Bluenose Dories

[David Lester]

I’ve started working on the dories for my Bluenose build,  and I’ll include that in my build log.

In the meantime I thought I might share a bit about another dory that I have. This one is painted yellow, which I understand is referred to as “dory buff.”

I’m not sure what colour the dories on the Bluenose were. There is some rare colour footage of the Bluenose, but it’s very faded and difficult to make out the colours. In that footage the dories don’t appear to be buff, but it’s hard to say. The MS plans indicate “buff” so it might be safe to assume that they could have been this colour.

 

In any case, here’s this dory. ” It’ about 16” long and it was scratch built by someone I used to work with named Fred.

This started as a little hobby for Fred, but through a friend, he soon found himself supplying them to a gift shop in Vancouver BC. He had to bring that to a fairly quick end however, because he couldn’t keep up with the demand and making them became an onus, not a pleasure. So once he gave that up, he continued to make them upon request for friends and acquaintances.

There are two interesting stories about Fred’s dories –

He learned from someone who had been to the gift shop in Vancouver that the owner of the shop was telling people that they were made by “an old salt from Newfoundland.”  Fred found this amusing because while he conceded that he was old there was certainly nothing salty about him. He was born and raised in Brandon, Manitoba  which is on the Canadian prairie,  just north of the North Dakota border.  I guess it wouldn’t have been as effective to say “an old salt from the prairie.”

Also, Fred had a unique source for the wood he used. We worked at a funeral home which was located not too far from a major casket manufacturer. We had a great relationship with them and Fred would make the occasional trip there and bring back all the free scrap lumber he could use. And I don’t know how he did it, but he even sweet-talked them into planing it down for him to the dimensions he needed!  He always used either poplar or willow.  Sadly, I haven’t had this useful connection for 20 years now, nor would I have had Fred’s ability to finagle custom planing  in any case.

David

[allanyed]

David,

VERY  nice dory and great story as well.  

Allan

[NovaStorm]

Yes that was an amusing story thanks for sharing. I can see why those little dory's were so popular too. Here is a pic I took yesterday down on the wharf in Lunenburg. The design hasn't really changed over the years. Cheers ~

[David Lester]

 

Great pictures! I'm definitely going with "dory buff" for my dories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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