Doris the Dory
Easy to build| lightweight | great first boat
A classic, Swampscott dory for sail-and-oar by F. Vivier and Clint Chase
SPECIFICATIONS
LOA 16’ 6"
LWL 12' 0"
Beam 4' 2" / 36” (w.l.)
Draft (board up/down) 6"
Depth amidships 17-1/2"
Oars 7-1/2 foot | Bare hull weight 100 lbs
Vivier has drawn many “sail and oars” dinghies, inspired by traditional boats, strong, with timber frames, floorboards and seats. This results in relatively heavy and seaworthy crafts, but not easy to handle ashore. With the Doris 5 m, his aim was to propose a lighter sail and oars dinghy, well suited to today use and also easy to build. As most of my designs, it is intended to both amateur and professional builders.
The hull is inspired by American Swampscott dories. Due to the overhangs, the hull planks have a very little twist and are easy to lay down. Also, there is no need of a bowsprit for the jib. The flat bottom allows the boat to be moved over inflatable rollers. The moderate breadth makes Doris 5 m easy to move under oars. The foil shaped board gives excellent windward performances.
Chase Small Craft adapted the Doris design for our used as a teaching boat because it could be simplified and built in a week with our changes. The changes were:
Make the top two side planks glued-lapstrake rather than stitch in glue joints.
Make the interior much simpler by having two simple end tanks like the original, but a daggerboard trunk and single midship frame with rowing thwart to “clean up” the interior.
Built upside down over a simple strongback / building jig set up.
A simple, but powerful lug rig with one sail is drawn, but a sprit rig as well as sloop rig may also be done.
Our version of Doris has a simplified interior, single lug sail, and builds over a simple strongback. The original Doris was fully stitch and glued, but we made the two topside strakes glued-lapstrake to better suit our use as an ideal teaching model for our Introduction to Boatbuilding class.
The original sloop version of the Dory. There will be a simple lugsail rig offered but the sloop and a spritsail rig should be possible.
Construction Photos
Lightness results from the use of 6 mm thick plywood for the hull. Only the sole is thicker: 9 mm plywood. Overall glass-epoxy sheathing outside makes the hull very touch and tolerant to chafe. Inside, only sole and garboard are fully sheathed. We use the straightforward stitch and tape building method for the bottom to garboard joint, but switch to lapstrake for the two side-planks, which means no glassing required above the garboard. There is one midship frame and two bulkheads, one at each end, makes buoyancy compartments. The hull is assembled over a simple strongback that is precut in the kit and sawhorse cradles support the hull after turnover.
Currently, the Doris is only offered to workshop participants who take the Intro to Boatbuilding class.
If the Doris interests you as a boat, consider the Calendar Islands Yawl or Deblois Street Dory