Quang Ninh Traditional wooden boats in Ha Long Bay will gradually disappear in the near future for both subjective and objective reasons.
On August 12, Japan's Nikkei Asia newspaper published an article expressing regret that wooden sailing boats, a symbol of Ha Long Bay and Vietnam, will disappear in the near future, replaced by new, modern cruise ships.
According to those who operate overnight cruise ships and sightseeing boats in Ha Long Bay, the story of "the end of wooden boats" has been talked about a lot since before the pandemic, especially in 2016 when the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province issued a document on the management of cruise ship activities in Ha Long Bay. This document stated that wooden boats operating in Ha Long Bay will have a lifespan of 15 years, different from Decree 111 of the Government when the lifespan of wooden boats serving overnight tourism is 20 years.
After much debate, the ship's age is still calculated as 20 years. However, after the age expires, wooden-hulled accommodation ships need to be replaced by a newly built ship with a steel hull or equivalent material; imported ships must be imported completely from abroad, without increasing the number of beds; it is encouraged to replace two small-capacity ships with one larger-capacity ship.
A wooden boat in Ha Long Bay in March 2020. Photo: Valeriy Ryasnyanskiy/Unsplash
Responding to VnExpress , representatives of the Quang Ninh Department of Transport and the Ha Long City People's Committee confirmed that the locality has never had a policy of "killing" wooden-hulled ships. However, according to UNESCO's recommendations for Ha Long Bay, it is not allowed to increase the number of vessels operating in the core area of the heritage. Therefore, ship owners can only build replacements, not more.
Many cruise ship operators also clearly realize that sooner or later wooden ships "will disappear" because steel and iron-hulled ships have many advantages over traditional wooden ships, being more modern and safer. Mr. Chien, a ship owner in Ha Long, said that ship owners all want their ships to be spacious, modern, and have more rooms to attract tourists. The disappearance of wooden ships is an inevitable trend due to the competitive nature of the market.
Mr. Nguyen Duy Phu, Director of Pelican Yacht Joint Stock Company, which has boats operating in both Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay (Hai Phong), said that he used to own many wooden-hulled boats but sold them all in 2010 due to fear of fire and explosion.
"Wooden-hulled ships have quite a few problems, such as being more prone to sinking than steel-hulled ones and being particularly prone to fire," he said.
According to Mr. Phu, handling the risk of a ship sinking is "relatively simple" but the risk of fire and explosion is "almost impossible to handle". He once covered the ship with corrugated iron to improve the situation but "it didn't feel right" because the inside of the corrugated iron was still a layer of wood. The ship's electrical cables run inside the layers of wood, making it difficult to control fires and explosions. If the cables were left outside, the ship would lose its aesthetic appeal.
Based on his experience, Mr. Phu believes that wooden ships are inherently very durable if built according to the standards of "the old people". However, the traditional method is time-consuming and costly, so ship owners often choose simpler methods, causing the ships to deteriorate quickly, potentially causing them to sink, while the problem of fire and explosion is still "really difficult to solve". Therefore, although he feels sorry that wooden ships will disappear in the near future, Mr. Phu says that this is an "inevitable" trend.
Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong, Vice President of the Ha Long Tourist Boat Association, also shared a similar view and emphasized that the cost of building wooden boats is currently 2-3 times higher than that of steel-hulled boats. The wood used to build boats must be teak, which cannot be purchased in Vietnam. The price of wood used to be around 700,000 VND per cubic meter, then increased to 1.5 million VND and now up to 50 million VND, so building new wooden boats is "already impossible".
Mr. Phuong wants to keep the wooden ships, predicting that in the future, traditional wooden ships could "become priceless treasures." "However, if we wait until the ship becomes valuable, it will no longer be able to be inspected," he said.
Tu Nguyen
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