Whitehalls

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Jammer Six, Aug 12, 2014.

  1. Jammer Six

    Jammer Six Previous Member

    Can a Whitehall design be towed behind a sailboat?
     
  2. gonzo
    Joined: Aug 2002
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    gonzo Senior Member

    In fair weather and low speeds, yes. It helps to have a towing eye really low on the bow so it doesn't bury itself.
     
  3. Jammer Six

    Jammer Six Previous Member

    If they're limited by weather, then I take it they wouldn't make a decent dory.

    I was hoping their shape would make them two easily.

    But thinking about it, it would be weird to have a "dory" that's two thirds the length of the boat.
     
  4. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    Jammer Six,

    I'm curious about your use of the term "dory". Could you explain what you mean? Do you mean a smaller boat which is used to go between a larger boat and shore?
     
  5. messabout
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    messabout Senior Member

    Good question DC. Perhaps the Op is thinking of Dinghy rather than Dory.

    FYI , Jammer Six; A dory is commonly thought of as a long skinny boat. The Banks dory is flat paneled, stackable, has a lot of flare, tombstone style transom, and much stem rake. The Swampscott dory has rounded sections, often lap straked, and still long and skinny with rather long overhangs. The Banks style is tiddly unless heavily laden with fish or whatever. The Swampscott style is also a bit tippy but not so much as a lightly loaded Banks. Both row well enough. The Banks boats were made the way they were when sawmills developed the ability to produce wide flat planks. Three such planks produced a boat that was quick to build and relatively cheap. That was a long time ago. Gentlemen oarsmen and sometimes sailors dreamed up a far more sophisticated boat which they chose to call dories of the Swampscott type.
     
  6. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    Usage of terms for boat types varies by locale. Jammer Six is from Seattle and I'm interested how "dory" is used there.

    If someone in Great Britain says they have a "dory" they are probably referring to a powerboat with a square bow cathedral hull, similar to the classic Boston Whaler. That usage goes back fifty years ago when Dell Quay introduced a line of power boats and called them Dell Quay Dories. Of course Boston Whalers don't have anything to do with boats used for whaling.
     
  7. Jammer Six

    Jammer Six Previous Member

    Nope, my mistake. I should have said "they wouldn't make a decent dinghy."
     
  8. messabout
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    messabout Senior Member

    You are quite right David. A lot of boat types are called dories. I think it was Buehler, in the northwest, who developed a line of boats, touted as rough water capable. He called them Dories. Also there used to be lots of working boats in the Maritimes sometimes called Saint Pierre dories. The did have the general Banks form but were usually in the 25 foot range and inboard powered, often by Lunenburg one lungers.

    Dinghies on the other hand come in a gazillion different forms. To qualify for the title, they are relatively small open boats. A Laser is a dinghy the same as a Hereshoff pram such as "Precious". A Thistle or an FD could rightly be called a dinghy although owners of that kind of boat do not much appreciate that descriptive word. A little boat can get its designation by the particular job for which it is intended. A dinghy, often called a dink, can also be called a tender. And tender is a word sometimes used to describe a little boat that is uncomfortably tippy.

    Semantics can be fun, but it can also be a source of confusion. Boat people do have their own tribal language. Garwood boats have a garboard, and a sail makers palm is not a tropical tree, a fiddle block is not an obstruction for a musical instrument.... and so on.
     

  9. Kevin Morin
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    Kevin Morin Junior Member

    Rose is A Rose by Any Name

    jammer, messabout, DCockey,

    On the Oregon Coast is a flat bottom skiff, called locally, a dory; the Oregon City Dory but these craft have few lines in true similarity to what I've learned to call a dory here in coastal Alaska.

    I consider a dory to require a "dory shoe" at the lowest point (minus boards or steering) of bottom to be flat transversely in section. That same panel is narrow and double ended, in plan, this flat bottom plank may have rocker in profile; but that is not required.

    I also agree with John Gardiner's description that dories have a return in all the plan view lines of more than half their beam, aft the master station.

    Small (<26' LOA) square stern boats whose lines taper in beam aft their master station yet remain more than 2/3's as wide (chine) but less than 85% as wide- are evidently 'semi-dories'? Gardiner seems vague on this as near as I can find is his various books?

    Small boats that come to beam overall at their master stations and don't taper aft, in plan, more than a few percent of their BOA are skiffs. Skiff shapes are either outboard or inboard powered power boats but the term is supplanted above a range in size of 24-28' by the name power boat, day boat, picnic boat..... cabin cruiser, offshore center console..... ....

    But those are just my understandings of the terminology. I'm pretty sure the folks in Oregon City, Oregon call their huge 64" chine width, flat bottomed skiffs; dories. I'm sure others use the term skiff differently as well?

    Cheers,
    Kevin Morin
    Kenai, AK
     
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