From the bottom up

I’m going to blame it on the long, stormy winter we’re almost through (I hope), but there’s no question I’ve fallen behind with these updates. In fact, we shipped a Grand Manan dory today of which I’d taken barely a picture and the few I had I didn’t post. Got to do better than that!

With the Grand Manan en route to her new home, Jay has started our next project, a Handline dory bound for Ontario. This afternoon he fashioned the bottom. This is a critical step in a dory’s construction. If the bottom bevels aren’t right and the garboard plank does not join the bottom with a proper fit, the boat will leak.

It’s always neat watching Jay on tasks like this. There’s so much hand-eye coordination that the likes of me can’t comprehend but boy, do I admire it. It’s the same when I go up to visit our oar maker. He’s standing there with some great long piece of wood that he’s ever so gently shaping on his big rugged machinery. It makes me think of surgeons, only these guys are covered in sawdust and don’t wear scrubs!

Can you tell it’s been a long winter?

Dory Plug