Vietnam 2016 / Hoi An Basketboat

Basket Boats
There are almost no documents on the origins of basket boats. It is believed that during the French colonial period a tax was introduced on the ownership of a boat . Local fishermen were unable to pay the tax, risking their livelihoods.
Necessity is the mother of invention, and so the fishermen developed a boat that was not a boat to avoid the tax. A Herculean task to build a seaworthy boat that was not declared as a boat, the fishermen argued that they were not boats but baskets, which were therefore not taxable. The plan worked and since then these boats have become a fixture in the Vietnamese coastal regions.

The basket boat also shows Vietnamese craftsmanship and heritage of the boat in Vietnam, as the Vietnamese have adapted the traditional design to Southeast Asian waters, to hold the wooden boat together, the Vietnamese construct it with resin and coconut oil , a natural product grown throughout the country , making it cheap to build, the making and use of the basket boat is a skill passed down through generations."

Fishing is one of the centrepieces of Vietnamese culture and many villages rely on living in and around the sea to provide income and food for their families. Thus, even the traditional basket boats have been adapted over time in line with technological advances and policies to support fishing off the Vietnamese coast.

Short documentary about the basket boats:
youtu.be/K1brsAge5eI