Modified Black Rocker

Now you have to understand that our 11-foot bottom dory, the Black Rocker, is named for the picturesque South Shore community more commonly known as Stonehurst. This seaside village is just a 10-minute drive from Lunenburg, adjacent to the perennial artists' favorite, Blue Rocks, so named for the slate rocks that line the shore. The Dory Shop's longtime owner, Kim Smith, recently built a house overlooking the water at Stonehurst. But for the old timers, Stonehurst will always be known as Black Rocks and its residents are Black Rockers, an extraordinarily hardworking and equally generous bred of people, many of them still fishermen. So when I start talking about 'a modified Black Rocker' my husband wonders if I've sent one of his salt-of-the-earth relatives to some big city finishing school. What I'm talking about, however, is an 11-foot bottom dory with a modified Grand Manan-style stern. It's wider and re-enforced so that a long-shaft outboard motor can be hung from the stern, and it's especially popular with the dulse (seaweed) pickers on Grand Manan Island.

This latest dory, just placed up on the cradle in our shop, is also a bit different in that Jay is building the bottom and garboard of this boat from hackmatack (you may know it as tamarack, juniper or larch, depending on where you live). It's a very durable wood, and one we prefer for dory knees. However, the trees are rather bizarre. Although they look very much like evergreens, with little tufts of green needles and cones, hackmatack are deciduous trees and therefore drop their needles every fall. This time of year, they still look quite dead. Anyway, it's hardy, rot-resistant wood and well-suited to this current boat that is bound for the warm waters of North Carolina.

Dory Plug