Light Dory by John Welsford

Simple, sweet and super seaworthy


Length overall16' 10"5.14 m
Beam4' 2"1.26 m
Draft6"0.16 m
Weight93 lbs42 kg
Hull construction Stich-n-glue
Gallery 5 photos
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URL: http://jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/lightdory/

Description:

It suddenly dawned on me one bright October morn that barring miracles or extraordinary effort there would be no Christmas cruise that year. I’m not sure when the idea first began but it wasn’t long before the notion of a boat for "cruising under oars" was rapidly becoming a reality. One of the considerations of course was time, the way to build boats really quickly is not to work like lightning, it is to build boats that are very simple and relatively small!

The first job was to decide on a boat. I had reservations about the shapes of some craft, the construction method or costs of others and concerns about the seaworthiness of most so design it yourself seemed to be the order of the day.

What eventuated was a plywood dory with a tombstone transom (it’s not really a dory otherwise); a nicely curved stem to force some shape into the sides forward, a strong sheer kicking up aft to a high stern (thoughts of going surfing) with the maximum beam (further aft than is traditional to make the boat run straight in heavy following seas). Added to this is a big skeg for directional stability and to balance the windage, buoyancy tanks under the seats and a sculling notch in the transom and the boat is looking very much the part.

Light Dory

Photo gallery

Light Dory rowing
Light Dory rowing

Rowing two people
Rowing two people

Light Dory on the trolley
Light Dory on the trolley

On the water
On the water

On the sand
On the sand




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Bee   Bee
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Mollyhawk   Mollyhawk
A bigger "Seagull" with a sliding seat option

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