YACHT ACT:A replica boat that was damaged when launched in 2010 has proven inviable as regulations prohibit the boat having more than eight passengers
Taipei Times
Date: May 02
By: Hung Jui-chin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Tainan City Government recently unveiled plans to spend an additional NT$13 million
A replica of a Ming Dynasty armed commercial vessel that has been built in Tainan is covered in scaffolding on Thursday last week. Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Taipei Times
(US$402,714) to build a cultural park to house the replica of a Ming Dynasty junk that it had built five years ago.
The boat was built based on a drawing of Ming-era ships in the Matsura Historical Museum in Nagasaki, Japan, and was intended to follow the route of Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功) to Taiwan, Tainan Bureau of Cultural Affairs director Yeh Tse-shan (葉澤山) said.
Cheng, more commonly known to Westerners as Koxinga, expelled
Dutch colonists from Taiwan in 1662.
Construction of the boat received a great deal of attention both in Taiwan and abroad, including by National Geographic, but the vessel’s main mast broke during a sailing trial in 2010. As a result, the city government sued the designers, sailors and boat building company, asking for NT$7.6 million in reparations. [FULL STORY]
