Dory.....candy (drool alert)

[Norske3]

Why wood?....fruit of the Earth.

Glass.....fruit of the chem lab. :D

The dory...for someone new to building...wanting a good sailer...simple to build ....then this sea-safe design is the perfect beginning...which could lead into a lifetime of building these boats. Built with quality materials...they sell themselves...no?....what are the negative points of an 18 foot sailing dory? What is the best rig? web page (http://www.indoxotic.com/wood/wBfinal.jpg)

[ 03-14-2005, 09:21 AM: Message edited by: Norske3 ]

[AngWood]

Too lovely for words. So how about an image?
http://www.indoxotic.com/wood/wBfinal.jpg

[Douglass]

I fell in love with dories too and bought a used 17 foot Swampscott Dory a few years ago. I find her to be wonderful for rowing but not an ideal sailboat. Also, because of the tombstone transom, I can't use an auxilary motor. (Some dories have motor wells.)

Regarding rigs, the boat had a balanced lug rig when I bought her. I had an awful time going to windward. Some of that may have been my inexperience with this type of rig. Or maybe the sail was cut wrong. But I never did seem to catch on. I replaced the lug rig with the leg 'o mutton design shown in the plans (from Mystic Seaport). Upwind performance is much better with this rig both with and without the jib.

I don't find my dory very comfortable to sail. She is quite tender and requires constant attention if the wind is variable or gusty. For a boat of this length, there isn't much usable room for passengers. The bow and stern are quite narrow and the midsection has a centerboard trunk. The boat does OK with 2 people, but 3 is a crowd.

So, my Swampscott dory is a beautiful boat that is great fun to row single or double and can comfortably carry 3 people under oars. She is fun to sail solo or with one passenger if the wind conditions are right. She is not the versatile "family boat" that I had imagined she would be.

Douglass

[Paulyboy]

Originally posted by AngWood:
Too lovely for words. So how about an image?
http://www.indoxotic.com/wood/wBfinal.jpgWhat part of South Louisiana is this from?
I lived there 25 years ago and had made friends with a Viet family that had moved close to the Bayous just south of the Big Easy. They were planning on building their own style boats and doing some good ole' fashioned shrampin.

[AngWood]

Umm...I don't think the boat is from S. LA. It's in Myanmar (Burma), I think. I live in Red Stick myself.

[JimD]

Originally posted by AngWood:
Umm...I don't think the boat is from S. LA. It's in Myanmar (Burma), I think. I live in Red Stick myself.Are you sure those folks aren't from 'Little Burma', a suburb of Baton Rouge? :D

[rbgarr]

When Pete Culler's "Skiffs and Schooners' was first published, I thought his "Dancing Feather' dory with all her different sailing rigs was one of the simplest, most honest and elegant workboat types I'd ever seen.

The fact that he lived and built in the next town over on Cape Cod didn't hurt either, as far as I was concerned. ;)

In an early issue of WB, an article about Culler's tools and workshop mentioned that most of those items went to Mystic Seaport after his death and a display was contemplated... perhaps even a reconstruction of his workshop layout. I wonder what the status of that is?

I could get behind that as a WBF sponsored project.

[ 03-17-2005, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[Bill Perkins]

I agree Rbgar. I seem to remember reading here , long time ago ,of the tools from one such collection being pilfired ( I don't mean at Mystic ). I hope everything can still be accounted for in this case .

[ 03-16-2005, 10:34 PM: Message edited by: Bill Perkins ]

[Paulyboy]

Ang, sorry about the confusion. I read your post, looked at the picture and read where you were from at the bottom. I just assumed it was a local photo. Don't know where Red Stick is, but I remember Harveysburg, Gretna, Lower Algiers, etc. fondly.

[Ben Fuller]

The Culler boatshop never happened. The big tools and benches were separately sold off, never went to MSM. His personal tools were mostly put to work in the gray boat shop.

BTW one of the things that makes a huge difference in how this boats handle is a tiller or tiller extension or tiller ropes that let you get into the middle of the boat. Something that is not obvious. Tiller extensions really help if you want versatility.

[AngWood]

No worries, Pauly. Red Stick is French for Baton Rouge. ;)