‘If you look at the increase, it's about 100% every year,’ he explained. ‘So 2005 was about $30 million, 2006 was about $50m, now we are exceeding $100m in imports of yachts. And so, if next year it will be $200m or $400m - in a few years it will catch up with countries like Italy or France in Europe. I wouldn't be surprised to see China in the top five markets in less than five years.’

Mike Simpson of Simpson Marine says there are about half-a-million US-dollar millionaires in China today. Sales of luxury items there are skyrocketing, and yachts are becoming the ultimate accessory of the ultra-rich. Simpson started selling boats in China three years ago. He says his wealthy Chinese customers are seeking a Western lifestyle.

‘As soon as they have money, they are all reading these lifestyle magazines. It's almost like step-by-step,’ he explained. ‘The person thinks: right now, I have this sort of money, and I have reached sort of this level of my success. Now, what do I need to do to show it to the world?’

So obviously, he added, it's the fast cars, it's the Bentley or whatever it is, and then the very smart house, which will probably be French Renaissance - and they get European architects to design it for them - then, of course, the European fashion and, now, it comes to the yachts - the yacht is part of that whole thing.

Shanghai's International Boat Show has already become one of Asia's largest. Smaller marine fairs are held in Qingdao and Dalian in north east China and in Shenzhen and Zhuhai in the South.

Simpson says the government is promoting sailing because of next year's Olympic Games in Beijing.

‘They have the sailing Olympics in Qingdao this summer,’ he noted, ‘and that has really given an impetus to the boat market and they have really been pushing local governments to encourage sailing schools, and marina development, that kind of thing, to try to build up, as we realise now, sort of an infrastructure at ground level, a grassroots development of yachting.’

But Magnan says that despite China's long coastline and many lakes, there are fewer than 10 marinas on the whole mainland, with a total of about 1,000 moorings. But he says more are being developed, for example in Xiamen on the East Coast or on Hainan Island in the Southeast, as local governments realize the positive economic impact of marinas.

‘Definitely,’ he says. ‘I mean, they are trying to open the coastline to the rest of the world,’

And that will create business and it will create a real local economy. ‘A marina is more than a place where you park yachts. It's a real profit-maker for the whole city in terms of brand image, in terms of attractiveness of a city, and it generates, of course, revenues and employment for the city.’

Both Magnan and Simpson say a lack of infrastructure, expertise and repair facilities are some of the challenges for the development of China's yachting industry. But they say the biggest obstacle is a lack of uniform regulations.

The status of leisure motor yachts has not yet been clarified and there is no national system for licensing sailors. If a skipper wants to sail a yacht from one province to another, for example from Shanghai up the coast to Qingdao, he has to get cruising permits from the authorities in each location.