While walking alongside Victoria Harbour or riding the Star Ferry, luck might have allowed you a glimpse of Way Foong motoring by. Its old-fashioned appearance is a sign that the boat is obviously from an era long past but, because it is not a traditional junk, you may not have realised you were looking at an authentic piece of Hong Kong history: a wooden motoryacht constructed locally almost 100 years ago.

Commissioned by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (now HSBC) – “Way Foong” being a transliteration of the bank’s name in Cantonese – and built in 1930 by the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, the vessel was used by the bank as a ferry, a tugboat and a pleasure craft for employees for more than seven decades before passing into private ownership. In the late 2010s, it was acquired by a patron of the Hong Kong Historic Vessels Foundation (HKHVF) – an organisation officially founded earlier this year by individuals passionate about preserving the city’s maritime legacy.

When hired for parties or other events, Way Foong can often be seen cruising side by side with Java, another 1930s-era wooden vessel built by the same shipyard. Java entered service in 1935 and served for decades in the Hong Kong government fleet as Marine 1. It transported VIPs and port officials, conducted anti-piracy patrols, towed and positioned mooring buoys and even corralled the odd swimming water buffalo. Its Burmese-teak construction, with deck planks measuring almost 4.5cm thick, earned the boat a reputation for being “almost unsinkable” and invulnerable to typhoons.

Way Foong and Java are two of five vessels now owned and maintained by the HKHVF. “By restoring and preserving such examples of the world-class craftsmanship that Hong Kong shipyards were capable of, we aim not only to encourage Hongkongers to discover the city’s commercial, governmental and recreational maritime heritage, but also to nurture the region’s next generation of boaters and ocean-lovers,” says CEO Philip Giannecchini.

Java, the first vessel in the collection, was found by chance. One of the avid sailors who would later establish the HKHVF noticed Java moored in Tai Tam Harbour, on the south side of Hong Kong Island, when taking out his own boat, and wanted to learn more about the 56-foot wooden launch. He ended up meeting the then-owner, and bought Java in the early 2000s. At the time, the rationale behind the purchase was simply to have such a historical pleasure craft in one’s possession. Eventually, the desire to safeguard Hong Kong’s maritime history took hold, setting in motion other acquisitions and the founding of the HKHVF.

A years-long search for extant, pre-50s boats built in the city followed. Nine, in various states of repair, have been identified by the organisation’s historians – some now in the HKHVF collection, others happily and privately owned, and one, Mon Lei, whose whereabouts are unknown.

Given Hong Kong’s coastal geography, boats have, and will always be, an integral part of the city. Yet, while today’s harbours and inlets are teeming with craft of various shapes and sizes, most are built elsewhere, the city’s shipbuilding days having long passed.

However, in the early 20th century, two giants of the industry, the Taikoo Dockyard and the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, were firmly in their prime, and a number of small and medium-sized shipbuilders, such as Hung Hom’s Hop Kee Shipyard, Ah King Slipway and Cheoy Lee Shipyard, also produced wooden vessels for global clients.

Teresa Mak Hiu-see, one of the in-house researchers at the HKHVF, notes that “the 30s were one of the high points in Hong Kong’s shipbuilding tradition for all types of vessels, from cargo liners to pleasure craft, and the industry steamed ahead until Japan invaded Hong Kong in December 1941. Until the end of World War II, all dockyards were under Japanese control”.

Rare survivors such as Way Foong and Java escaped the scrapyard, but many other Hong Kong-built vessels from the 20s and 40s were not so lucky. Says Mak, “With the 40s being a time of war and post-war recovery, that might be a factor in the small number of surviving pleasure craft from that decade.”In 1972, the Taikoo Dockyard and the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company were merged to form the Hongkong United Dockyards. In 1980, the Whampoa site was shut down and the land was redeveloped into the Whampoa Garden housing estate, now easily identified by its superyacht-shaped shopping centre, a 110-metre-long concrete landmark “moored” amid the residential blocks.

When the Cheoy Lee Shipyard at Penny’s Bay was reclaimed by the Hong Kong government in 1999 to provide a location for Hong Kong Disneyland, it signalled the end of an era: shipbuilding operations in the city were coming to an end. But the final straw came when Ah King’s Causeway Bay shipyard closed, in 2002.

With shipbuilding essentially a thing of the past, the preservation of Hong Kong-made boats has become ever more important, Giannecchini explains, as these examples are “more than just beautiful old vessels – they tell the story of Hong Kong’s craftsmanship, ingenuity and connection to the sea, and that’s a story we want future generations to be able to experience”.

James Barker, captain of the HKHVF fleet, who coordinates the repairs, maintenance and operation of the boats and can often be seen piloting them, adds, “Caring for nearly century-old boats is not easy. Every project you take on turns out to be much larger, more complicated and more expensive than you first envision. For example, the Gardner engine on Way Foong needed to be replaced, but that [British] company went out of business in the 90s, so we had to source everything we needed from other places.”It is not just hardware that is difficult to secure.

Experts who have the technical knowledge to carry out such repairs are dwindling in number as well, he says. “Everyone who used to do these specialised jobs has either retired or passed away. In the absence of all other options, we are forced to research, plan and take on the task ourselves,” says Barker.

“We recently had to pull the propeller shaft from So Fong and replace the rotten timber around the stern, which meant drilling a new hole through the replacement wood,” he continues. “We’re looking at the bones of these boats, not just making sure they look beautiful on the surface. Significant work is needed to ensure these vessels can last for another 100 years.”As Giannecchini notes, preservation in its finest form means not only maintaining the physical aspect, but also the histories of these vessels. In an effort to share the stories behind the fleet, the HKHVF website has detailed introductions to each boat.

Some have lived lives rich with adventure and drama. Way Foong transported gold and silver bullion to and from ships anchored in Victoria Harbour, as well as chests of banknotes to HSBC branches on Hong Kong’s outlying islands. It was even used for “burning picnics”: junior staff from the bank’s note-cancellation department would burn sacks of old bills in the boiler room, back when Way Foong had its original steam engine, converting the to-be-disposed-of cash into fuel.

According to one account, Way Foong was taken up the Pearl River at the outbreak of World War II and scuppered to prevent it from falling into Japanese hands. After the war, its skipper reportedly returned to the bank to ask for his job back. He was told that it was his if he could find the missing launch. He did – Way Foong was recovered in 1945 and returned to service after a major refit.

Tai Mo Shan was undergoing restoration work at a shipyard in Greece when the HKHVF became aware of it, in the summer of 2025, through a yacht broker’s flier. Arrangements were made to buy the boat, and it was delivered in October 2025.

Tai Mo Shan was built by the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, in 1933, and left the city on a 16,000-plus-mile transpacific and then transatlantic voyage to Dartmouth, in Britain, which, by some accounts, included an attempt to spy on Japanese naval installations in the Kuril Islands.

Another vessel, Typhoon, was discovered by the HKHVF through research on Facebook. Built in 1934 at the Hop Kee Shipyard to a design by Harold S. Rouse, for the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, the boat enjoyed a successful racing career up until the relocation of its owner, back to his native Britain. Typhoon was in Scotland when it was acquired, also in 2025.

Late last year, Tracy Van Buskirk, a retired banker who enjoys exploring coastal Maine, in the United States, aboard a 30-foot retrofitted lobster boat, shared her recollections with the HKHVF after having googled the name “So Fong” out of curiosity and found out that the schooner, on which she had sailed in the 70s, from Stamford, Connecticut, to Singapore, was still afloat.

So Fong, a gaff-rigged schooner measuring 82 feet, was built on an Ah King slipway, on commission for American yachtsman A. Thornton Baker. It took around 250 artisans more than seven months to complete the boat. Following its launch in March 1937, So Fong sailed for about 30,000 miles, travelling through the Philippines, the South Seas, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and the South Atlantic before reaching San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April 1938. During World War II, the US Coast Guard requisitioned So Fong, according to a commemorative plaque aboard the vessel. After the war, it returned to the Pacific and was used for racing.

Van Buskirk recalls that, at the age of 21, in 1978, she had recently graduated from university after spending a year studying Mandarin in Taiwan.

“I had every intention of returning to Asia, but decided to spend the summer in my hometown of Fairfield to get a job. By early October, I had started planning my flights back to Taipei. One weekend, my mother invited me to go sailing with a family friend, on his 28-foot sloop. He asked me about my plans and volunteered that his son had been hired as first mate for a delivery job of a large schooner that was scheduled to leave Stamford soon and sail to Singapore. William Mathers, the new owner, had bought So Fong earlier that year and hired the captain, Don Kuhn, to take her on this 14,000-mile journey.

“I was intrigued and immediately drove to the Stamford Yacht Club to introduce myself and see about a berth. Kuhn was busy with last-minute arrangements but took a moment for a brief interview. After determining that I was healthy, held a current passport and had some savings, he said I was hired. We left two days later [on October 18, 1978].”Van Buskirk and So Fong would reach Singapore on March 21 of the following year.

In 1984, Vietnamese authorities seized the vessel in the Pacific Ocean, on suspicion that its sophisticated navigation equipment was being used for espionage, and its owner was placed in solitary confinement. He was released the following year, having paid his way to freedom, but So Fong remained confiscated.

It would spend the next few years abandoned at anchor until yacht enthusiast Robert Verschoyle located the vessel in 1989.

Following an intensive 11-month restoration in Ho Chi Minh City, Verschoyle executed a nighttime escape with So Fong in the early 90s. Under cover of darkness, he smuggled the boat out, and the vessel eventually reappeared in Hong Kong in 1993. After a few decades, during which the boat passed through private hands, Giannecchini was alerted to So Fong’s existence in February 2025, by a friend who had read about it in an article about vintage sailing vessels available for charter in Spain. So Fong finally returned home last October, after being acquired by the HKHVF.

Earlier this year, the HKHVF learned of another Hong Kong-built wooden yacht from the 30s that was still sailing in local waters. Ariki III was constructed in 1939 at the Ah King shipyard, to a design by American naval architect Ralph E. Winslow. Completed just before the outbreak of World War II, she was meant to be shipped to the US, but those plans were foiled by the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. After years of neglect, she sank in 1946.

New Zealander Hector Forsyth raised the boat, restored it and named it after the Maori word for “leader”. Ariki III became part of the city’s sailing scene, eventually coming into the ownership of long-time sailor Graeme Large, who restored it anew, together with Stanley-based wooden-boat specialist Fan Kwei-sum.

Current owner Peter Lau Man-pong, a businessman and the chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, developed a passion for the sea at an early age, having grown up sailing in the waters around Hong Kong with his father.

“My father was the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Sea Cadet Corps. Now, as its deputy chairman, I also have a deep connection with the sea and related youth activities,” says Lau.

He believes that the HKHVF’s mission to educate the public about Hong Kong’s maritime heritage is important; the team “has a noble vision and noble hearts, in addition to their love of boats”.

Although he used to paddle his wooden kayak from Hong Kong to Macau for leisure, “unfortunately, I am getting old and don’t have the time nor energy to take my boats out as much as I used to. As the HKHVF continues to mature, I am planning on gifting them Ariki III, but the details are still being worked out”.

As its collection grows, the HKHVF has begun making its vessels accessible to the public, through collaborations with people and organisations involved in history, conservation and education, such as the Hong Kong Maritime Museum and the Royal Geographical Society. Additionally, the vessels can be chartered for business and recreational use.

As early as next year, the HKHVF plans to open a small museum at its floating headquarters – a structure made of two connected industrial barges, in the Kwun Tong Typhoon Shelter – to provide a permanent home for its fleet.

“Our vision is to keep researching Hong Kong’s maritime history, preserve significant vessels whenever we have the opportunity and find new ways to share their stories,” says Giannecchini. “We don’t want these boats sitting in a museum as artefacts. We want them to remain active, accessible and connected to the people of Hong Kong.”As Way Foong and its restored kin continue to glide through Hong Kong’s waters, they do much more than offer a glimpse of a bygone era – they keep part of the city’s history afloat.