Planking the Deblois Street Dory

Deblois Street Dory Building

Bar Harbor, Maine

Planking the hull

I spent the last 24 hours in Bar Harbor helping a customer get the planking going on his DSD. He has been pining after his own D Street Dory for a few years and is very excited about his project. We met at the Small Reach Regatta, where he and his wife row and sail their current stitch-and-glue dory. He wanted to build a real dory and one with more performance and capacity than the others available. He chose the DSD!

Hull #1 built in 2007, on the shores of the Maine Coast

He set up the strongback very accurately, scarphed planks, and got everything ready for my visit. I arrived at 11am and after the 10-cent tour of his new, beautiful, custom house perched on the edge of Acadia National Park, we got to work. By 8pm we had the garboards fit and glued and looking perfect. Pretty good time for 2 people going hard at it and taking a lunch and dinner break, too. Garboards are often a two-day project because they can be the trickiest to fit.

The latest mkII version of the DSD under construction on MDI

The DSD kit is available, just give a call at 207.602-9587 or email boatkits@gmail.com

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A Deblois Street Dory

to The Compass Project in Portland, Me is building a DSD with a group of kids and they are doing a great job.

The boat is built like dories have always been built, using the bottom to erect stem, frames, and transom, then turning over the boat upside down on a strongback. Everything is plumbed and braced then planking begins.

Here the garboard has been installed and the sheer clamp is being fit. This is the only departure from traditional dory construction, the incorporating of the clamp helps tie together the frames into plumb and lock in the ends of the boat. It is a bit of a 3D puzzle!

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Update on the Deblois Street Dory

A couple months ago I was entering the final stages of modeling the Deblois St Dory. I am excited to report that the work is complete and a plans package, full size patterns, and CNC cut kits are now ready to deliver!

This boat has been designed unlike any traditional, Swampscott Dory I know of. It has been a few years of hand drawing -- before I entered the world of CAD -- then building a 1/4 scale model, drafting final plans, and the building of hull #1. Then some time passed, sea trials were completed, and my training in CAD went up a few levels! So, then the DSD started getting input into the computer. The latest version of the CAD system Rhino came out -- Rhino 5 -- and I was able to efficiently finish the DSD in this advanced piece of software:

One of the great advantages of modeling a boat to such an extent is the ability to work of how everything fits together. All parts of the hull are fit together in 3-D space then the model is taken apart piece by piece and made 2D. These 2D drawings become full size patterns and the kits that are available for my boats. Even for something simple like the tholepins, having them modeled helps see how the sizing of the gunwales and the installation of the tholepins will work out in advance.

I have modeled 8 different sail rigs for the DSD. All parts can be CNC cut or supplied as full size patterns with a package of plans that includes 13 sheets of drawings, a manual, hardware and lumber lists, and direct support from me build the boat. So far two DSD plans sets and patterns have been shipped off.

I love this boat. In an article in Maine Island Trail, I said 

"If I could only own one boat – and I hope that never happens -- I would choose a dory for its simplicity and purity of form and function. And when I am daysailing to MITA islands or cruising the trail, the last thing I want is to dread having to row when the wind dies. I want a boat that is as pleasurable to move by oars as it is by sail or motor. And I want it to be a beautiful boat that can be built by a total amateur and used to explore the coast of Maine."

If you want to be at the helm of your own Deblois Street Dory, please contact me. Visit my webpage to learn more and see pricing. Cheers! ---Clint

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