Finished & Launched Dorys

Completed Dory Buff Dory

Once the Dory is planked, and the cap rail is on, the seat riser is attached to the frames and the thwarts are placed. There are three thwarts however there is place for five. The thole pin hole are drilled, painting is completed and the dory is ready to row. These Dorys row best with 9'3"-9'6" oars. The traditional Dory colour is Dory Buff however they can be painted with other colours, We painted one Dory buff and the other a dark red with a cream interior.

Completed dark red Dory

Rowing the Dory is great fun and good excercise with two rowers and there are Dory Rowing Clubs in several communities around Nova Scotia. The Canadian Dory Racing Association in Lunenburg hold International Championship races against the Gloucester Mass., USA rowers for women's teams, men's teams mixed teams and juniors.

There are Dory Rowing Clubs in Shelburne and in Mahone Harbour.

Winter row

Members of the Mahone Harbour  Dory Rowing Club

Planking the Dorys

The first plank installed on each side

The garboard plank determines the sheer of the Dory. On our Dorys we were able to have three subsequent planks of the same width to reach the topside height. Each plank is beveled with a plane to fit on the plank below. They are bent around the frames and are attached to each other with copper nails and roves with screws into the frames, the stem and the transom.
Once the second plank was on we were able to start removing the supports on the frames and to begin cleaning up the inside of the boat

The second plank installed on each side

As the third and final plank was installed we started to think about the oak for the gunwhale which supports the cap rail and gives the sheer its strength. Traditional Dorys have a steel strap that attaches each frame to the gunwhale. The oak gunwhale is screwed to the top plank.

gunwhale in place and steel straps on frames

Once the gunwhale was on it was time to fill the screw holes and start preparing the boat for painting. An oil based primer sealer was applied.

The beginning of two traditionally built Dorys

Grown Knees

 In the summer of 2012 we built two traditional Dorys. Dorys are measured by the length on their bottom and the ones we built are 15'. This means that they are approximately 20' in length. These were based on Gloucester Dorys with respect to the Lunenburg Dorys. We had some very basic plans of the 15' Lunenburg Dory and much more detail from John Gardner's Dory Book, of other Gloucester Dorys.

Getting wood from Heisler's Boatyard

We also had patterns from the The Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic for the frames, the stem and the transom and the benefit of their finished Dorys for measurement. Materials used are grown knees, Nova Scotia white pine, Nova Scotia red oak, copper nails and roves and of course some paint. The grown knees were obtained in the springtime from the Hatt's in Gold River and we took the museum patterns with us to make sure they fit. The pine which had to be long enough and wide enough to plank the boat (pieces were over 20' long and 10" wide), came from Michael Kelley. Some of the wood he had cut and sawn himself and other lumber came from his boatyard; Clarence R. Heisler and Son Ltd., on Gifford Island.

Transom and knees are set up on planked bottom

The red oak, also supplied by Mike had to be big enough for the tombstone transom, the stem, the gunwhale and the cap rail.

The Dory is started by planking the bottom and setting the 'rocker' which is the convex curve on the bottom of the Dory, the bow and stern are higher than the center of the boat.

Shellback Completed

The Shellback is finished. Here are some pictures that we took before its owner picked it up, it is rigged for sailing and rowing.

Top coat on exterior

Here is the Shellback with its primer followed by two coats of top coat. Nice and shiny. We will be turning it over to finish and paint the inside.

Shellback continues

The Shellback dinghy is planked, and the interior flotation tanks are in place. The aft tank is now covered, and the foward tank is having the mast step installed before the seat cover is installed. The daggerboard case is being fitted. 

Here is Keith at the Halifax International Boat Show last month with the Marsh Cat. 

Shellback Construction Begins

Here are the Shellback station molds set up on the strongback. The bottom of the boat is made of 12mm marine plywood. The lapstrake planks will be 6mm. The stem and the midship frame are laminated clear grain spruce. The transom is 18mm marine plywood.

The garboard plank and first plank are installed. Planks are glued onto each other with epoxy thickened with cotton fibres.

This is the first of two Shellbacks that we are building. Both will be rigged for sail and rowing.