What is a public place? And can I go boating?

Tai Long Wan: happy boaters practice social distancing in Hong Kong © Nick Atkinson

Some friends went restaurant-ing yesterday. This is a thoroughly popular pastime among sailors in Hong Kong, and is entirely unthreatening if you believe in fresh air and heaps of open space: load up a few friends on a boat, sail or motor (if you must) off to Picnic Bay if you start in Aberdeen, Po Toi from anywhere else on Hong Kong island, or Yau Ley if you are a Sai Kung/Shelter Cove sort of person. Squid, prawns, clams, several kilos of garlic and chili, and beer feature strongly on the standard order list. I’ve not kept a record of an average crew list for such an expedition, but it is definitely related to size of boat. Anything between half a dozen and twenty.

Here’s the problem: the new Prevention & Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation which came into force on 29 March 2020 and attempts to define social distancing, seems to have a few grey areas.

1. No gatherings of more than four people “in a public place.” However, those who need to gather for “work, perform duties in courts, legislative council, district councils, other government functions, and attend funerals or weddings” are exempted.

2. Who are the enforcers? Food and Environmental Hygeine Dept in theory, but they are not out and about on the water. Not Marine Department, who are really only interested in whether the number on board exceeds the registered capacity. Marine Police have the power to stop and search, and to board, and have been conducting frequent checks on private yachts during the past few days to ensure that there was no violation.

3. Is a boat a public place? The Regulation confers the power to “enter and inspect a public place”, but says nothing about private boats. When you are on board a private boat you are not in “a public place,” or are you? Apparently it depends whether you are under way or at anchor, or under way. The position of the government seems to be that a private boat at anchor is a public place – but how that one works is quite beyond me. “As long as the vessel does not anchor, it does not fall under the ambit as private yacht or pleasure boat can only be used as a mode of transport during this period. The moment the pleasure boat anchors in e.g. Repulse Bay or South Bay, the Regulations kick in.” This the same as saying that a moving bus is a mode of transport, but one that is parked in the bus station is not. Good luck with that!

4. ‘Crew’ on a boat are presumably ‘working’. So if you have eight persons on board and four are designated as crew, then you should be ok, no?

So what does Teresa Cheng, our Secretary for Justice, have to say? (Remember, this the lady who recently addressed a conference in London on ‘conflict resolution’ while there were violent protests taking place in Hong Kong, so she really knows her onions.) On 7 April she pronounced that “there are three situations in this Ordinance in which the public will break the law: the first is to participate in the gathering of more than four people in public places, the second is to organise these gatherings and in the third case, in simple terms, the offender provides a place where knowingly allowing others to engage in this gathering will also break the law. If found guilty, the offender can be imprisoned for 6 months and fined HK25,000.”

Take your pick. It seems likely that if a private yacht owner or pleasure boat/junk boat operator ‘organises’ a party on their vessels involving a group of more than four (excluding crew members) and anchor in the sea, the law will apply. However, there are several grey areas where members of a yacht club can still legally organise a party on their boat, moored within the marina.

As for our friends who went a-lunching? “We can confirm that at no point during the day was the boat stationary with more than 4 people on board. She was always a mode of transport. We can also confirm that the prawns and the squid at Yau Ley were up to the mark, as usual. Here’s to social distancing on boats!”

Strange stories about boating regulations in your part of the world – welcomed. In Australia we hear that there is No Boating Allowed, unless you take a fishing rod which then either counts as ‘necessary occupation’ or ‘sport’ but not quite sure which.

PS. Rumour has it that a TP52 was stopped by HK Marine Dept a couple of days ago. The boat is registered for 18. MarDep said they were ok for the designed capacity, and could have four more as crew to work the boat! Are there any sailors at all in the Hong Kong Marine Dept?