Lowell Dory Skiff

For some time now my family has spent summer weekends at a camp on a small lake in northern Massachusetts where we’ve kept a ski boat and fishing boat at the dock. On Sunday mornings, early risers shove off with rods and gear to enjoy the sunrise on the water, and in hopes of reeling in some fish for lunch. For years, the boat we fished from was a 16-footer pushed about with an outboard. It was a cold metal hull, a slug to row, and though we tried to tiptoe from aluminum dock to aluminum boat and shove off quietly, the clamor of feet and oars and tackle boxes banging against the hull reverberated around the lake like so many discordant church bells clanging.

Desiring a more pleasant (and neighborly) Sunday morning experience, we needed a new boat—one designed for rowing that would comfortably seat three and occasionally accommodate up to five adult fisherfolk, could be loaded quietly, and could withstand pounding while moored at the dock. This last was a must: on weekdays, the relatively shallow 150-acre lake is dimpled by landing loons and ducks and rippled by fish splashing, but the hot weekends of summer bring out an armada of skiers and wakeboarders, and dockside boats can get thrashed, bucking about like wild broncos. I have two smaller, lightly built wooden rowboats, but we needed a larger, sturdy workboat. I found what I was looking for in John Gardner’s The Dory Book in which he described a “substantial row boat for fishing and general recreational use…a sturdy craft, built for rough treatment.” This was it! A Lowell Dory Skiff!

At 14′ 9″ long and 52″ abeam the Lowell Dory Skiff was as big a boat as I could build in my small shop. I made space for lofting. The whole “recipe” for the boat’s construction is presented on a single 8 1⁄2″ × 11″ book page. The details include a table of offsets and a list of required fastenings and lumber. I had all the wood I needed at hand. The drawings call for 7⁄8″ oak for bottom cross cleats, sawn frames, bent frames (5⁄8″ × 7⁄8″), skeg, and gunwale, 7⁄8″ white pine for bottom and thwarts, and enough white cedar for 9⁄16″ planking. Copper rivets are specified for fastening the bent frames and laps (as I was building the boat specifically for a freshwater lake, I decided that stainless-steel screws and nails would suffice for fastenings).

Though The Dory Book (comprehensively illustrated by Sam Manning) is the preeminent primer on dory construction, some previous experience would certainly help carry a builder through this project with less head-scratching. Nonetheless, with the masterful information in the book’s Part 2, “How to Build a Dory” near at hand, and a desire to draw a good line and cut to it, anyone with time and care can build a good boat the first time around.

A Lowell Dory Skiff alongside an aluminum float

Building the Lowell Dory Skiff

Using four 10″-wide pine boards for the bottom gave me the middle seam as a centerline as indicated in the drawings. Before clamping up and screwing in the cleats, I planed seam bevels. These would be luted and caulked before I painted the bottom. The sawn oak frames came next. For each, I assembled the bottom and two side parts with pairs of 1⁄8″ brass splice plates (the plans call for 3⁄32″ bronze) epoxied and riveted at the dog legs; I cut the frame corners at the angle between the bottom and garboards to create limber holes. Finally, I got out a white-oak inner stem and pine transom—with red-oak cheeks—beveled each, and set up my ladder frame.

I’ve learned to build lapstrake boats upside down. It allows me to plank solo using clench nails. I set up and screwed-in the assembled dory frames at their appropriate stations on the bottom, being mindful to place them on the correct side of the station mark. Every wood-to-wood connection got a smattering of bedding compound. Then, lifting this “skeleton,” I clamped each cross spall to its respective station on the ladder frame. Securing each cross spall to the ladder frame’s cross cleats formed the bottom’s rocker without the need for weights or overhead shores. After the stem and transom were centered and plumbed, everything got squared and braced. The frame bevels were fine-tuned, and planking commenced.

A man rows a Lowell Dory Skiff on a lake

Following Gardner’s concise list of steps for planking—“Laying out, lining, and spiling; Getting out, splicing, and beveling; Hanging and fastening”—I worked my way through the first four strakes. I got out planks from 8′ to 10′ boards of 9⁄16″ white cedar. Each plank had one epoxied scarf joint for appropriate length. I nailed the garboards to the bottom with 3″ #12 stainless-steel ring-shank nails and fastened subsequent plank laps with 7⁄8″ clench nails spaced approximately 3″ apart. In addition to the sawn frames to which I screw-fastened the planks, there were also steam-bent frames that would later be riveted to the planking, and I noted this spacing. Before screwing the planks to the stem and transom I laid a bead of adhesive sealant. For strength and looks I chose red oak for the sheerstrake. Turning the hull upright at this stage allowed me to rivet this final plank using #14 copper nails and burrs and gave me a better look at the sweep of the sheer.

After riveting the steam-bent frames I got out and fitted the false stem, breasthook and knees, and made a plywood pattern of the long, curving gunwale. The gunwale itself is made of three lengths of red oak scarfed with epoxy. I spaced the joints to fall under the placement of the oarlock pads. I fashioned rubrails from the cedar planking offcuts and fastened them with screws; the plans show a rope bumper, but we worried that this would snare too many fishhooks. Instead of the outboard motor pad indicated on Gardner’s drawings, I opted for a sternpost to stiffen the transom and keel. I also cut a sculling notch. I followed Gardner’s interior plan for thwarts and wraparound stern bench, all of which are bright-finished white pine.

The Lowell Dory Skiff Performance

What a joy it is to step down into the Lowell Dory Skiff. There’s no need to land dead-center, for while it’s a lively craft, it’s quite stable, and with its 18″ interior depth you feel safe and secure once you’re settled in.

A man rows a Lowell Dory Skiff with a woman wearing a straw hat in the stern

There are two rowing stations with enough room for paired rowing. The center thwart is a comfortably ergonomic 13 1⁄2″ above the bottom (the forward seat is 15″ above). The skiff’s frames are usefully employed as foot braces. In keeping with the workboat heritage, we use 8′ ash oars. A single rower seated on the center thwart can get the hull to move easily with a few strokes and maintain a steady pace with little drag. The skiff’s rockered bottom and moderate skeg afford both maneuverability and an easy glide. And thanks to the two rowing stations, it’s easy to adjust the hull trim when two or more people are aboard.

Our Lowell dory weighs 130 lbs and—with two strong people—can be lifted on or off its trailer when the need arises, and readily rolled upside down to attend to the bottom. The wide, flat gunwales provide a good handhold when lifting. We slide the boat off and onto its trailer at the beginning and end of the summer season from a sloping shore; when it gets rained-on dockside, we use a hand pump and sponge to drain the bilge. The robust sheer has nicely weathered the hard knocks of summer weekends. The cedar rubrails have become worn in places, but if the need eventually arises, replacing them will be simple.

Two men double-rowing a Lowell Dory Skiff

It may be my imagination, but in the years since the Lowell Dory Skiff became our Sunday-morning fishing boat, we seem to be getting more good-natured nods from our neighbors at the lake. Maybe some of them have been getting more uninterrupted sleep. These days they even come by with family and guests to get a closer look at the handsome boat at our dock—like so many traditional wooden rowboats, the Lowell Dory Skiff, a good solid workboat, has considerable charm.

Tom DeVries enjoys learning a little bit more about the boatbuilders’ craft with each design he works on. A Finger Lakes Trout Boat might be next…there’s still some wood in the shed.