After more than two weeks and – dare we admit it, Jay? – quite a bit of fun,  students from the Picton Castle Bosun School celebrated the launch of their newly-built skiff last Friday. Built of select tropical hardwoods, notably Silver Bali planking, this is no lightweight boat – neither in construction, nor heft (it took a full 10 hands to walk her down the beach!). She’s built powerfully strong with lots of naturally-grown frames and big stern knees too. And thanks to the unique boat lumber, plus fastenings of copper and stainless steel, she’s going to last a long time!

It’s not too often that The Dory Shop gang take a road trip together but that’s just what we did yesterday, driving inland from Lunenburg, across the middle of Nova Scotia and then North to the Northumberland Strait and specifically, the Tim Horton Children’s Camp at Tatamagouche. We made the trip to assist with the launch of the camp’s new Fortune Bay sailing dory, affectionately known as Timbit (Tim Horton’s being Canada’s number one purveyor of coffee and donuts; and Timbits being the delicious donut holes), and also orient camp staff to their new boat.

A technical issue on the Underway section of  The Dory Shop website prevented us from posting photos in a timely way as we built this lovely big Fortune Bay sailing dory for the Tim Horton’s Camp at Tatamagouche this spring.

Jay always says that no two dories are exactly alike, and I’m often commenting that it’s rare a dory doesn’t have some sort of customization for the customer. This can be as simple as adding a stern seat or a motor well, a particular paint job or a sailing rig. Some clients ordering larger dories have wanted spray hoods or partial cabins. Sail maker Jill once crafted an entire tent to fit overtop a client’s dory for camping excursions. When finished, it resembled a sort of water-based pop-up trailer. Our latest dory, a Fortune Bay bound for Massachusetts, features a number of dory add-ons including a pull-up motor well, bow and stern seats with lockers, and a false sole (basically a deck overtop the dory bottom). She’s also fitted with an electric pump to look after any water that needs bailing.