Wednesday 7 November 2012

Team Dory details

Naturally, I made one or two wrong assumptions about the Team Dory in the last post. It is a sweep rowing boat, not a quad scull, and it is steered by a conventional rudder and yoke as you can see from the more detailed schematic sent over by Neil Calore.
With a beam of 4ft 8in and considerably less at the bow and stroke positions, I still think she would be very well suited for sculling, however. Perhaps some mini-outriggers there. Hmmmm.
The thwarts are interesting, including buoyancy tanks that must add a lot of strength. I hope the leg room is enough for taller rowers (always a matter of personal interest).
The flat bottom makes her easier to build I suspect, and will make the boat easy to move about in without floorboards. The only thing I suspect might not be optimal is the steeply raked transom, which will make the rudder swing upwards in a way that may slow the boat down a lot. It will be interesting to see how it works in practice.
Neil and the team have been making amazing progress at the CLC workshop in Annapolis. Only two days in, and it's a boat! You can see progress live on the CLC webcam (remember that if the screen is blank, it's still working but it's night and the lights are off).

No comments: