Grand Canyon Dory in Maine

Okay, so it's been a while. A massive computer crash, a few river trips, some travel, and life--they kinda get in the way sometimes. 

Soooo, after I left Novas Scotia I went back to WoodenBoat School and met up with Mike Bridges, my assistant for the Grand Canyon Dory course. Dinner on a stick.

We got the main bay all set up for our poor, unwitting students.

And boom. Off we go. Our plan is to loft, build, deck, paint, and float a Briggs Grand Canyon Dory in ten days. Wish us luck. Here we are drawing up the lines, correcting them, and pulling off all the rib dimensions and angles.

Scarfing up floor and sides.

Building ribs, sanding and staining them.

Gluing up a floor.

Day three: Assemble the hull.

Day four: bottom on.

Our friends on the Mary Day sailed in and took us out for dinner at Cornhenge.

Mark Kaufman stopped by with the coolest little motorboat in the Milky Way--A Crandall Midget Flier. He built it from plans in a 1938 Motor Boating magazine. I want this.

Day five. finish off the exterior and put on the chines.

We really did take the weekend off. Mike brought his McKenzie boat, so we took it up and ran the tidal Blue Hill Falls inbound, rowed around the salt pond for a few hours while the tide reversed, then ran the rapid outbound.

Monday, day six. Back to work. Roll her up, cut the sheer, begin interior framing.

Framing deck work and cutting in gutters.

The Mary Day returns and we're for another visit. And a Maine sunset.

Mike had to get in on the action with his McKenzie.

Deck Framing

Spiling on the decking.

Things get a little slower at this point. Glassing deck joints, installing hinges and latches and so forth.

We did an evening shift and painted the decks. And what the hell, why not a red stripe?

Day ten. Raging into a finale. All hardware on.

We even quit a little early and headed down to the waterfront. We had planned to roll it, but it was cold and rainy. So we rolled it anyhow. Woot woot!

Will, second from right, won the lottery. He named her the Monongahela.

Monongahela is heading to Virginia.

Time to head south. Here is Sam Manning's dory. Sam, one of the great boat artists, illustrators, boatmen, a true gentleman, and maybe the world's greatest sculler, passed on a few days earlier. 

I stopped by the open house at the Lie-Nielsen tool factory and ran into Douglas Brooks, who will teach me the art of Japanese Boatbuilding in Port Townsend in August. We'll build one of these wacky boats.

Can't pass by the Lowell Boat Shop--the Mecca of dorydom.

I had a nice chat with Graham Mackay, who directs the madness here.

And out to Gloucester to visit Geno Mondello at his dory shop.

His chaos makes me feel so at home.

I spend a couple nights at Jane and Bill's place in the south of Maine--fellow teachers and friends from WoodenBoat School. Jane is a great tour guide. A final visit to the Atlantic Ocean, then back to the desert.