Making of the ultimate sail-and-oar boat: The Deblois Street Dory

For the past few years, I have been working on a dory design, the Deblois Street Dory. Hull #1 was built and launched in 2010. The builder/owner sails and rows often during the season in Casco Bay, Muscongus Bay, and Penobscot Bays on the Maine Coast. Here is one of my favorite shots:

The idea was to draw a dory that was somewhat updated in the style of todays recreational sail-and-oar boat. She has a little more stability initially than a typical Swampscott. She'll be solid or plywood planked, with flotation chambers under fore and aft (below sheer) decks, and will come in kit form or be built from scratch with a plans set. There will be half-a-dozen rig choices as well as a inboard engine well. The Maine Island Trail was a consideration in designing the boat: I wanted to be able to camp cruise the trail in a purpose built boat that rowed and sailed well. This first hull was the huge success I needed to be ready to put in the huge commitment necessary for the next phase: drawing the boat in CAD. I started with the hull and getting the lines just right. This takes awhile for me because I have a very clear vision of what I want and won't settle for anything less. 

I am now finishing the computer modeling phase of the interior and strongback. The original hand drawn plans were reproduced in a CAD program called Rhino. The boat hull, interior, hydrostatics, sail rigs, and strongback are all modeled in 3D. This will be used to make the layout drawings for the plans and the 2D CAD drawings needed to cut the parts on a CNC machine. Here is a screenshot of the interior model: