Vietnam Wooden Boats
Dedicated to preserving the maritime history of Vietnam with an emphasis on the art, craft, lore, and history of traditional Vietnamese wooden boat building.
In Memorium
John Doney, founder and president of the Vietnam Wooden Boat Foundation, was killed when his car (in which he was alone) ran off the road and struck a tree on the evening of December 28, 2008.
John founded the Vietnam Wooden Boat Foundation as a non–profit charity with the goals of
- preservation of the history and the building techniques of the wooden boats and their builders
- establishment of a museum in Viet Nam to preserve and display the boats and tools themselves as well as the archives
- establishment of a cottage industry of building and selling scale models of the traditional boats to provide an income source for local people and help to preserve their history
With John’s passing, we have lost a friend with enormous enthusiasm and the capability of bringing difficult projects to success. The nonprofit Vietnam Wooden Boat Foundation has been dissolved and his dream of a traditional boat museum in country and a widespread cottage industry building model boats may never come to fruition.
We will continue to collect photos, books and video to document the history and the modern day wooden boat culture in Viet Nam, but we’ll have to do it without him.
Email: Vietnam Wooden Boats