5. Laser (1988)

My most worthwhile purchase was a Laser dinghy for 650 ringgit! The expatriate owner came from Oman and he packed this dinghy inside his 20 ft. container together with all his furniture. On arrival he discovered Piasau boat club which has 14 brand new Lasers and six 470’s! All of them were available for his use, as he was entitled to free memberships to all the three expats social clubs! I was the only person interested to buy his boat. It turned out to be an excellent boat, still in very good condition. I had many enjoyable sailing hours on it on my days off from the oil rig.


One time, I went out to west Lutong C platform on the Laser, to say hello to my drilling crew on the Trident 1 jack-up rig! It was a distance of about 12 km. round trip, not really advisable for such a little boat! Another time, I went all the way to Hawaii beach at Bakam in the 470, a distance of 35 km. round trip. That was my greatest achievement!

Mostly, I launched my boat at the sea jetty, sail to Luak bay and back across the sand bar of the Miri river, that’s all. Usually I stopped for angtao peng at Tanjong beach. I have met no one else in their own sailing boats during the 15 years I was sailing in Miri. It was a very lonely sport, unlike golfing; but you can do either sport with friends or alone. Not many sports can be played alone. I was lucky.

On arrival in New Zealand I found that there are so many sailors here, in all types of sailing boats, mostly keeler, perhaps even more sailors than golfers. However, most of the sailing boats here are larger yachts with fixed keels and they cost a lot of money just to berth them at the marina. (a parking space or berth can cost up to 6K, depending on size and location!) Keel boats are great; but they are very expensive to maintain! I compromised by buying a trailer yacht. The retracted centre board made it easy to winch the yacht onto a road trailer for towing it and parking it on the front lawn.

Normally a trailer yacht sits on its trailer and is stored on the front lawn where it is easily accessible, especially during the winter months. I spent a great deal of time working on small improvements on the boat and it is a most rewarding past-time especially for a retired person. It helps to pass the time during the winter months.


One big disadvantage of having an unusual hobby like sailing was the fact that I could not sell all my dinghies when I was ready to emigrate to New Zealand in 1995. Eventually Eugene was able to sell the whole lot to one buyer in 1999 for 1.5K! Eugene was spending his holidays back home one year trying to look for a vacation job while he stayed in the old house in Pujut. Kong Teck employed him as a mechanic for a while; but he soon ran out of money and he was very motivated at that time to find some pocket money! His colleagues introduced a buyer from Krokop. Must be his birthday and Eugene’s too! Just the Laser alone was worth that much money, lucky buyer! Lucky Eugene. Lucky me too! He got rid of all my boats in Borneo in one shot! Win-win for everyone!