Future Dory logs

[egon]

Some pine that may be used for building a Dory.

Egon

[missourihick]

Uh, What's a dory?

[Inspector507]

A dory is a flat bottom boat with flared sides
Dory Museum

[Pat]

Don't forget the "rocker." There are other flat botom boats with flared sides that aren't dories.

Pat

[egon]

Pat:

All kinds of different Dory styles as you well know. Here on the East coast of Canada they usually had staight bottoms till a length of over twenty feet was reached. The most popular was perhaps called a Banks Dory 16/18 feet long as measured on the bottom. My Father in Law spent over twenty years in one of these fishing the Banks off of The Columbia. The last year the Columbia sailed and dissapeared He and his oldest son had decided not to make the trip on her.

Several years ago my wife, other bystanders and I were asked to assist in turning over a 26 foot dory being built in The Lunenburg Dory Shop. It had rocker and was a very impressive boat both in simplicity and implied sea keeping ability. It was destined for a buyer in Alaska.

This type was used quite extensively on the French Islands of St.Piere and Miquelong just off the coast of Newfoundland. They were also used at the turn of the last century off of the East Coast of America for the Day Fishing Market.

My aspirations are more modest but procastination may only result in dreams.

Egon

[Pat]

Egon said: Here on the East coast of Canada they usually had straight bottoms till a length of over twenty feet was reached.

I don't think I am near the expert on dories that you are. I am just guessing but wonder what you think regarding the flat bottom up to 20 ft. I think maybe it was a concession to simplicity of construction but at around 20 feet the seakeeping attributes of the rocker were needed and sufficiently desirable to motivate the extra work.

I thought it might be a matter of scale. If a boat is too long for the wave length and or steepness and has a flat bottom it starts to get slapped around more than just a little. It may be counterintuitive to folks who haven't been at sea in a small surface following craft but the rocker can result in a drier, safer, and even smoother ride even though "common sense" tries to tell you that they would hobby horse without mercy.

Got a nautical phone call last night... A friend called to tell me that he had met the new(current) owner of "Stars and Stripes" (America's Cup race boat), had been out for a trial, and is now invited to crew on her. Those big sailing dinghys, ULDB's (Ultra Light Displacement Boats) are something else. They accelerate so quick and go so fast. .... Uh errr ahhh, sorry I slipped of into nostalgia mode for a moment.

Thanks again for the story,



My sea time was mostly in deep keel sailboats but I got the occasional pleasure of variety. I have even been to sea in a "Gator", a mothership for Marine anphibious assault. I enjoyed your dory story. I miss the ocean a bit but not enough to move away from here. One day maybe I'll get another sailboat and terrorize some of the lakes.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Pat:

Egon is an expert on nothing; plain and simple. He does have two brotherinlaws; considerably older than he, who do know a lot about the sea. One has spent almost his entire life in boats from Rowboats up to Destroyers and later Coastguard vesels.

The flat bottomed dory was very stackable so a number of them used up little deck space on the Schooners. The flat bottom was also easier to build and at 16/18 feet were properly sized for one or two man handling on the open ocean. I have been told they were quite fast sailers when full of cod and layed over on their chine by a very large jib.

Egon