Quick, Cheap Dory build

[RodSBT]

I am in want of a dory that will hold 2 adults, 2 kids and 100 lbs. of gear for rowing on lakes and easy rivers. Must be car topped (100lbs.), total cost $500 max. and a build time of 40 hrs. or less (nothing fancy, maybe 1/4" fir ply all around, some glue and paint it.)

The Gloucester Light dory looks very good but will it float the load without worries for athletic beginners?

I also looked at the DN Goodchild #5258 "Moby Dick". This one also may fit the bill, but having not built a boat or rowed a dory as of yet I am not sure which way to go at the moment.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[TerryLL]

Yes, the Gloucester Light Dory is the right boat. It is a perfect match for your needs. But you will need two of them. And they will stack nicely on your car top, one inside the other.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

I am in want of a dory that will hold 2 adults, 2 kids and 100 lbs. of gear for rowing on lakes and easy rivers. Must be car topped (100lbs.), total cost $500 max. and a build time of 40 hrs. or less (nothing fancy, maybe 1/4" fir ply all around, some glue and paint it.)

The Gloucester Light dory looks very good but will it float the load without worries for athletic beginners?

I also looked at the DN Goodchild #5258 "Moby Dick". This one also may fit the bill, but having not built a boat or rowed a dory as of yet I am not sure which way to go at the moment.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

How about more specifics? Are the kids big or small? Or how much more than 100 lb. will the total load be?

With any fir plywood you are looking at 30 lb. a sheet for ¼" and 40 lb. a sheet for 3/8". A 16' boat made of fir doesn't have much chance of weighing as little as 100 lb. If you opt for a smaller, lighter boat things will get tight in a hurry.
The little boat in my avatar is only 8' long, is made mostly from ¼" ply that is only 20 lb. a sheet but totals out at 65 lb. And I had to build very carefully to keep the weight that low.
Cheap construction grade fir can be used but most of it is so poorly crafted it might cause problems in service. Marine grade fir is of better quality but is not readily available everywhere and it is much more expensive than the bigbox variety. Four sheets of ¼" marine fir and two of 3/8ths would be about $240 where I live. If you can build with less you may have a shot at a $500 hull. But building with cheap ply and aiming for a 100 lb. hull would mean a fairly small boat.

[RodSBT]

Thanks a lot Terry!!!.

And you can come over and explain to my wife why she needs her own dory....:D I haven't even sold her on the idea of one yet and you're suggesting I build two...

although...

..that does mean more fun time in the shop!

...and she might buy the whole nesting thing....

...Hell, she can row her own d@mn boat!!!!

[RodSBT]

C Chuck,

We'll keep the extra load at max. 100lbs. and less most of the time. The kids are kindergarten age so we have some time before they take over the boat. Sounds like I may have to expect dry boat wt. to go up a bit.

Thanks for the points.

[Thorne]

Sure that you don't also want the boat to sleep 6 and circumnavigate as well as cartop? <-- stock joke

The only way you'll do it with that budget is to buy a used boat and trailer. Anything large enough to carry that load is too large to cartop. You don't list a location so check Craigslist and see what comes up.

Here's one for $300 but he'll probably take $200, leaving you enough money for a used boat trailer -
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/boa/1343669026.html

http://images.craigslist.org/3n63oe3p15O15Pe5Sd98q4357f07b3e721d7a.jpg

[banjoman]

Thorne,

You're killing me! That looks a little like an Aeolus boat and at 300 bucks floating is less than I have in the skeleton you saw a few days ago!.

[peterAustralia]

For 2 adults and 2 small children I think you need something about 17ft and a beam of about 4.5ft. Possibly a couple inches wider still.

My dory is 18ft x 4ft. and would be a better boat with these changed dimensions. 4ft is just too tender, especially for young children (talking banks dory here, other boats may be fine with 4ft). Hannu Vartalia I think has a new design 3SD, a bit beamier than his little sister design that i built.

Weight, mine is about 70kg. Now to do it again I would build it heavier. To get 80kg or so onto a car is not hard, especially if you have a long boat. Put a 2 x 4 timber lengthwise from roof rack to roof rack, just above the door tops (not in the middle)

put your boat at about 70 degrees to the car. Lift up one end and rotate it and drop the end (stern) on the 4x2. Then go to the bow and push the boat further and further on. After awhile you can rotate the boat straight, knowing that the great majority of the weight is carried on the roofracks. We used to cover roof racks with old carpet to avoid scratching the boat.

With this method you can get a 80kg boat on a car no trouble at all.

Can no longer find Hannu's website. maybe it has moved, maybe he is ill.... hmmm, odd.

[Sayla]

Puffin holds three crew (how big are the kids?) http://www.duckflatwoodenboats.com/mainpages/gallery?KID=6

Guillemot is promoted as - "A good steady family boat. Nice initial stability, two adults, two kids and some gear for minimal dinghy cruising in estuaries and bays. The gunter sloop rig will be the one for optimum sail performance; the balanced lug will please because of the set up speed and great safety"
Weighs 143lb (? all up with sail)

Tammie Norrie holds four, but is a bit heavy at 77kg (but that might include sail weight an' all)
http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/details.asp?Name=Tammie+Norrie

Sayla

[Bob Roncace]

There's also this one (http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/rowboats/CLC-NE-DORY.html)from Chesapeake Light Craft. Meets your weight and payload requirements. Maybe it could meet your price point if you built from plans.

[peterAustralia]

to Bob Ronance

that one looks about perfect, weight is 100 pounds.
I think that one will be hard to beat.

[JimD]

I throw in my hat with those who suggest you are asking for too much for too little. You'll need a bigger boat and it will be heavier and more expensive than you want. John Welsford says this about his 16'8" plywood dory
Building the boat did not take long, a few hours here and there over a couple of weeks saw her ready to paint and the total cost of about $250 did not hurt the pocket too badly.

I can carry the boat on my own, essential for a boat that will be used almost entirely single handed - she weighed in at 42kg dry.http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/lightdory/index.htm

However I have added the emphasis.

[RodSBT]

Nice boat, Thorne. I could get six in there but may have to resort to a liquid diet for the whole circumnavigation thing. :D If it were closer to Montana I might jump on it.

Those IO designs are pure art, but for this project I'm going for the $500 pickup truck. The IO project will hopefully start this winter.

PeterA, great suggestions on loading the dory, definitely doable.

Bob, the Northeaster has been my base line except for cost, being a kit and all. However with plans and fir ply in hand that may be the only way to go in order to meet the criteria.

I am thinking that a guy could do a basic stitch and glue single chine dory and still meet the parameters I laid out. The boat doesn't have to be bullet proof for punching through surf, just stout enough to displace the load and handle some easy chop.

Thanks for the input guys.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

There's also this one (http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/rowboats/CLC-NE-DORY.html)from Chesapeake Light Craft. Meets your weight and payload requirements. Maybe it could meet your price point if you built from plans.

That's a $1000 boat without the oars, hardware or paint.
It's glued lapstrake. The plans are $99, there is probably about $150 worth of epoxy involved and the design is intended to be built with BS1088 okoume which is $70+ a sheet. Just to accumulate the necessities would eat up, at least $700 and there may be more requirements like a strongback, molds, shipping etc.

[JimD]

More dory plans: http://www.spirainternational.com/index.html

[RodSBT]

peterAustralia, I think this is the site you mentioned above for Hannu Vartalia's 3SD.

http://koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial/3sd/3sd.htm

This is pretty much what I was looking for. And the plans are simple enough that even a retired house painter can figure them out.

Thank you very much!!!

JimD, thanks for the Spira link, but with the free plans on Hannu's sight I think I'll go with those.

[Bob Roncace]

That's a $1000 boat without the oars, hardware or paint.
It's glued lapstrake. The plans are $99, there is probably about $150 worth of epoxy involved and the design is intended to be built with BS1088 okoume which is $70+ a sheet. Just to accumulate the necessities would eat up, at least $700 and there may be more requirements like a strongback, molds, shipping etc.

Chuck;

It's stitch and glue lapstrake; no strongback or molds needed. CLC has pictures posted here (http://www.clcboats.com/shopcam/20090727.html)of a recent Northeaster Dory building class in Newport, Rhode Island. Seems to go together pretty quickly, but then they are working from pre-cut kits.

The plywood in CLC's kit is Okoume but building from plans one could substitute fir, or whatever seems acceptable to the builder. Have to agree with you on the epoxy, though - the stuff costs like gold.

[Steve Paskey]

Keep in mind that the CLC dory would be more challenging to build from plans than you might think. CLC's "lapstitch" method requires a rabbet cut along the bottom edge of every plank. (see: www.clcboats.com/faqs/lapstitch/lapstitch.html ) That's easy enough for them to do ... they're cutting planks with a big CNC-controlled machine. Doing it yourself at home would be a lot of trouble if you don't have a router, or you're not handy with one. To my mind, if you're going to do the extra work required to build a lapstitch boat from plans, you might as well build a true lapstrake design.

Paul Fisher at Selway-Fisher.com has a true stitch-and-glue swampscott, in both 12-foot and 16-foot versions. The 16-footer is on this page:
http://www.selway-fisher.com/OtherDB.htm

[Bob Roncace]

Keep in mind that the CLC dory would be more challenging to build from plans than you might think. CLC's "lapstitch" method requires a rabbet cut along the bottom edge of every plank. (see: www.clcboats.com/faqs/lapstitch/lapstitch.html (http://www.clcboats.com/faqs/lapstitch/lapstitch.html) )

Steve;

Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't seen that page previously.

[DGentry]

I am thinking that a guy could do a basic stitch and glue single chine dory and still meet the parameters I laid out.

Phil Bolger's Long Dory seems like the perfect candidate, capacity wise, fitting your bill better than his smaller Gloucester Gull. They both have proven track records, are quick and easy to build and look great.
Here's a link to a step by step photo montage of a build. http://www.kolbsadventures.com/long_dory_1.htm

I think they are built stitch and glue, rather than screw and glue, if that's what you prefer.

As for CLC's lapstitch . . . it's easy as pie to route that rabbet along the planks. I've done it and I'm not particularly skilled with a router. A router table would make it easier still (as would said CNC machine). It's easier, to my mind anyway, than hand planing a bunch of bevels along them instead.

Good luck!
Dave Gentry

[RodSBT]

Dave,

Thanks for the link. I'll add the Long dory to the list. As far as preference to stitch and glue, it's more theoretical on my part since I haven't built a boat yet, I'm just wanting fast and easy for this project.

...so many designs, so little time...

[Steve Paskey]

Phil Bolger's Long Dory seems like the perfect candidate, ... I think they are built stitch and glue, rather than screw and glue, if that's what you prefer.

As for CLC's lapstitch . . . it's easy as pie to route that rabbet along the planks. I've done it and I'm not particularly skilled with a router. A router table would make it easier still (as would said CNC machine). It's easier, to my mind anyway, than hand planing a bunch of bevels along them instead.

Thanks, Dave. I don't own a router and have never used one, and assumed that cutting those rabbets would be harder than it is.

You're right about Bolger's Long Dory (or Big Dory) ... I have the plans, and it is stitch and glue.