Seating mods for Nor-Easter Dory

 

Hi folks,

 

 

It's been a few years.  The sticker on my CindyLu says 2011.  She's been sitting on her trailer ever since Cindy went back to Colorado. Anyway, that's now ancient history.  The CIndyLu was built in 2009, the very first lug-rig Nor-Easter dory and I know many of you (almost 32,000) have seen my YouTube video of the launch and build of CindyLu.

I'm 100yds from the very temperamental Lake Erie.  I  haven't been comfortable with the NE Dory on Lake Erie because conditions can change so quickly.  I don't want to capsize in 4' breaking waves with flotation as designed.  

QUESTION: Has anyone modified their NE Dory with a seating arrangement similar to the Skerry so that there's flotation tanks fore and aft?  I created and will only have one rowing position on the CindyLu.  I'm thinking of a large deck/seat fore and aft.  I need to know that I've got a boat that can be bailed if I capsize in rough condition.  The shore in my neighborhood is mainly cliff.  Inter-coastal steady prevailing conditions this is definitely not!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


5 replies:

« Previous Post       List of Posts       Next Post »

RE: Seating mods for Nor-Easter Dory

   I asked John about that when building mine a couple of years back and he said the boat would need to be larger; maybe the southwester is the result. I'm interested to see if there are any new thoughts on the idea though.   Barry

RE: Seating mods for Nor-Easter Dory

   If it's just you, there is plenty of room in your boat. Have you considered floatation bags or 5 to 10 gallon water jugs.  Anything tired down inside the boat is that volume of water that isn't in the boat if you capsize.  On the plus side of the water jugs is that you can fill them with Lake Erie water if you ever need ballast in rough conditions.  And it's removable if ever 5 friends want to go with you. 

RE: Seating mods for Nor-Easter Dory

   After running some capsize drills on my dory, I came to the conclusion that righting and bailing in rough conditions would be a tricky matter with the stock flotation.  My solution was to add side tanks and a sliding seat for a more expedition worthy craft.  Since most of my sailing is done solo, I wasn't terribly concerned about losing some of my weight capacity, and having the multiple sealed compartments helps keep my camping gear organized by function.  I left the front open but installed a removable webbing net to stow my clothesline anchor system.

RE: Seating mods for Nor-Easter Dory

Interesting addition of side tanks.  They look fairly high and I wonder how that would work with my rig that's primarily for sailing, very little rowing.  That seat height might make it tippy if you're sitting on either side?

  

RE: Seating mods for Nor-Easter Dory

Would it be possible to get additional details on the side flotation tank/seats added by K. Totten? I am thinking of building a Northeaster or Skerry and would like to know what complexities are involved in doing this. I prefer this to the alternatives. Thanks for any details.

« Previous Post     List of Posts     Next Post »


Please login or register to post a reply.