Picked up a "new" boat this weekend...

Nate Grace

Nate Grace

Well-known member
Found a deal on a 10 year old 19' Surf dory made by the Lowell Boat Shop in Amesbury, MA. My dad, my son, and I made the trek up there today to bring the boat back home. She is pine on oak frames and is in good condition. Some dings and scrapes here and there, but she is solid. I am looking forward to getting her in the water and catching some fish with the kids. She should make a good sea duck boat this fall also. Work still continues on the Bank dory, and she will hopefully go in the water next spring, or this fall.

What do you think? My son wanted to call her "Sponge Bob" because of the color. The boat needs a good paint job.

Best,
Nate G.

lowell_dory1.jpg
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o43/NGrace42/lowell_dory1.jpg

lowell_dory2.jpg

 
Looks pretty good to me.Fishing,duck tender,row,power,stability.You could row it to Newfoundland.What's not to like.
Have a good time with her.She's a fine work boat.
Fair Winds
 
Nate,
I like it. Bet she came at a fair price too with the paint being what it is. Going to look great with a spring coat on her. A guy down here has one smaller that he uses with the outboard well. Perfect for a small outboard. They ease thru the water at displacement speed.
Have fun.
 
Nate,

Is the box built into the floor for a small outboard? If so, cool design, I've never seen a setup like that. Also, how do they row? Can you tell me (us) some of the history of the dory? Is it a work boat design? Fishing? Is it a design more common to the region?

Charlie
 
Hi Charlie,

Yep, the motor well is built into the floor. This well is a little different than my other dory as it is a bit bigger and the back of the box is angled. The well is a newer addition as these boats were traditionally rowed on the fishing grounds or banks (Georges Bank, Burgeo Bank, Stellwagon, etc). The thwarts or seats could be removed and the dories were stacked one within another. Usually 5 or 6 were nested together on the deck of a fishing schooner. The schooner Adventure was the last of the true double-masted Bank Schooners to employ the use of dories. The schooner would travel to the fishing grounds and the dories would be unnested and then lowered over the rail into the ocean, loaded full of fishing gear (tub trawl lines with 1000+ hooks), and then rowed or sailed to the desired fishing spot. Two fishermen would set the lines and then begin the long process of hauling them back in. Once the dory was full, the men would row back to the schooner and unload the catch, load up with more bait, and then head back out again. When the Adventure retired from active fishing in the 50s, it held the record for total earnings for a boat of its class/size. I think it totaled over $4 million then, which would equate to around $26 million today. Quite a feat! Back when these dories were being produced by Lowells and other shops, they could be bought for $12 a piece.

These boats are true work horses and are extremely sea worthy. Have you heard of Capt. Howard Blackburn (http://www.capeannhistoricalmuseum.org/fisheries/blackburn.htm) ? One of my favorite books is Lone Voyager by Joe Garland. Blackburn got seperated from his boat off of Burgeo Bank and had to row all the way to the Labrador coast. He lost his dory mate and all of his fingers and toes in the process. But, he did make it to shore.

Check out the Adveture website for some great old pics of the schooner and some neat shots of dories in action - http://www.schooner-adventure.org/.

I'll post some more pics and will get some photos up when the boat gets a new coat of paint.

Best,
Nate
 
Nate,

Thanks! Great info. I'll check out the links from home tonight.

That must've been some seriously hard work hauling those lines in and rowing a boat full back to the schooner.

I wonder what that $12 would equate to today with inflation? How many average days wages for a fisherman... Sounds cheap, but I imagine it was a lot of coin for a fisherman back then.

I'm looking for some more summer reading, I'll have to try to dig up Lone Voyager. Just read "Old Man and the Sea" last week, and started on "Moby Dick" two nights ago. They just don't write books like they used to...

Cool boat, have fun with her.

Thanks again!

Charlie
 
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Hi Eric,

The motor can be tilted a little bit, but it mostly stays in the water. I need to build a rudder and tiller for this boat. Some folks steer right from the well, but I think I will get better maneuverability using a rudder. My other dory has a rudder/tiller with yolk so that you can sit at the front of the boat and move the tiller with ropes and pullies. Kind of a neat and different system.

Nate
 
Charlie,
if you like to read about boats look up a used copy of Joseph Garland's other book "Down to the sea, the fishing schooners of Gloucester." It is a great read about the boats and the building of them and the fishing they took part in.
John Gardners, "Dory Book" is also excellent and I think a Log Driving Batau might be just the ticket for a guy living in the North Woods.
Good summer reading.
 
You might want to check our "The Dory Book" by John Gardner. It has a good history of all the various dory designs and variations as they evolved, complete with lines drawings, offsets and a brief buld summary for most of the boats. It is also interesting to note that many of the early dories also were equipped with sailing rigs.

Here is some info on current designs both in tradtional construction and stitch and glue.
http://www.smallboatforum.com/PDFfiles/DoryStory.pdfhttp://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/PR-DrillDr/index.html

And some eye candy of a traditional dory.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=21705

Lowells is still building dories (for a bit more that $12)
http://www.lowellsboatshop.com/slidesshow_surfsail.htm

So many boats, so little time.
 
I saw these plans on another forum and this boat looks just right for near coastal fishing and also would be great for the duck marsh. I could see using this to fish tidal flat areas like Joppa Flats or even some of the marshes down south for red fish. I think this would also make a good boat for spots like Merrymeeting Bay or some of the smaller inlets in the Great Lakes area. This boat is supposed to be very sea worthy and a joy to row. The site offers two models - a traditional strip built boat and then a stitch and glue model. Check them out - http://westlakeboats.ca/.

Nate
 
Sorry, should have been more specific about the plans on that site. The ones you want to check out are the Brightsides Handliner. Looks like a sweet little craft.

Nate
 
I dunno Nate the "Thomson-Malyea Handliner" looks pretty good to me. They did an article on them in a mag a while back and I didn't know where to look for plans. Thanks to you I got a handle on them.

Thanks,
Eric

 
Tell your son that "Sponge Bob" sounds a lot better than "Square Pants" :^)

At 19' that should make for a great fishing dory as well as a nice seaduck platform. Whenever I see a dory like yours I think about "messing around in boast". Like Steve Sutton says.........one cannot have too many boats!

I still have the full size Glen-L plans for the 26 foot "Lucky Pierre" dory. Maybe one of these days I will get around to building it. Those long Montana winters may be just the excuse I need. It would make a great boat for travelling both the upper Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers.

Glen-L's plans are designed to build this dory with standard 2x4's and 2X6's. At 26' with a small cabin and motor well, it would be big enough to spend some time aboard boat-camping. The design can easily be added to and made anyway you need a 26' dory to function as seen in the photo's below.

With a little sanding and some paint, you'll have that new dory of your's in the water in no time, have fun.

Dave

LP-1.jpg

The basic design for running ashore:
LP-2.jpg

And all weather design:
LP-3.jpg

Here's a get serious, saltwater version. Same design, the builder took it to where he wanted/needed the dory to be:
LP-4.jpg

Same boat showing the interior layout. Looks like he went with either a 4 or 6 cylinder deisle engine. Very salty looking set-up and well executed. You can do about anything with these 26' dory's.
KP-5.jpg


Dave
 
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