Iain Oughtred Dories

[Erik le Rouge]

Hi forumite,

I am a fan of dory-like boats for rowing and there is a bunch of designs around, from Bolger to Sucher, Atkin to Tom Hill and i could list a whole page of them. But surprisingly I did not see articles or comments on Iain Oughtred's designs Mackarel and Blackfish in the forum, and the woodenboat store sells a lot of Iain designs exept those two.
Does any of you have some info or experice on those two designs ?

[Erik le Rouge]

I found this page onthe net from Nederlands featuring a Blackfish gorgeous pictures : http://www.bootbouwer.nl/koppeling.h...koppeling.html

[James McMullen]

Erik, from what I understand those were some of Iain's early efforts. You can probably still get the plans directly from him I suppose. I think they have been dramatically surpassed by his later open-water rowboat designs which have been much more influenced by Nordic boat types like faerings and yoles. Iain has pretty much left dories behind, and personally, I'd never own a dory again either. The North Seas boats are infinitely more to my liking for rough-water handling.

[Daniel Noyes]

I just took a peak at the lines for Blackfish and I am assumeing that the design is intended as a power dory of some sort possibly for a small out board in a well, as a rowing or sailing dory design it falls short on so many levels I dont have time to go into it here.

The dory designer/builders of NewEngland during the last decades of the age of sail got dory design sooo right. They were working in a environment that immersed them in small boat use, construction and design, they ate slept and breathed theses boats and the salt air of the ocean they worked on, it is no wonder that modern designs fall short of those by the hands of the masters.

[Brian W.]

I think perhaps his straight-sided dories were supplanted in popularity by his Swampscott designs such as John Dory. I have the plans for that one and, regardless of the boat, I have to say that they are the most beautifully drawn set of plans that this "plans junkie" owns. Both it and the smaller Swampscott seem to have had good results.

[Clinton B Chase]

Old conversation I know, but I thought I'd add to it having built all 3 of IO's dory designs, rowed many, and designed one as well. IO's dories have a lot of rocker for a dory and are much, much lighter than a trad. dory. So, they tack better when sailing than a trad. dory. They also maneuver more easily under oars. The Mackeral almost spins...it has a lot of rocker, a bit too much IMHO. THe trade off is that they are much more susceptible to trim than older dories, and dories are traditionally trim sensitive as it is. IO puts skegs on his dories which trad. ones don't tend to have.