Cheoy Lee Expedition Yacht MAZU

After the success of yacht Marco Polo Hong Kong shipbuilder Cheoy Lee Shipyard in China and Maritime Concept and Construction (MCC) has renamed superyacht project Marco Polo II to motor yacht MAZU

MCC’s Marco Polo II project, the second yacht in the Marco Polo series being built at the Cheoy Lee Shipyard in China, has received a new build name MAZU. Literally speaking, in Chinese, the word Mazu (also spelled Matsu) means ‘mother ancestor’.

Colloquially speaking, Mazu is the indigenous ‘goddess of the sea’. In ancient China and in Southeast Asia, Mazu was worshiped as the one who protected fishermen and sailors. Many temples were erected to Mazu during the Ming Dynasty in the 14th and 15th centuries. MCC is very clever with naming their yachts. Marco Polo was a 13th century Venetian merchant who made numerous exploratory trips to southern and eastern China.

The Marco Polo series of yachts are appropriately named as they are luxury explorer or expedition style motor yachts which are designed and built to travel the world, not to merely sit at the dock. With a metaphorical nod to her birthplace, MY Mazu will shortly follow in her sister-ship Marco Polo’s footsteps.

Scheduled to launch in October 2010—remarkably, a bit ahead of schedule— yacht Mazu will proceed on to Hong Kong after her first mainden voyage and sea trials. The new vessel will be available for charter during the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series in Hong Kong in January 2011. This is the first time the Louis Vuitton Cup is to be held in Hong Kong and the excitement is already building. Maybe the goddess, Mazu, will be influential in who wins The Cup!

MCC – Maritime Concept and Construction (Hong Kong) Ltd. – Cheoy Lee Shipyard