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.

We’d like to extend, a little belatedly, a big welcome to participants in our spring 2011 dory building class, which got underway Monday. We’re always wondering how we manage to get such great groups of people – truly! And this gang also includes some pretty fast learners. At this point, they actually have the dory fully planked (more photos to come obviously!) and will be fitting her knees this afternoon. Jay is highly impressed.

Who says all the fun ends with Old Christmas? Not here at The Dory Shop, where we’re busy planning a special celebration to mark a major milestone in the building of the twin schooners.

A reminder to everyone that if you are in the Halifax area this weekend (July 23-25), you should visit The Dory Shop and a dozen other Nova Scotia boatbuilding enterprises as we display our best at the Nova Scotia In-Water Boat Show at Bishop’s Landing on the Halifax Waterfront.

The Dory Shop was home to quite a time on Saturday when we hosted keel laying ceremonies for the twin 48-foot wooden schooners being built outside in the boatyard by our parent company, Dawson Moreland and Associates. More than 200 people braved brisk nor’ westerly wind and a minus 14 degrees Celcius windchill (that’s about 6 degrees Fahrenheit!) to watch Capt. Phil Watson of the Schooner Bluenose II and Capt. Matthew Mitchell, a 91-year-old seafarer who sailed aboard fishing schooners, including the original Bluenose, and skippered some of the first fish draggers out of Lunenburg, drive the ceremonial spikes into twin lengths of Mountain Gommier.

As much as Jay loves dories, it’s nice when he gets a chance to build something a bit different from time to time. For instance, right now he’s working on a 7’ 7” Nutshell Pram that will serve as tender to the lovely little schooner Kitty Cochrane, launched at the Dory Shop in September. Speaking of schooners, there’s a big event taking place here this Saturday as we lay the keels on two 48’ schooners that will be built in the Dory Shop Boatyard over the next year and some.

After weeks of ‘company’ in the shop, what with our fall dory building course, followed by a second course for students of the Picton Castle Bosun School, Jay is once again back to building boats solo. He tells me that suits him just fine for the moment. He’s got the first plank on a new Black Rocks dory, his radio is tuned to the CBC (as always!) and there are enough people dropping by to break up his days.

Lots of excitement around the Dory Shop these days as we prepare for the launch of the first newly-built wooden schooner here in maybe 40 years. The 33-foot Kitty Cochran was built by schoonerman Dave Westergaard of Tusket for Halls Harbour resident Duncan Veasey and his family. The boat was brought to the Dory Shop for her finish work and launch, now slated for September 12.

So I just got an email from the Barque Picton Castle, still in the Caribbean, currently en route to The Saints from Antigua where crew members participated in last weekend’s Antigua Classic Sailing Regatta. Not being a racing sort (the ship’s motto is We may be slow but we get around), the Picton Castle sat at anchor for the weekend while crew members signed aboard a host of beautiful schooners that needed extra hands. Those crew who weren’t otherwise engaged took the ship’s newly refurbished dory out sailing a number of times.