Leisure business rides the bumps at full throttle
Every plumber dreams of defying water. Ian Corby might be the first to actually do so.
For the owner of Hong Kong's only unsinkable boat, a rigid inflatable, or RIB as it is better known, his time patching leaks in Suffolk, England, is a thing of the past.
These days, Mr Corby, holder of a Hong Kong skipper's licence, whips around Victoria Harbour and the outlying islands in his 9-metre banana yellow RIB at high speed with his passengers clad in yellow slickers and self-inflating life jackets.
Mr Corby, who moved to Hong Kong nearly seven years ago, started out in this city as a land lubber, working as a furniture repairman and project manager for shop renovations.
It wasn't until a serendipitous trip in 2001 to New Zealand, where he rode an RIB with his schoolteacher wife, that his entrepreneurial, amphibious appetite was whetted.
After visiting Australia, Thailand, Spain and Scotland over the next three years to research other RIB chartering companies, Mr Corby finally took the plunge and used money he had made from selling his house in England to buy his own craft in 2004.
He sunk more than HK$800,000 in start-up costs to pay for the RIB, equipment, insurance, public liability fees and registration - a task that took six months to complete.
He christened her Seafari - the same name as the company he set up - and bedecked her with twin Evinrude 250 outboard engines yielding a total of 500 horsepower (roughly equivalent to a Ferrari F50), 12 straddle-style seats equipped with handles, life jackets, adult and child-size wet weather gear, and one very sturdy stereo system.
'The Marine Department couldn't figure out how to categorise the boat since there is nothing else like it here,' he said.
Seafari finally set sail out of Discovery Bay in late summer 2005. Mr Corby spread the word with fliers placed in restaurants and hotels around the city.
Income was generated by half-hour, wake-skipping joy rides around Victoria Harbour for a minimum of six people at HK$250 a head or HK$350 a head to Aberdeen. He also offered three-hour rides for group island-hopping starting at HK$3,500.
But the bulk of his business came from chartered children's birthday parties and executive getaways for a negotiable price.
Mr Corby says that a busy day can send him out on as many as four or five trips.
The frequency has been necessary to keep Seafari afloat. Each ride costs the company HK$600 to HK$800 in fuel on top of the HK$4,000 due each month for the marina debenture fee.
Proving that the ad hoc business can stay afloat, Mr Corby has taken a silent partner on board and plans to upgrade Seafari's business strategy.
Starting from this month, it will run a scheduled 10 trips a day from Central Pier 9. Mr Corby is also redesigning his website so that customers can sign up online, similar to cinema ticket purchasing.
He plans to increase charges by about HK$400, which he believes will remain attractive because of the added convenience of an online schedule and ticketing, the withdrawal of the six-person minimum, and a more convenient location.
The new changes will put Mr Corby knee deep in work, so he's had to consider hiring another skipper.
'Ten rides a day can get pretty tiring,' he said.
But he isn't complaining.
He interprets the impending increase in work as a sign of the business' ample growth potential, and possibly the need for another RIB.
Either way, he's enjoying the ride.
'This is a paid hobby,' he said.
