to have grown up in the south west of England with the Exeter Maritime museum back along, and so many old gaffers and people I've had the honour to crew for and sail with. So many different boats, the french in 1/4 tonners skulling accross to the Scillies from France.. Man.. it's been good...
China is just an extension of that.. It's all about the sea and boats and sails.. There is also surfing which is another fantastic way of sharing the nature of the sea. Hang gliding is also another nice way to sail. In fact, it's all about sharing with nature. It's so natural and pure. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jon Sims]

Originally Posted by LunaSeaFlorida

wecome to the site.
How neat, all the way from China!I didn't see the link for your pictures.

There are only a few pictures on my profile there.. you should be able to click on my avatar and see them.. The boat's out of the water... needs a bit of TLC before I put her in the water at the end of this month.. and then a lot more pictures for the summer.. Lots of typhoons blow in the summer but very very rarlely get to this neck of the woods.. I'm not really into taking piccies but I'll do my best as time goes on to put some up.

That should be next mont.. Chinese are not such good drivers and just recently my Yamaha Dragstar 1100 ended up underneath a truck. Pretty much written off... I took the wise decision to step off the bike before that. However the efficent and honourable constabulary decided they needed to do a blood test on me, bummer, over the limit.. So this month I have to do a spell C/O this Government in a place where I can think for a couple of weeks about my problem with alcohol. The problem actually is the drivers here....... Ahh well... Two weeks to thing about the sailing this summer....

[boatman61]

Welcome Jon... go for the fleet.. start training a Chinese team for the next Olympic's maybe....
But if its anything like the restaurants you'd better work on the numbers...
47 = going about, 12 = one reef..etc

[Jon Sims]

I have thought about this but most people here are only interested in doing that sort of thing so long as they can make money out of it. Its all about money money money.

[roverhi]

Isn't the Flying Tiger one design race boat built in China? Keep the cards and letters coming. Fascinating to hear about sailing in China. Always wanted to sail up the Yang Tze