NE DAY while hiking in the woodsof southeastern Massachusetts with

my young sons, we came to a cranberrybog reservoir and spotted a boatlikeshape in its depths. We pulled it ashoreand found it to be the battered remainsof a little dory. A real old-timer, withframes made of natural crooks of applewood, pine planking and clinched boatnails. Easily 50 to 75 years old and ob-viously the product of a master dory-builder!

She was too far gone to rebuild, butwe covered her bottom with poly-ethylene plastic to make her float longenough to try out. And as we had an-ticipated from the looks of her, sheproved to be one sweet little rower. Atthe same time, she was wide enoughacross the bottom to have none of the"crankiness" for which dories are bothfamed and feared.

Using her as a guide, we built a newdory. This reincarnation is just as sweeta rower—and not as fussy to build as

90

you might suppose. Build her as a utilityboat, as a tender, as a silent sneak-up-on-'em fishing skiff, as a trainer andfun-boat for the kids—or just as a con-versation piece. The first time you takeher out you'll be flabbergasted at howeasily she darts along with light pullson the oars.

Of course, she can also be sculled—propelled by a single oar stuck througha hole in the transom and wiggled backand forth with a certain twist of thewrist. This gives a narrow rig that cansneak between moored boats and dockpiles like an eel.

And as a bonus, she can be sailed;she's just the right size and width to dowell with the rig from a sailing surf-board or dinghy—say something be-tween 45 and 65 sq. ft. area. If you don'tcare to sail in a bathing suit in April orOctober, pop your sailing board's riginto this dory and sail in dry comfortuntil warm weather comes!

We've modernized construction a

Mechanix Illustrated

o

SECOND STRAKE should fit flush into framenotch. Check, then true up with hand plane.

SOLID PLANK second stroke laps over ply-wood first stroke. Note bevels, sealant.

STEM, FRAMES, transom set up on buildingjig. Make sure 2 by 6-in. plank is well dried.

little. Natural apple wood crooks are ashard to find as buggy whips in a dis-count house, so we've worked out aclose approximation of the originalframes using three pieces of sawn whiteoak glued and bolted together. You'dhave to build two or three traditionaldories to get the knack of beveling thebottom boards just right so they won'tleak. So, to get a tight boat on the firsttry, we've made the bottom of sturdy½-in. five-ply Douglas fir plywood. Thepieces left over after the bottom hasbeen gotten out are, incidentally, justright for making the lowermost sidestrakes so there's very little waste.

The seams between the strakes onthis dory's sides are filled with any ofthe modern thiokol or polysulfide ma-rine sealants that come in tubes. Spreadon easily with a common caulking gun,they set into a tenacious rubberlikematerial that fills voids easily and pro-duces watertight joints. We used woodscrews instead of clinched nails tofasten the strakes together. They holduntil the sealant has set, after whichyou've got a boat that'll stay togetherdependably.

Make the three transverse framesfirst. White oak is best, althoughPhilippine mahogany would be strongenough and easier to work. Lay out theframe drawings full size on a sheet ofplywood, showing both port and star-board sides. Weight down the parts asyou drill and tighten them to be surethat symmetry is retained. We usedwater-mix plastic resin glue, which isthoroughly water-resistant enough forthis sort of boat—but suit yourself ifyou prefer a more exotic kind.

Use a straight and thoroughly dry 2by 6-in. plank for the jig's backbone;start with a wet one and by the timeyou're ready to assemble the boat it'llbe almost as crooked as an arthriticsnake.

Now get out the plywood bottompanel and rough out the transom. It'ssmart to double-check the bottomwidths of your three frames against thewidths you lay out on the plywood—

92

leave say ¼-in. surplus to allow forplaning down later. But go rather easyat the widest part of the bottom panelas you must leave the trimmed pieceswide enough for the two lowermoststrakes!

Make stem and transom knee and alsosaw out the transom. This is a hard com-ponent to depict clearly on plans be-cause of its extreme rake and the waythe rides angle in rather sharply to joinit. However, you go by the outside di-mensions; make the whole thing an inchor more oversize so that you can planeit down to those dimensions while stillgetting the angles necessary for thesides to lay onto it snugly. To save hunt-

ing down a piece of 1¾-in. oak or ma-hogany plank for the stem, it's quite allright to laminate two 7/8" boards withwaterproof glue.

Lay the three frames into theirnotches on the backbone. Attach thestem and [Continued on page 120]

20"

¾"x CLAMP

C.L.½" OR ¾"BLOCKING

2" GRAPH SQUARES

25"

9/16" PINE16½"

C.L

1¼"

ALL LAPS1¼" WIDE

21½"

1¼"

15½"

OAK SIDE PIECES

C.L.

15"BOTTOM PIECES

x 2¼"OAK

13½"

HALF LAP BOTTOMS & SIDESFRAME 3

1x3 HARDWOOD FRAMING

1" OAKDOUBLER

3"

14"

¼" x 1½" GALV. CAR. BOLTSFRAME 2

18"

TRANSOM

9/16" PINE

SECT. "B"

OAK CHINEx 2"

½" PLY12"

½" PLYFRAME 1

B

2½"

24" A

SECT. "A"

23"

6"

2 INCH SQUARES 24"

½" PLYW

TRANSOMOUTSIDE VIEW

½" PLYW

50°

KEYHOLEOAR SLOT

SECTION "C"

1x2 HARDWOODFRAMING

1x3

C

TRANSOMINSIDEVIEW

2 INCHSQUARESSTERN KNEE 2" OAK

DRAW CURVE WITH AID OF BATTEN

33½" 14½" 10½"

1"

STERN130"

33½"

GROOVES FOR FRAMES x 2¼"6½"

26½"

1"BOW

BACK BONE OF JIG 2x6 STRAIGHT DRY PLANK93

STEMCAP

STEMSEE DET.

MAST STEP BLOCKS

MAST

15" TO 16"

OARLOCK SOCKET

CAP—½" OAK x 2½" x 8"

1¼" OAK x 2" x 6"BLOCKING

SEAT RISER

TRANSOM OPENINGFOR SCULLINGOR STEERING OAR

SECTION

TOP VIEW

STERN KNEESEE DET.

FRAME

31"

DAGGER BOARD11" X 40"

33½"33½"

20°

CASE KERFS IN THWARTS

KEEL SHOE¾" x 2¼" OAK

32"

BREAST HOOK2" OAK

FILLER BLOCK4

1 RUB RAIL 2 3TOP STRAKE

TRANSOMSEE DET.

C.L.

1 X 2 PINECLAMPPLY DOUBLER

STRIPSTHWARTS¾" x 11½" PINE

STEM

C.L. C.L.

3/8" x 2" OAKCHINE

13½"

RUB RAILTO SUIT OAR¾" x 1½" OAK

TOP STRAKE9/16" PINE

BOTTOM VIEW

BOTTOM½" PLYWOOD18"

KEEL SHOE¾" x 2¼" OAK12"OAK

STEM CAPTO SUIT

BOTTOM STRAKE½" PLYWOOD

CENTER STRAKE 9/16" PINE

[Continued from page 93]transom temporarily with screws and makesure they are plumb and square. Lay thebottom plywood in place. Numbers 1 and3 frames will need a little bevel planedonto their bottoms to fit snugly against theplywood due to the slight rocker in thedory's bottom.

Using a long, limber batten as a guide,rasp the outer faces of the side membersof Nos. 1 and 3 frames to an angle so theplanking will butt snug against the frames.Using a yardstick as a guide, plane downthe edges of the bottom plywood to thesame angle as the flare of the sides.

Now to deterrorize the process of lap-straking! Take one of the long "scraps"left after getting out the bottom panel andlay it onto the side of the boat.-The straightedges of these scraps, not the curved edgesyou sawed in getting out the bottom, gouppermost—remembering here that theboat is upside down. Due to the flare inthe sides, as you bend these lengths ontothe boat you will find that those straightedges develop an appreciable curve andwill fit right into the first "steps" in theoutside edges of the side frames. If yourluck tends to be bad, at worst you mighthave to cut down or shim up one of thesesteps a little. Put one of these strakes ontemporarily, then, with a few screws.

With a pencil held flat against the bot-tom, make a line on the inside of thisstrake, remove it and saw along the line

leaving just a little surplus that can beplaned off later. Do the same on the otherside.

You'll now have several plywood scrapsfrom which it'll be possible to get out thedoubler strips that go around the edgeof the bottom to facilitate gluing andscrewing the sides and bottom together.Glue and screw these strips on, buttingthem against the three frames. Leaveenough "overhang" to allow them to beplaned to the same bevel that has beenput on the bottom edges.

One at a time, clamp on the boards thatform the second strakes, lapping them atleast 1¼-in. over the lower plywoodstrakes. Using the edges of the bottomstrakes as guides, from underneath theboat mark a long, sweeping line on the in-side of each of the second strakes. Alsowhile underneath, make pencil markson the boards at the points wherethey lie against the "steps" in the sideframes.

When the boards are removed there'llbe one solid line and one "dotted line"that can be made full and sweeping witha limber batten held down on the frame

marks. Bandsaw the strakes to shape.Clamp port and starboard ones togetherand plane their edges so both are just alike.And there are your strakes, complete withsweeping curves and taper and with verylittle sweat! Repeat the process for the toprow. Set a try square for 1¼-in. and drawlines on the strakes to serve as guides forplaning down the areas where the strakesoverlap.

You can use either hard-setting glue ornon-hardening sealant at the joints be-tween bottom plywood and the frames, andbetween the bottom and the side strakes.Mostly, 1¼-in. No. 8 flat head brass woodscrews are used, except near the ends ofthe strakes where there's more bevel and1-in. or even ¾-in. screws are better.

Seat support rails are next, after theboat is turned over, and there's a trick ortwo here. Note that they flare out a lotwhere they are attached to the frames. Ifthey were made straight, it'd be murderand then some to try to force them to be"straight" as seen in the side view. So, getsome scrap ¼-in. plywood perhaps 8-in.wide and a little longer than the rails.

[Continued on page 124]

[Continued from page 121]Press it into place and attach temporarilyto the inside of Frame 2.

Find a box or something 9-in. high andset it inside the dory. Rest a straight-edgeon the box and slide this rig back andforth to mark the plywood. When the ply-wood is taken out it will have a sweepingcurve marked on it. Use this as a guideto bandsaw two seat rails out of a wideboard. These rails will have about threeinches of bow in them and when in placethey will be "straight" as seen from theside.

For sailing, we made two holes in theforward thwart and fitted two mast stepson the bottom so the mast could be shiftedif necessary to get best trim. Hardwoodblocks about 6-in. by 6-in. with appro-priate holes in them are glued and boltedto the bottom to serve as mast steps.

If your mast is "bendy," a removablecross brace set between the top ends ofFrame 1 may be needed to hold it upright,as the seat, made for rowing, may be a littlelow to support such a mast firmly.

It's hard to come up with a neat andhandy rudder on a dory's raked transomso, all things considered, an oar seems thebest method of steering. The oar port inthe transom is "keyhole" shaped so theoar can be run through from inboard. Asteering oar is advantageous in close quar-ters since with it, the boat's stern can be"rowed" to come about quickly.