Early Sail in Quang Yen
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- Soon after launching, the builder, Mr. Le Duc Chan took the new boat out into the main stream of the river for a short shake down. The building site is up a short dredged slip off the Chanh River, on the south bank, about 4.7 km below the town of Quang Yen, or 7.5 km above the river's mouth in Halong Bay. Fishing junks like this one worked in Halong by by the hundreds up until about 1990, when engine powered boats (like the ones seen tied up in the video) finally took over. The last of the men who actually built and sailed them for a living are old men now or gone. Mr. Chan, the builder of this boat apprenticed to his father and his grandfather when he was sixteen, and except for three years during wartime he has built boats on this site ever since. Now in his late sixties, he is still a vigorous man working every day with a good crew in the yard. The boat was built at the behest of an archaeologist, Dr. Nguyen Viet, who has been interested in the prehistorical boats of Vietnam, and realized that the chance to record construction of a traditional sailing junk was likely to come to an end within the next few years. He funded the project and had the entire construction sequence filmed and photographed, 8 to 10 hours per day for the entire two month construction period. During construction and when construction was complete, a naval architect, Mr. Do Thai Binh and associates did a detailed takeoff of the build and documented the vessel for its registration. Mr. Binh is a staunch supporter of Vietnamese traditional boat building and sailing and is working toward a National Maritime Museum for Vietnam.
This video was captured by Mr. Chan's son.
Beautiful. Reeling back the years.
I was thrilled to learn that international friends were interested in this type of boat. Currently in Vietnam very few people know how to build sailing boats, it is really beautiful and unique.
Hello Quyen, I'm very glad you enjoyed the video. Actually many people outside Viet Nam and China are interested in "junk rigged" sail boats, and there's a lot of experimentation and actual long range sailing going on. You might enjoy the "Junk Rig Association" www.junkrigassociation.org, which is very international, though its headquarters are in England. I spent 13 long trips through Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia, and this was the only junk rigged sailing vessel I ever found. Any sort of sailing boat is very rare now in your part of the world, though there are a few small fishing boats still sailing at least part of the time along the beaches of Thua Thien-Hue. Look for my book, "Classic Wooden Fishing Boats of the Vietnamese Coast", being published by the Women's publishing house in Hanoi.
@@kenpreston6699 I am very touched!
I used to find and read the book "Sailing in Indochina (Voiliers d''Indochine)" by JB.Petri, published from the colonial Indochina period. Unexpectedly you are also another author of Vietnamese boats. A rare enthusiastic foreigner! Many thanks for your dedication!
Absolutely GORGEOUS!
That vessel is poetry under sail.
Indeed, she was a very pleasant boat sailing, pretty to look at from on board or at a distance, and a nice boat to sail.
it's extremely keen !
Hello I come from Vietnam. This is called a folding sailboat (JUNK SAIL SHIP). This sail was learned from the ancient Chinese. Countries like China, Korea, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam all have this type of boat. However, the shape of the sail is different. The Vietnamese sails resemble those of a bat. The Chinese sails have a square trapezoid. Japanese and Korean sails are rectangular in shape.
What's the purpose of the sail shape?
@@TheMattjudo26 This shape of sail can more efficiently utilize wind from main different directions, combined with a rotating mast. In some cases, it can even sail against the wind, rather than relying solely on the wind from behind, as in European sailboats. The triangular design of modern sailboats also follows the same principle
Beautiful boat and sails!
I love junks. But nobody has posted them. I hope you bring more of these to your channel so I subscribed. Please don’t let me down.
Sadly, I will probably not post any more junk photos or videos. In Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia, where I have mostly traveled, this one example is the only one I know of and it is now converted to motor power (ugly). If you are interested in junk rigs, you might want to join the Junk Rig Association (google it). They are a very active and dynamic group of people all over the world sailing and experimenting with junks. They have an excellent website and numerous advantages to joining. . .only 7 British pounds per year I think. . .excellent value!
She's truly amazing, her sail cloth seems to be very light and stretchy resulting in the most beautiful camber. Keep up the good work.
Hi Rael, I can take no credit for the boat or the video, other than that I patched together several bits of cell-phone video made that day by Mr. Chan's sons and workmen. The sailcloth was an inexpensive synthetic, of a weight about right for a pair of trousers, dyed at the factory, not "tanned" in the old manner. I suspect it was chosen for price only, since I think the owner really had only limited interest in operating the boat. . .as an archaeologist he mainly wanted to document the building methods. She's certainly a lovely thing, a pleasure to sail, very well mannered and slippery. My primary interest the past dozen years or so has been documenting all the current wooden fishing and freight vessels in Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos, which lead to my chance to meet the principals and go for two sails on the boat a little after this early-days video. I like your proa and your blog!! Thanks for writing. kp
Classic beautiful wonderful sailing skills
An absolutely beautiful vessel!
It's the nicest junk I have seen till now.
Also nice for modeling
I agree with you, she looks just like a junk rigged work boat ought to. And, she's a pleasure to sail. There is a set of drawings in existence that you might use for making a model, though my impression is that the boat as built is slightly different from the drawings. There was an article in Woodenboat magazine a couple of years ago with more photos, including some during the construction, and the sailplan drawing. Thanks for writing.
She is a beautiful boat! Thanks for sharing her!
Hello Roy, glad you like her. It was a rare chance to see the boat, sail on her for a bit, and visit at length with both the builder and the gentleman who sponsored the construction. Best, Ken
@@kenpreston6699 Great opportunity! I am drawn to unique boats and older builds! She sails beautifully! Take care Ken!
Elle est un magnifique témoignage d'un savoir-faire ancestral qu'il faut faire perdurer. Bravo et merci de faire partager cette video !
Thank you, I also felt some record needed to be made. At the time this boat was built there was the possibility of building a fleet of ten or twelve, to sail as advertising and publicity for various potential owners, but as far as I know, nothing has actually come of that, so this boat will probably be truly the last of her kind.
Merci de voter réponse / Thank you for your reply. It is a pity that this junk boat sould be the last... The sailing junks are fabulous boats whose ancestral know-how is no longer to be demonstrated. With us in France Dimitri le Forestier knew this and drew plans of pleasure junks of several sizes that could interest the public (you can see his website "jonquedeplaisance.net" (in French or in English). But people do not know this type of rigging which is so obvious and logical. In Asia, navigators knew how to go upwind well before European countries. Junks deserve more attention. Thank you very much again.
beautiful and handled expertly!
Hi Ken, I sent you a comment on your blog.
Beautiful ship. I plan to build a slightly smaller version and would like to get in touch with the ship builder or Dr. Nguyen.
Greetings Chris
just splendid
A beautiful design
You mentioned that Dr. Viet documented the entire build process. Is that available somewhere on UA-cam? It would be great to see that process in detail. Also, the boat appears to be very shallow in draft, so I assume there's no ballast? Any stability problems as a result?
First, Dr. Viet's documentation has not been published in any form that I'm aware of. At one point he considered paying one of his associates to copy it all for me (still photos and videos) but nothing came of it in the end. He was in fragile health last time we spoke and I have not had a response to my most recent letters. It is quite possible that the bulk of his documentation is or will be lost. As for stability, there is of course limited "ultimate" stability in the manner of ballasted sailing yachts, but from a working standpoint, she's an end point of a very long traditional evolution and works very well for her intended service. As an example, apparently a large number of these made the voyage to Hong Kong during the period of the Vietnamese migration after re-unification in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The type was used extensively both for local fishing and freight in the north of the country. She's really quite beamy, and with a lot of flare to her topsides. . .sort of a blunt bowed sailing dory really. I did publish an article on her with more details in Woodenboat magazine a couple of years ago, you can probably get a single copy of that if you'd like to follow up.
Gorgeous boat.
Very wise to keep Vietnam culture
Amazing ship !
A legjobb hatásfoku... máig..
i spent a lot of time in Cuu Long---Nine Dragons--the Mekong Delta. Watching this video made me a bit home sick, The river traffic is so fascinating and really heavy compared to what I see in the States.
Hi, makes me homesick too. . .especially now that I'm home, not in Viet Nam. There is currently a great deal of UA-cam activity covering all manner of interesting boats and efforts down in the delta. Here's an example I'd bet you'll enjoy ua-cam.com/video/aSAxaLplado/v-deo.html. That fellow is doing a great job of documenting the current state of affairs in the Delta!
@@kenpreston6699 i Ken. Thanks so much for the kind reply; I will watch the youtube in a few minutes. May I ask what got you to VN in the first place? I went in 1963 with the army--worked as a crypto operator. I was lucky enough to have a "nephew" in Ben Tre who had a small river boat and he would take me and my nephew Phoung out on the river and to all the nook and crannys along the river bank for drinking Ba Muoi B bia and fishing and to visit friends along the way. For them, it was fun having a Yankee who they knew would be interested in all the little pleasures that were there to be savored.
@@kenpreston6699 Hi Ken. I just watched the suggested youtube video and I was so fascinating---it is so "real life" and the damned video even brought on an emotional reaction in me. Watching her so expertly operating the ghe (boat) and using her feet to steer, and raising the cabin once they had cleared the bridges...........thanks again.
Very nice ship thanks
好漂亮的中式帆船
those sails look way better than any western 'junk rig.'
Do some hull plans exist of this? Or anything that gives a better indication of the wideness and shape of the bottom of the boat?
:)
A set of lines and a full set of plans was taken off the completed boat by a naval architect from Saigon after she was completed. I know there is a pdf version of the plans. If you'd like to contact me off line at kenpreston46@gmail.com, I'll look into availability.
In short though, she's a flat bottom dory style hull with very strongly flared sides. The bottom has significant rocker fore and aft but no camber thwartships. Her bottom is bent up sharply at the ends to make relatively narrow "transoms" I suspect she would plank easily in ply, or sheet metal, aluminum or steel.
Woodenboat magazine carried an article about her, with numerous photos and the sail plan drawing. That was in their issue number 262, beginning on page 38.
May I ask why she does not have batten parells on all of the battens? How are the battens secured to the mast when the sail is blow from the side of the mast?
Also, how are the battens secured to the sail to avoid forward/back sliding?
Hello Toby, in this video ("early sail. . .") the resolution is not adequate to show the details you are talking about, but the other video ("Sailing the Quang Yen Junk") was shot with a better camera and had the huge advantage of being done from a chase boat that could pace along right with the junk. I think if you will watch that one closely (and maybe more than once) you should get all your rigging answers.
The sails are set on opposite sides of the masts, so you only see the rigging (parrels and diagonal chains particularly), on the side "away" from you, but the rigging is the same on both sails, just on opposite sides. The battens are actually inserted through full length pockets of the sailcloth sewn to the sail, and lashed to the bolt rope that is sewn into the edge of the sail all the way around. There is a second bolt rope that is actually seized to the one in the sail and is what you can see as a bolt rope. It is in turn seized to the batten tips. So the battens and the sail are completely controlled with conventional "Chinese" rigging. . .with the possible exception that I had never seen the chain diagonals before this rig. . .but I have very little experience.
@@kenpreston6699 I greatly appreciate the reply. I have taken several screenshots from the other video, along with several detailed images of junk rigging from the net to make a working miniature of a sail, and so far everything is planned out now. Thanks once again for your reply ☺️
lovely twist to the sails , reminds me of the square top racing mains on modern go fast racers , nothing new ? . Do they use any type of antifoul ?
Nowadays antifouling is normal. Back in the 1950s or 60s I understand they routinely beached the boats and scraped and flamed their bottoms.
Hello, what cloth / material are the sails? Thanks...
What fabric are the sails made of?
The material appeared to me to be a synthetic, polyester, or something of that sort, more or less the same sort of thing that men's trousers or work clothes are made of there. Certainly nothing special!
Is this vessel also sea worthy or just for river etc.?
Hello, Yours is a difficult question, since "sea worthy" is defined very differently by different people for different purposes. These boats, when they were the primary fishing boat of the region (certainly in 1943, but as recently as the mid 1980's) actually lived most of their lives in the coastal waters of northern Viet Nam and what is now southern China, fishing or carrying freight. So, they were for use on the ocean, yes. Are they suitable for a long ocean voyage? I think yes, but with serious reservations regarding their construction. Beautiful and well-formed for their work, but they were relatively inexpensive vessels, "the most boat for the money", and so, for example, did not have tight decks and hatches, so a voyage with a chance of heavy water on deck would be risky at best. Further, they were iron fastened with heavy spikes (not bolts generally), and so were subject to nail sickness after perhaps 20 years. And, like all centerboard-daggerboard sailing boats and multihulls, they are not able to right themselves from a capsize. So, if the same design were built with tight decks and hatches and better fasteners, and was thus suitable for routine voyaging in ordinary weather, it would still carry a serious risk in typhoon or hurricane conditions. These boats were frequently used in the aftermath of the "American War", up into the 1980's, for refugee voyages, many as far as Hong Kong. I've interviewed one person, who, as a young person, lived with her family on an identical boat, normally carrying "building materials" from the northern coast to Hanoi. In the mid-1980's the extended family, 18 people total, sailed on that boat to Hong Kong and thus eventually (by other means!) to Canada.
Woodenboat magazine, No. 262, carried a fairly detailed article on the boat which will give you a much better idea of her hull form and details.
@@kenpreston6699 thank you very much for the detailed answer and your time. It sure looks as wonderful as a swan 🦢 in a lake. I mostly sail the Aegean sea for I am Greek. I fantasize my self roaming our seas in a vessel like it...
Wow, that's a beautiful boat!
How well does it sail up wind?
Have read that junks perform poorly against Bermudans. Can Ken confirm?
How well would this do in the open ocean? would it make a good live aboard yacht
Hi, that's an interesting question. This particular example, built to demonstrate the methods in use at the beginning of Mr. Chan's career, building a utility fishing boat to an absolute minimal budget, would not do at all. She's made of typical poor quality wood (typical for such boats) fastened with black iron nails and bolts, with her rigging made of correspondingly cheap materials. She will require annual visits to a boatyard, and access to a beach to dry out on from time to time (something her hull form makes her well suited to do). She's configured as a fish-boat, with a small cabin for family use (yes, they did live aboard). But a lot of her volume is devoted to fish in live wells. Perhaps worst, she does not have tight decks, but relies of good seamanship to keep solid water off the deck. . .not ideal for an ocean going boat. On the other hand many of these were used for long coastwise voyages. . .ergo to Hong Kong during the 1980's diaspora, and I'm not aware that they had an unreasonable failure rate especially considering they were generally badly overloaded with refugees for the voyage. This hull form and sail plan would probably do just fine offshore, though it's completely unballasted and would have to be sailed well to deal with bad weather. . .if it were made of long lasting materials and the interior thought out for that use.