‘Santa Maria’ feared dismantled

The Jetfoil Conservation Concern Group has issued a statement on Saturday expressing their sorrow over the dismantling of the Jetfoil “Santa Maria,” which was due to have started last Friday, according to the group.
Titled “Goodbye Santa Maria,” the statement hints that the dismantling of the longest-serving ferry between Hong Kong and Macau should have happened on March 19 at the Wang Tak shipyard in the neighboring region of Hong Kong.
The group said that, while they have confirmed that one jetfoil was dismantled on this day, they nevertheless noted that “At this moment, we cannot confirm if the dismantled Jetfoil is Santa Maria.”
Santa Maria was one of the two Jetfoils directly purchased by Boeing from the manufacturer known at the time as Far East Hydrofoils (it is now TurboJET) under the initiative of gaming tycoon Stanley Ho.
The ferry, named after one of the islands of Azores Archipelago in Portugal, serviced trips between the two regions from 1975 to 2019, without any significant failures or accidents in its record.
According to the group which is knowledgeable of the history of this type of vessel, the “Santa Maria,” is the record holder of the longest-serving jetfoil in the Hong Kong-Macau ferry route.
If confirmed, Santa Maria will be the first Jetfoil being dismantled in Hong Kong.
The last sailing of Santa Maria was a return journey to Hong Kong from Macau on August 14, 2019, at 6:30 p.m.
The same group has previously expressed concerns over the dismantling of at least two other vessels of the same type, including the Jetfoil One named “Flores.” This Jetfoil entered into operation in 1974 in Hawaii, and was later acquired by Far East Hydrofoils for operation along the Hong Kong-Macau route in 1978.
At that time, two other Jetfoils were already serving this route – the “Madeira” and “Santa Maria.”
In August last year, a rumor suggested that TurboJET was planning to sell its retired vessels Flores and PS-30 hydrofoil “Balsa” for HKD700,000, which began a heated, ongoing discussion on the importance of preserving the historical vessels.
At that time, TurboJET denied the news in a statement, but on September 29, a video surfaced online showing that Balsa has been scrapped in Wang Tak. The group also noticed that Flores has been moved to Wang Tak on or before October 9, leading to fears it had met a similar fate.
The Jetfoil Conservation Concern Group added that due to the pandemic, the Hong Kong-Macau ferry route was forced to halt services that, as of now, has lasted for over a year. The group said that this fact contributes to their “growing concerns that the once-proud Jetfoil fleet will never return to service, even after the lift of the travel ban between the two cities.”
The service, already affected by a passenger shortage since the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, is now considered to be in danger.
“We are expecting more Jetfoils to be dismantled in the near future,” they concluded.