decked river dory

[river runner]

Now that the light bulb finally came on in my head and I figured out the easy way to put a deck on a boat, I can do what I wanted to do long ago. Put a deck on a river dory. A deck not only keeps water out but also adds a lot of strength. The decking allowed me to lower the freeboard, but I kept enough depth for lots of dry bags. Packing is a little trickier, but should be worth it, and it should be possilbe to install hatches in the decking.
Yes, I know that a number of you think that only inflatables are suitable for running big rapids, but I dissagree and so do all the people that have been running hard hulled boats through rapids for decades.

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Hard hulls were running rivers long before inflatables were invented.

I like dorys. Very much.

The only major issue I have with running rivers in a dory is that if you are on your game and keep the boat pointing downstream, everything is great. Get sideways in a hole or hydraulic and the chines will trip you and you'll get to practice wet exits.

I've done years of running rapids in whitewater kayaks (I live on one of the best rivers in North America for recreational whitewater at class 3,4,5). If you are running down a tongue, you can use a flatwater canoe and get through fine if the boat stays pointed where you want. I've seen people go through in aluminum boats, logs and boogie boards. Getting into a recirculating hydraulic can be really ugly. Basically you are inside a washing machine with no exit.

In a kayak, the rounded hull form allows the boat to "surf" sideways in a hole, until you can get it pointed downstream again and climb the foam out. With a dory hull form, you'd be conversing with the trout faster than Rick Perry can get a foot in his mouth.

I like the decked dory idea, but years of fast water swimming practice make me cautious.

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