It’s always rewarding to receive a call or email from someone with one of our boats, telling us how much they love and enjoy them. Especially heart-warming are the messages from folks who have acquired an older dory in need of some TLC but who can look beyond the repairs required to the boat that can still be. Often they have questions about how to approach the needed repairs, and we do our best to help them. And of course if they are within driving distance, we are happy to do the repairs for them.

It’s taken ol’ Dory Plug an entire week to post a few more pictures from the finale of our fall dory building course – that is, of course, the launch of the gang’s Handline dory. Very sorry about the delay; part of which relates to my distinct lack of talent for technology. I held off posting more pictures, hoping I would have some smartly edited video to post with them. Seems like that might take a bit longer. So for now, please enjoy some more snapshots of our launch party.

They say there’s no rest for the wicked and though I’m not sure what Jay has done to deserve it, I can tell you he’s been a busy guy lately. Following the completion of our fall dory building class last week, and a gloriously warm and bright long weekend during which we Canucks celebrated our Thanksgiving, Jay returned to the shop to welcome an all-new group of newbee boat builders.

Congratulations to ‘graduates’ of our fall dory building class on the successful launch of their hand-crafted 17′ Handline dory. The boat not only looks great, she performed really well in successive trial rows. And let me tell you, every member of this group turned out to be a very capable rower! 

We’ve just become aware of some great short videos of some of the live performances that took place in The Dory Shop as part of the Nova Scotia Schooner Association’s September Classic two weekends ago. Check out this one of the über talented singer-songwriter-musician, and sailor, Lennie Gallant singing his haunting Peter’s Dream at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTQxvjGCUYo  Or how’s about some blues with Steve Hickmore at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4is1JNdxNXg&feature=related. Check them out!

We have lots of tourists in Lunenburg these days and so lots of folks dropping in to see what Jay is working on in the shop. Right now it’s a little Nutshell rowing pram, seen here.

We’re delighted to report that the first-ever Lunenburg Wooden Boat Reunion held over the weekend was a great success. Two very full days of activity including the Heritage Cup schooner race, sloop, small boat, even putt-putt-powered boat races, displays and demos by boat builders, oarmakers and sailors, shop tours, musical entertainment and much oogling of beautiful wooden boats, wrapped up last evening. Phew!

So the little Black Rocks sailing dory that we had planned to take to the WoodenBoat Show – but then, receiving an order for a rowing dory, took that instead – is finished. As you can see, it’s a sweet little boat with a simple lug sail rig. Perfect for a beginner sailer as the boat provides a very safe and stable platform from which to learn. Plus a dory of this size is easily rowed by a child as young as nine or 10 but can still hold a few people (her capacity is over 1000 lbs.!).

The Black Rocks sailing dory is just about ready (just waiting on a piece of stainless rod for the rudder) and Jay’s taking advantage of a gorgeous summer’s day to do a bit of painting in the boatyard before starting two new prams.

We’re packing up some dories and hitting the road this week to attend the 20th annual WoodenBoat Show at the Mystic Seaport Museum at Mystic, Connecticut. Lashed to the boat trailer we have an 11-foot-bottom Banks dory, what we call our Black Rocks dory, inside of a heavy-duty 19.5′ semi dory. We also have some information about the schooners we are building.