Iconic Hong Kong jumbo floating restaurant CAPSIZE is COMPLETE!

Manny! Manny! Manny!

How convenient it should sink just as they decided once and for all it had become a white elephant!

Yep, just after laying off the entire staff and moving to a more "affordable" location.

"It sank, boss."

"Ho! Ho! Ho!"

Sum Ting Wong with Story.

[Quote] No one could have foreseen this tragic turn of events. Said Captain Hoo Lee Fuk

That vessel doesn't look like it would be seaworthy on the open seas with waters over 3,330 ft in depth.

Poor insurer.

As the restaurant sank Captain Bang Ding Ow yelled to First Mate Wi Tu Lo, but it was too late

The insurance company is preparing its response.

So, it now sits over 3000' down at the bottom of the sea. Oh well, it'll make a lovely artificial reef for the fishies. If it landed upright that will surely be a grand sight. They should send remote controlled cameras down there to check it out.

Did anyone eat there?

How convenient that it capsized at the deepest spot of the journey so it's impossible to salvage the vessel. They now save maintenance and probably millions in decommissioning fees and could also get millions from the insurance company.

Now I regret not going over to Aberdeen at night when I’ve been there. Not to eat, I’m sure the food was terrible but just to see it lit up.

Chinks doing chink things

I got food poisoning at Jumbo!!

Jumbo is Chinese for ptomaine

The kitchen boat capsized recently, too! Nothing fishy at all. Could an insurance company prove intent to defraud, though? The "undisclosed shipyard"business - don't operators have to file a plan that includes destination like plane operators are supposed to file flight planes? So many questions...

[quote] The restaurant's main boat was traveling to an undisclosed shipyard when it capsized on Saturday after meeting "adverse conditions"

[quote]But as the fishing population in the island's southern harbor dwindled, the restaurant group became less popular, and had been suffering a deficit since 2013.

[quote] The pandemic dealt the final blow, with Jumbo's owners announcing in March 2020 they had accumulated losses of more than $13 million and the restaurant would be closed until further notice.

[quote]Several proposals had been put forward to save the historic icon, but its high maintenance cost had deterred potential investors, with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam also ruling out a potential government bailout to save the attraction.

[quote]Without a "white knight" rescuer that the city had been waiting for, the owner's decided to move the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, the main boat, to an undisclosed shipyard before its operating license expired at the end of June.

[quote]Tai Pak, the smaller and older boat dating back to 1952, as well as a recently capsized kitchen boat, remain docked in the harbor.

Hopefully Pamela Sue Martin wore her tearaway dress with hot pants underneath to make climbing up that Christmas tree easier!

Local press say, "There have been swirling conspiracy theories that human error was involved in the case" and that the HK Government gave permission for a Cambodian destination.

Also some question whether tugs could have actually moved Jumbo to the Paracels so quickly.

Finally, a local insurance expert says, "I can’t imagine any insurer covering all risks or its eventual total loss unless the owner pays a massive premium. . . The owner did not want it to remain in Hong Kong because of the high costs of renewing a licence and insurance policy.”

When this happens in NYC, they call it “Jewish lightning”.

It's the new Krusty Krab.

So I guess its a Chinese junk?

I thought it's called "Greek Lightning," r20. Well, at least in the Midwest and Boston.

Should this be a "Sino Sinking?"

R19 -. Unless authorities are properly paid off, isn't fraud on this level a capital offense in Chinese held areas?

🎵🎶🎹🎷🎺🎸

Has anyone here actually eaten a meal there? I'd like to hear about it.

After the ship sunk, did Maureen McGovern sing The Morning After?

It really is disgusting to think of the attending nonchalance in creating this environmental catastrophe. "Restaurant no good, we sink it, no big deal".

Let’s get Noble House on the case!

This call for a Slow Boat to China medley.

Oh this isn't an insurance scam at all. Not at all!

R28 It was burned not sunk in Noble House.

It burned IRL before its scheduled opening. Thirty-four died. Sparks from a welder's torch.

[quote]It really is disgusting to think of the attending nonchalance in creating this environmental catastrophe. "Restaurant no good, we sink it, no big deal".

It really is disgusting to think of your nonchalant racism.

I’m rather impressed by r31 ‘s recall.

Imagine the toxins being released

R34 The book is a bit of a slog to be honest, but the mini-series is memorable. (The apartment building collapse, like the fire, was also based on a real-life event.)

r33, try harder.

I wonder if the tugboat crews got any footage (they had to) and if so whether it will see the light of day. Another question is whether there truly were adverse conditions. With the state of weather prediction, they could easily avoid storms. It would probably get the insurer off the hook if there's footage of Jumbo going down in calm seas.

I'm totally in awe of the audacity.

All those poor rats...

Sherrrrry Winters!

Da condition shuuuuuu ah advers-ah!

The company now says Jumbo didn't sink. It only capsized.

"The spokeswoman said the vessel had not 'sunk', having 'capsized' all along. 'It is inaccurate to say that the vessel has sunk,' she said. However, when asked why the vessel could not be described as having sunk as the company had stated that salvage works would be 'extremely difficult' because the water depth at the scene was 1,000 metres, she could not provide an answer. Asked whether it was natural and logical to take the ship as being 1,000 metres below the sea based on the information provided by the company, the spokeswoman said she had nothing to add. She also could not give the vessel’s exact location or whether it was above water or deep under the sea. Her clarification came four days after the company on Monday revealed the incident."

And the tow boat operator has stated it was “an accident without any foul play involved”.

(Jumbo was owned by a legendary, colorful family, so intrigue about its demise is no surprise.)

Towing a massively top heavy barge into rough seas, who would’ve thought?

It was tacky ersatz "historical" atrocity and likely public health menace. Good riddance.

I wouldn't cry if Cinderalla's castle (1971) was destroyed, either. It's just a garbage tourist site.

Jumbo's owner says insurance didn't cover its loss.

I knew I remembered it from somewhere! Sadly, it isn't featured in this trailer. Nonetheless...

oh no! my shrimp dumplings!

Too bad. So sad. Now it’s NONE from column A and NONE from column B.

R47 No, Jumbo's not in the movie; didn't exist then.

R49 hmmm..... what is that a reference to?

R51 American Chinese restaurants -- supposedly -- once had menus that offered a fixed-price meal with selections from different columns. Jumbo certainly didn't have that kind of menu.

R52 oh thank you!

My expectations of Chinese people are too much. I didn't expect it to be on the water I expected something levitating in the air.

What an ordinary capsizing of an unprofitable business. I feel let down.

[quote] "No, Jumbo's not in the movie; didn't exist then."

I see that now. It was filmed at Tai Pak Floating Restaurant, which had only been open a few years at that point (it opened in 1952). That Tai Pak location (there were two) later became part of Jumbo (also created by the Tai Pak founder), which was later sold to someone else, and THEN became part of "Jumbo Kingdom" (with several others) in the 1970s.

So that's correct, R50. Tai Pak predates "Jumbo Kingdom" by more than twenty years! I didn't even realize it. But I didn't think I'd be learning about the particular history of Hong Kong's most famous floating restaurants when I got up this morning, either. Thanks!

According to the CNN link at r17, the smaller Tai Pak is still moored at Aberdeen harbor.

Despite not receiving an insurance payout, the owners saveda bundle in decommissioning expenses to take apart and retire the boat. They probably long had removed anything of resale value.

Recall what Jennifer Jones said in that film. Jumbo was not owned by "the Chinese" but by a Eurasian family of exquisite heritage as descendants of the Jardines compradores. Recall Noble House.

While the food looks disgusting (what is that? fermented yak bile atop a lung size dollop of peanut butter on a bed of greens in beef bullion?), the place is over the top old fashioned Chinese restaurant excess. I wish I had seen the place. More dragons!

I lived in HK when I was a kid. A trip to the Jumbo was an experience. You had to take a walla-walla out there and it was like a magic castle. The food was great, with great tanks of fish from which to select. I spoke Cantonese back then, so the waiters were always really nice to this little gweilo kid. Great memories. Also ... there is nothing more pragmatic than the Chinese. That thing was sunk on purpose by mistake.

[quote]Jumbo's owner says insurance didn't cover its loss.

Oh, well then, if THE OWNER says it, then it must be true!

R60 Jumbo is controlled by a HK family through Melco, a company with public shareholders. So an outright lie would not be likely.

Cutting your losses is not the same as didn't cover it's loss. As in enough money to rebuild it.

Did they do a nice jumbo shrimp platter?

R59 - I had to look up KGV and Hong Kong. You must have had the most fascinating and mesmerizing experiences there as a child. Worthy of its own thread, I'd think...

You figured it out! We lived there for almost five years and I attended King George V school. It was a great place to be at that age and in that time.

Do you no longer speak Chinese?

I can still summon up some limited phrases and numbers, my old address and some poems, but it was lost when we moved back to the US. I spoke Cantonese because I bargained for my parents at the markets and they only spoke Mandarin. Zero opportunity to use it where we moved to from HK -- the southern US. And, yes, that culture shock was profound. Thanks for asking. It was a time of my life that was magical. My mother and I went back there about 10 years ago and the change was painful. Now, I'm watching the Communist party crush what made HK special.

Today, June 30, is the 25th anniversary of the handover.

Wouldn't it have been wild if it capsized on Chinese New Year's Eve?

Nobody does garish like the Chinese. I can just imagine what the decor looked like inside. But i bet the food was good.