See our skiffs!

A few years ago, Jay took the lines from an old wooden work skiff that had ended up in The Dory Shop Boatyard. By that point, the boat was well beyond repair but he and Capt. Moreland both liked her strong yet simple lines.

We built our first Cross Island skiff (so named for the lighthouse-bearing island in Lunenburg Bay) a short time later and have made a number since then.

Built strong and sturdy, to take an outboard, these skiffs definitely have workboat heritage but are great fun for recreational boaters. Very stable with deep sides, they are great for families, fishermen or just bombing around. And if conditions change suddenly, you can be confident knowing this authentic sea boat will get you home safely.

This summer we have one of these skiffs travelling the East Coast with Capt. Moreland aboard the Barque Picton Castle. We’ve done this very purposefully as a means of showing the boat to potential customers along the U.S. East Coast. In fact, Picton Castle also has a sweet little Black Rocks sailing dory, as well as a 17′ Handline rowing dory, aboard.

If you are interested in seeing any of these boats, please contact The Dory Shop office at (902)640-3005 or email info@doryshop.com – we’d be happy to make arrangements!  The Picton Castle will be at Greenport, NY this weekend, followed by Martha’s Vinyard June 1-2, Norfolk, VA June 7-11, Bristol, RI June 23-July 2, Newport, RI, July 6-9, as well as other points along the way.

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A successful launch!

We kicked off the long Victoria Day weekend this afternoon with ‘graduation’ ceremonies for participants in our spring dory building course.

Once again, we were blessed with a great group, all eager to learn about traditional wooden boats, to get right in there with the plane or the hammer or the paint brush, and to enjoy the offerings of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and our waterfront in particular.

As usual, we preceded this afternoon’s launch with a brief initiation ceremony. This was not to declare these folks boatbuilders - that would be determined by the success of their dory! – but to make them honourary Lunenburgers (capable of squeezing 11 cents out of every Bluenose dime, among other talents).

The launch itself went swimmingly – and no, that does not mean someone ended up in the water! In the face of a stiff SE breeze, Rick and John took the oars and rowed out to the end of the Government Wharf and back.

It went very well so we’re not sure why Hugh is holding his head in his hands in this picture but it looks like the other two are having a pretty good laugh over something.

Then Hugh and John switched positions for a second row out and back before Jay took the boat out for his final assessment. Upon returning to shore, he declared the build a success.

We’re delighted to know the boat is going to have a good home with Hugh at Sack Vegas (inside joke there!), where Rick and John can visit her when they return to Nova Scotia on future visits.

Our sincere thanks to everyone for a great two weeks, and safe travels as you head homeward.

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Dory class outings

Participants in our spring dory course have been working so hard, we figured it was time they got out of The Dory Shop and visited a few of our neighbours in the greater Lunenburg marine trades community.

First, it was off to the beehive that is the Michele Stevens Sailloft in Second Peninsula.

The  drive down the Peninsula is a treat any time of year, but particularly so in springtime. Arriving at the Stevens family farm where we parked under a ready-to-bloom apple tree, Hugh made a comment about heaven on earth. It truly is a spectacular place!

Inside, Michele introduced the guys to the history of the Stevens family, how her great grandfather Randolph moved his large family here from Tancook Island , establishing not only a prosperous farm but also the sailloft where four generations of Stevens have now sewn sails.  (At 96 years young, the shop itself is just one year older than our Dory Shop).

The Stevens name is legendary in these parts, not only as sailmakers but also as boat builders (David Stevens) and block makers (Arthur Dauphinee).

Like most of the Stevens family, Michele grew up in and around the shop where her dad Robert worked. Originally, she didn’t see herself going into the business, though she was always a keen sewer. She returned to the business one summer while attending university and has never looked back.

These days the loft is extraordinarily busy with not only the regular slate of spring sail orders, repairs and canvas projects, but also the building of sails for a new steel replica of the Schooner Columbia, famous as one of the Bluenose biggest rivals (for an idea of scale, remember: Bluenose II has the largest working main sail in the world!). And yet Michele personally made time for a very in-depth tour of the operation, including a look at all of the projects currently on the go.  Many, many thanks to the whole gang for your hospitality!

On the way back to Lunenburg, we also stopped at Arthur Dauphinee’s Block Shop (Arthur’s mother Mary was a Stevens who married a Dauphinee). While Arthur unfortunately was out, his employee Lloyd Zinck was kind enough to allow us a look around this fascinating shop, which is also going full-out these days, building wooden blocks for Columbia and another big boat project in the Caribbean.

Back in Lunenburg, the guys grabbed some lunch and did some work on their dory before we took them down to the shipyard for a VIP tour of the Schooner Bluenose II, currently being rebuilt by the Lunenburg Shipyard Alliance. Again, our sincerest thanks to boatbuilder Michael Higgins who took the gang aboard for a first-hand look at this massive and oh-so-impressive example of the wooden boatbuilding talents of our area.

And speaking of boatbuilding talents, today is the day our gang will launch their brand-new Banks dory. Pictures of the launch to follow!

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A sure sign of spring!

The sun is out, the grass is growing and Jay’s Martha is in her garden – all pretty good signs that spring has come to Lunenburg and it’s also time for our spring dory building course!

In fact, the new gang arrived Monday and so at this point are half way into the construction of a traditional 13-foot-bottom Banks rowing dory – what we call our Handline model.

What does half-way mean? Well, this morning they were already installing the second binder strake (that’s the planks above the garboard) with every indication they’ll get the sheer strakes on this afternoon and maybe – just maybe – start searching through the knee pile for frames.

Once again we’ve been blessed with an enthusiastic and entertaining group. Stay tuned here for updates or for more immediate posts, follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/dory.shop.1

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A little story about dory knees

The Hatts were here yesterday with our spring shipment of Hackmatack dory knees. Naturally grown frames, or knees as they are known in dories, are the defining feature of a Lunenburg-built Banks dory. While other ports built their frames using pieces of wood fastened together with a patented metal clip, ours are cut from a single piece of wood. They are not steamed, nor bent, but instead are cut from the lower trunk and roots of the very strong and rot resistant Hackmatack tree.

For four generations the Hatt family has supplied The Dory Shop with this critical building material. Edgar Hatt, shown above, began cutting knees with his father Arthur and his grandfather. He now works in the woods with his son.

When Edgar was a boy, the family also supplied another dory shop, located near the modern-day Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic and run by the Oxner brothers; two men as well known for their constant bickering as they were for their boats. Yesterday Edgar shared a story of one delivery to the Oxner shop when he was just 10 years old. It goes like this…

“My father had cut down an apple wood tree and some of the limbs had the right shape for knees. So we took them in to the Oxner shop and Mr. Oxner didn’t want them. He said they were pine. My father said no, they were apple wood and that they were good and strong. But he still didn’t believe him. He thought they were pine.

“So my father told him, ‘you take one up to the railroad tracks and you try to break it and if you can break it, I will give you the whole works [for free].’ So he went up and he hit it so hard it pretty near broke his arm [but it did not break]. After that he told my father he would take as many as he could get.”

A great story from a salt-of-the-earth fellow whose spring and fall visits are a highlight of my year!

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A dory for Nantucket

We’re delighted to have Jay back in the shop after a winter break. I’m sure he made some beautiful art during that time (maybe we can get him to show us some more of his paintings?) but we’re delighted to have him back in The Dory Shop.

Right now Jay is building the very smallest boat in our Banks dory line. The Little Sister measures eight feet on the bottom and just 11′ 3″ overall.

This one is bound for Nantucket where she will be used as decoration outside a restaurant.

Now I know what some of you will be thinking – “oh, what a shame! A brand-new boat!” But a boatyard needs orders to survive and if these fine people want a dory for the entryway, we are most happy to build one for them. In fact, Jay will be doing some special customization, including a plywood insert in which to plant flowers and fibreglassing, to ensure the boat lasts a good long time.

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Our multi-talented dory builder

Posts to this blog regularly bear witness to the incredible boatbuilding talents of our team here at The Dory Shop, particularly the work of our master dory builder Jay Langford.

But Jay’s talents extend well beyond the boatbuilding world as proven by the painting – his latest! – shown here.

In fact, this time of year if Jay’s not in the shop, you can generally bet he’s home in his studio on Fox Street (in summer, he’s more likely sailing!).  His work includes scenes of fishing draggers like those shown here, as well as schooners and many, many dories (we think he must see dories in his sleep!). Art critics, as well as many people who’ve spent their careers at sea, marvel at his ability to portray the dramatic moods and movement of the ocean.

Read more about this self-taught artist on our website at http://www.doryshop.com/crew1new.html and view more of his work via The Dory Shop’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/people/Dory-Shop/100000915108918

The infinitely jealous…

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