     Insurance executive Clement Cho Kwok-yin is one of a small but growing 
group of Hong Kong residents who have chosen to live on a boat.  He 
swapped his comfortable family apartment for a cramped home afloat because 
he loves the tranquility and freedom of marina living.  "I love boats and 
I would need to have a multi-million-dollar house in a prime spot to get 
views like these," he says, sweeping a sun-tanned arm towards the 
colourful flotilla tied up at Aberdeen Marina on the southern side of Hong 
Kong island.  "Boating is great for my wife and children, who come over 
several times a year from New Zealand where they are fulfilling residency 
requirements.  We love to go cruising around the islands.  I give my two 
sons important jobs in advance of a cruise, such as preparing the safety 
equipment, and that's how they learn how to take care of themselves.
     "At the same time, I can keep fit by doing regular boat maintenance."  
Cho regrets that Hong Kong waters are "a bit polluted, especially during 
the summer."  That aside, however, "there is no better life-style than 
boating.  I can recommend it to everybody," he says.  Clement Cho is among 
a new wave of sea-faring Asians.  Buoyed by the tide of wealth in the 
region, the nouveaux riches of Asia have developed a taste for brisk winds 
and salt spray.  Where the Bahamas and the Costa del Sol were names that 
tripped off the tongue in the boating world, Hong Kong, Singapore, Phuket, 
Langkawi, Puerto Galera and Tokyo have become the latest buzzwords in the 
cruising vocabulary.
     And the images flashed around the world of US President Bill Cinton 
yachting with Jackie Onassis can only boost the appeal of the sport to 
more and more Asians--as a symbol of money and power.  Sailing is now 
seen as the choice pursuit of people who have arrived.  Further enhancing 
the region's boating reputation is the growth of races such as the Tokyo 
Cup, Osaka-Melbourne, Sydney-Hobart, Hong Kong-Macau, Pedro Blanco, the 
China Sea Race and Thailand's King's Cup Regatta.  But it didn't just 
happen overnight.  From the days of the Bugis people's migration from 
Sulawesi to Selangor and then to Riau, the Acheh sultanate of Sumatra, the 
historic voy-ages of the Chinese admiral Cheng Ho and the Spanish armada's 
sweep through the Philip-pines, the China coast and island-studded waters 
of Southeast Asia have been busy sea lanes.
     Love of the sea runs all the way from the humblest sampan fisherman 
to kings and em-perors.  A number of Asian royals, including the Crown 
Prince of Johore, are enthusiastic sailors.  For instance, King Bhumibol 
Adulyadej of Thailand won the OK Dinghy class gold medal in the 1967 
Southeast Asian Peninsular Games.  And over the years, Asian sailors have 
pulled off some incredible maritime feats.  In 1974, Japanese yachtsman 
Yoh Aoki sailed the tiny 20ft Ahodon III around the world, becoming the 
37th person to make a solo voyageround the world since American Joshua 
Slocum first did it in 1898.  Aoki was followed a few months later by 
fellow Japanese Ruysuke Ushijima in Gin Gitsune and Kenichi Horie in 
Mermaid II, completing the 40th and 41st solo circumnavigations.
     Japan also cast a large wind shadow during the last America's Cup 
when the 12-metre Nippon gave the competitors a bit of a sumo shake.  To 
put more wind in their sails, Yamaha, the biggest boat-builder in the Land 
of the Rising Sun, is gearing up to sponsor a Japanese entry in the 
upcoming Whitbread around-the-world yacht race.
     Hong Kong, meanwhile, will host an around-the-world challenge race in 
1997, just before the Fragrant Harbour returns to Chinese rule (see box 
this page).  And it's not just Asians, but Asian concepts that are setting 
the seas on fire.  British adventurer Tim Severin is crossing the Pacific 
Ocean on a bamboo raft to prove that Chinese sailors may have 
successfully sailed from Asia to America, 1,700 years ago.  And Hong 
Kong-based physician Dr Wayne Moran hopes to retrace Marco Polo's voyage 
to Europe on the replica deepsea junk Cocachin.
     Taking on a more modern challenge, British millionaire-adventurer 
Richard Branson hopes to break the offshore powerboat speed record 
be-tween Port Klang in Malaysia and the holiday island of Langkawi.  
Meanwhile, Malaysia and Thailand are turning into a pleasure boat paradise 
and hope to become to Asia what the Caribbean is to America--a 
warm-water playground.  To bolster this effort, Kuala Lumpur has dropped 
the import duty of up to 35 per cent on boats under 26 tonnes, and is 
wooing Euro-pean and American boat-builders with gener-ous incentives.  
Tourism minister Datuk Sabbaruddin Chik said Malaysia might also get large 
charter yachts currently cruising the Mediterranean and the Caribbean to 
establish their base in the country.
     Brooke Yachts, a UK-based company which has supplied boats to 
Hollywood stars and the Saudiroyalfamily, is rumoured to be setting up 
shop in Johore.  According to marina development con-sultant Muhaimi 
Mustapha, Malaysia accounts for nearly one third of the $3 billion marina 
industry in Southeast Asia, with at least six operating by the end of this 
year and about 20 within the next five years.
     Thailand, in particular Phuket, is also get-ting an international 
cruising reputation even though the government has imposed a high import 
duty (35 per cent) on some yachts and spare parts.  Three fully-fledged 
new marinas are planned for the next three to five years.  Phuket's fa-mous 
King's Cup Regatta is based on the popular Antigua Week in the Caribbean, 
a family-styleevent.  Meanwhile, in Singapore, proof that boating is one 
of the Lion City's fastest growing lei-sure activities is evident in the 
increasing number of boat owners.  According to the Port of Singapore 
Authority, the number of licensed pleasure craft has swelled from 4,096 
three years ago to 4,945 in December last year.  Malaysia, by comparison, 
has about 3,000 boat owners.  Meanwhile, the Philippines has nowhere to go 
but up.  The nation of more than 7,000 islands, with idyllic boltholes 
such as Boracay, Puerto Galera in Mindoro and Puerto Princesa in Palawan, 
is becoming an island-hoppers' paradise.  Many avid yachtsmen are starting 
to cruise the Philippines fulltime rather than sail on to other parts of 
the world.  But the world's fastest-growing yachting nation of all is 
Japan.  According to the Japan Marina Association, there are 450 marinas 
dotted around the country's 34,000-kilometre coastline, with 62 more under 
construction.  Nearly a quarter of a million Japanese own boats, which 
occupy about 80 per cent of available marina space; in Tokyo and Osaka, 
the figure is zooming up to 90 per cent.
     In the Philippines, although a few beach resorts have put up their 
own small marinas and yacht clubs, the Manila Yacht Club, which was formed 
by five expatriate yachtsmen in 1927, remains the nation's largest.