Our little Dory Shop yard was full on Friday afternoon as people crowded in to witness the commissioning of the five new racing dories. Fittingly, our past manager (whom you all know and love) was able to be there to christen one of the dories on behalf of Comeau’s Sea Foods Limited who were unable to attend themselves. Susan played a huge roll in having the dream of new race dories become a reality, and CDRA President Kelly George made a touching speech at the lauching thanking Susan for her hard work and dedication.


Saturday’s races were great. It was my first time attending the international dory races, and now that I see what I was missing I wish I could roll back the clock to see more. In all honesty, I’d love to roll that clock right back to the 60s and 70s when Lunenburg’s harbour was completely packed with people coming to see the races. The stories I’ve heard from those who were a part of it ‘way back then’ make me feel slightly jealous to have been brought up in the city rather than here in Lunenburg.  But even in 2014, the main wharf was packed, surrounding wharves were crowded and there were plenty of boats out in the water following the progress of the rowers up close and personal. And as the rowers rounded the buoy and headed back to the finish line I got goosebumps each time. The crowds started roaring and clapping and cheering and waving their flags, and every occupied boat on the water was blowing an air horn. The cacophony continued to grow as they rowed closer and closer to that finish line, and finally came the boom of the canon to let us know as each team finished – it was simply impossible not to be swept away in the moment. I tried so hard to video the feeling, but I’m sure you can imagine how impossible that was. Like when you see a breathtaking sunset and try to photograph it, the video footage I captured was decidedly “meh”.

But enough of this and onto the news you’ve been waiting for … the results of the International Dory Races!

Juniors:                John Ernst & Thomas Stewart (Can)

Mixed:                  Kelly George & Robert Fox (Can)

Women’s:           Kathryn Moore & Gail Atkinson (Can)

Over 50s/Masters:          William Wells & Keith Merrell (Can)

Senior Men’s/Open:      Joel George & Markus Schmidt (Can)

As you can imagine, the Canadian supporters were hoarse by the end of the races. And don’t think the clean sweep means the US teams weren’t incredibly tough competition, because they were. The wins didn’t come easy and every rower out there is surely incredibly proud of their performance.

But now the races are over for another year, and with that we need to set our sights on other things – like our dory building course coming up in a few short weeks. There are only two spots remaining in this fall’s class, so if you’ve been toying with the idea of building a wooden dory don’t wait another day! Call me or email me and I will do my best to answer any questions you might have. I have been looking through the questionnaires filled in by past students of our dory building classes, and every single one is full of praise: they all had the time of their lives building something beautiful.

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