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Wooden Dory Boat Plans and Kits

Many boat plans are offered online. Some are free others are surprisingly expensive. Free is not always best or most economical in the end, do your homework. Some Great designs are available free though. My little Apple pie dinghy was a free design

I have a page on dories if you want more information. There are a couple of interesting video links too.

dories

Photo from Wikipedia, presumed author: Susan Davis~commonswiki

Many old dory plans result in lines that were in use when dories were a common sight on fishing grounds. They are designed for materials in common use at the time, and ended up being heavier boats than we now build. When using lightweight materials will find that your dory might ride too high in the water for comfort and safety. Finding a couple hundred pounds of fish to stabilize your dory is not always easy. Do your homework and use plans that are suitable for the stitch and glue with plywood if that is what you are planning to use.

Many modern dory plans have been shortened to accommodate modern requirements. This further destabilizes the boat. It's a funny tradition that a 16 foot dory was not 16 feet overall but rather at the bottom. They were actually much larger!

Well worth reading is Michael Storer's article on dories.

If you're planning a boatbuilding project you might like to check my boatbuilding resources. These are articles from my website and some outside links and build diaries.

Dory Boat Plans in no Particular Order.

Email me if a link is broken or if I've missed a boat. I try to keep my links good but things change quickly on the web.

Canadian National Film Board film about building Lunenberg Dories and using them.

Video plays twice for some reason. Watch it once and if you like it watch it again.




I try to be accurate and check my information, but mistakes happen. ALSO keep in mind that not all boat plans are well designed. Old Banks Dories are particularly tricky because they were notoriously unsteady until they had some weight in them. Check the boat forums, many people have built dories. I have not built these boats and I can't recommend or proscribe any.

email me if you find mistakes, I'll fix them and we'll all benefit: Christine