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BARBARA E. WARD
Besides, Shing Chui's father was an expert in sails and rigging. No one living in Kau Sai when I first went there in 1952 had ever made a sail without his advice, and he prided himself, in a deprecating way, upon his undoubted skill. Sail making, and the provision and stepping of the mast were done by the owners, not by the junk builders. For as long as any of my Kau Sai informants could remember, masts had been bought ready shaped from a timber merchant in Sai Kung or Shaukiwan, but sails were made by hand on the open terrace in front of the temple by the boat owner and his crew under the direction of Lo Kwai Faat. Canvas cloth, bamboo, and sewing yarn were acquired some time before, and the canvas dyed in the vats on the other island ready for making up. The actual making gave between eight and a dozen people about five hours' solid hard work. Mast and sails were then taken off to the junk yard where the new boat was being built, to be stepped and rigged immediately after the launch.
Engines were (and are) a very different matter. Not only was the initial price out of all proportion to the cheapness of homemade sails, but the expenses of professional installation, tuning, and efficiency trials had also to be borne. It is doubtful, also, whether or not a junk constantly subject to engine vibration can last as long as a sailing vessel. Moreover, once an engine was installed, an owner was usually unwilling to sell the junk second-hand and might well decide to hang on to it even beyond the limit of safety. The economics of mechanisation will be discussed in detail in chapter 7.42 Here I am concerned primarily with the practical effects upon living conditions.
It has to be understood that the only engines legally permitted on fishing junks in Hong Kong are marine diesel engines. Because the fishermen's families live on board and do their cooking there, and because the anchorages are all close-packed and many of them densely crowded, petrol fuel was forbidden from the outset. Outboard motors were therefore out of the question even for the smallest fishing boats; they would in any case have been entirely inappropriate for the larger junks. Mechanisation of the small- and medium-sized inshore fishing craft thus had to wait upon the development and availability of