Docking in the bay

Nearly 17 years after having been granted a land parcel by the local government – including a two-year waiting period for a green-light from the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) – Macau Yacht Club (MYC) has finally received the construction permit to build its clubhouse in the Inner Harbour in northern Macau.
The 3,521 metre plot, tucked into a corner of the marina on Avenida Marginal do Lam Mau, received confirmation from the DSSOPT, noting the ‘work licence for the building […] has been issued and that it is valid until the end of this year’.
Speaking of the development, MYC president Albert Chuck Chung Yin, serving his first year of a three-year term, notes that “It’s done [the permit], so we’re happy.
Now we’re moving on with the construction and will try to get it done before the deadline.”
The concession, initially granted in 2000, is valid for 25 years, with an annual fee payable by the MYC of MOP52,815 fixed in 2000 but to be revised every five years. The original attributable value of the land, according to the Official Gazette, is MOP1.43 million.
The Lam Mau Marina, near which the clubhouse is to be built, can currently accommodate about 60 vessels, although most of the spaces are occupied, notes the president, with some reserved for overseas vessels. Most of the ships, however, are registered in one of the SARs, and while the MYC makes efforts to support the Zhongshan-Macau Free Yacht Scheme, it has yet to attract much interest from abroad.
Expanding the berths, offering more docking space and getting more autonomy and expediency to deal with bureaucratic procedures could help the club, and the marina as a whole, notes the chairman. But so far the government has yet to accept a proposal to increase the number of berths, concerned it will block the “narrow” channel itself.
Read more in this month’s edition of Macau Business, on shelves now.