Pretty dory

[Hal Forsen]

Recently the wife and I had to go up the coast a couple hundred miles to look at a job and made the trip into a short holiday. I spied this salty dory tied up in Morro Bay. I've seen lots of small work boats over the years but never one quite like this. It has what I must assume is a small motor well just forward of the transom. It was completely workmanlike in construction but is obviously a pretty thing.
Anybody know who drew the lines for it?
HF
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid141/p5f94f58a441e235b4b15f0101df3fa10/f6c040ba.jpg.thumb.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid141/p76e5e4384950db92655e9bc9c416a957/f6c04226.jpg.thumb.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid141/p4e5b09266ba54bfcd7a01305d19f9cde/f6c042e5.jpg.thumb.jpg
Sorry about the image size.
Check it out in detail;
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=3246355093

[ 10-05-2004, 07:28 PM: Message edited by: Hal Forsen ]

[L.W. Baxter]

Here they are regular size, Hal:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid141/p5f94f58a441e235b4b15f0101df3fa10/f6c040ba.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid141/p76e5e4384950db92655e9bc9c416a957/f6c04226.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid141/p4e5b09266ba54bfcd7a01305d19f9cde/f6c042e5.jpg

That looks like a fairly standard banks dory that the builder modified. He sure cut away a lot of the hull to get a tilt up motor. Everything aft of the motor mount would appear to be just decoration, at this point.

A semi-semi-dory? :D

--L.W.

Edit to add:

Better yet, a "Pinky Dory"!

[ 10-06-2004, 12:32 AM: Message edited by: L.W. Baxter ]

[TimH]

Almost looks like a modified Gloucester Gull

[davebrown]

I am grappling with a bit of a related problem. The first boat I built was a Payson's Gypsy. Since this is a rather easy design, I decided to build another one. I took the plans and (somewhat bumbling around) modified it a bit. Since Gypsy is an all-rounder, and I really wanted a rough water, two-man rowing boat, I raked the stern, added a bit more rocker, and increased the stem and attendant freeboard by about 3-4" on the top plank--running off and descending to freeboard at center of boat to 1" of gain over the designer's plans (sorry if I don't know the correct terms to describe this--bottom line is the boat has alittle more freeboard at center and 3-4" more at top of stem).

Since then, I have been learning about the ocean around Monterey, and have made several trips out in my other boat. I now want to hang a small outboard, or perhaps a larger electric on this second gypsy--but I don't want to lose what I Have gained for rowing. If I cut a small motor well out of the back station, and then tunnel back through the stern (to reduce drag when rowing, and keep its original function in mind), will I lose some or a lot of stability?

The dory in the picture seems like it would be quite tender cut back like that.

Any opinion?

[edsr]

DB -
On the typical "tombstone" transom a motor bracket could be a good option without cutting a hole in the boat.

The transom might need to be reenforced to hold the additional weight. I have seen this done to a drift boat using a moveable bracket, raised or lowered as needed. It seemed to be good way to preserve the room inside of the boat without losing the sea keeping abilities.

Several types are available, a pair of parallel bars, or a sliding piece that moves up and down. by using an extension handle on the motor you can move toward the center of the boat to keep weight low and where you want it.

edsr

[Greg Stoll]

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but...

What is the outboard Dory towards the end of your image album?

Greg

[Hal Forsen]

I found that boat parked around the street from my house several months back and I took the photos but when I went back the next day to see if I could find out who owned it etc. it was gone and I have not seen it since. It appears to me to be a nicely done semi-dory built to the plans in Gardner's The Dory Book.
I wish I could have found out more about it.
HF

[Greg Stoll]

Ok, that's kind of what I thought it might be. Thanks.

Greg

[rbgarr]

Putting an outboard on a dory's tombstone transom, or on a bracket attached to one, may result in a very tippy situation when pullstarting the engine unless the boat is heavily loaded (or started electrically).

[Bruce Hooke]

I covered quite a few miles back and forth to an island I was living on in a dory with a motor well much like the one in the picture. It was a traditionally constructed dory so it was certainly heavier than the one in the picture. Here are my observations regarding the Dave Brown's questions and the responses:

1. I did not notice the dory becoming especially unstable when I was starting the motor (pull-start), but it should be noted that I am relatively light and the dory was heavy. A heavy person in a light dory might well have more trouble. I am also young and agile and I was younger and even more agile when I was using that dory!

2. Once you are in rowing position I don't see a cutout like this having any real impact on stability. After all, the lateral stability mostly comes from the middle of the boat, not the stern. There would be less reserve buoyancy in the stern so a wave coming at you from the stern would have an easier time getting into the boat. Also, if the front face of the motor well is below the waterline then it would create some extra drag when you are rowing, just like a transom does when the bottom edge is below the water. However, the motor well is narrow and would not be that far below the waterline so I doubt this would be that noticeable.

3. Dorys of this sort of shape make really bad motorboats. Because there is so little bottom surface in the stern the bow immediately kicks way up in the air at anything over idle speed. Even with a person sitting way up in the bow and the motor being controlled with a throttle extender that allows the person running the motor to sit just after of the middle of the boat, the bow still kicks up a lot at "cruising speed". Hanging the motor off a bracket on the back of the transom would only make this worse because it would put the weight of the motor that much further aft. I'm not sure how driftboats avoid this problem. They may have a slightly wider and less sloped transom than the classic banks dory tombstone transom, which would make a big difference.

One solution is to use a motor well further forward in the boat and build in a trap door that can be dropped down to close of the motor well bottom when you want to row.

In the end it should be noted that despite the problems, I was very glad to have the motor I had on the dory I was using. When you are using a boat to move people, bags of plaster, groceries, etc. in all weather it sure is nice to be able to fire up the old iron wind!

One final tip -- if you are rowing a boat with a motor on it be prepared for people stopping to offer you a tow. Even without a motor on the dory, people were always swinging by to ask us if we wanted a tow (this was in Maine)!

[Ken Buck]

I think people offer to tow anybody out rowing a small boat on the big ocean. I've gotten offers numerous times when out in my dories. I think they've forgotten that oars are a legitimate form of propulsion that some people like to use despite the effort required. If you aren't using a motor, there must be something wrong... :confused: Still, I suppose it's better that others are paying some attention and are willing to offer assistance if needed. It's hard to complain about excess courtesy on the water.

[L.W. Baxter]

Well, I'm going to drag out some pictures again, cuz I just can't help myself. Seems germaine to the topic....

This is how I did the motor well on my 17' Swampscott dory...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid114/p314d0cd0c14a1215c3dc87c135dd0f28/f8def1d6.jpg

The motor can't tilt up... but the benefit is a relatively undisturbed hull form...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid114/pd6f2b65a747ac7c7008f82d24d4420a9/f8def25d.jpg

The bottom of the well is fitted with a boot... I used rubber gasket material, held in place with adhesive, aluminum bar, and screws...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid114/p95c249a551a0f2acfe74dbe149b95585/f8def2d3.jpg

With the plug in place, the well has little effect on performance while rowing or sailing...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid114/p6d8116f71554c51db1327b459949f2a1/f8e1c270.jpg


The plug doubles as a storage box...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid114/pe56c628c0a67a193057505a1b6f49ae9/f8e1c1e2.jpg

As far as a dory like this making a bad motor boat? Well, it won't plane, obviously. But the same thing that makes it easy to row makes it easily driven by a motor. You can't go very fast, but you can go slowly very easily, which can be nice.

--L.W.