Weight of Northeaster Dory?

Has anyone built one of these that actually weighs 100 pounds? Mine must be 10 or 20 pounds heavier.  I wonder where I went wrong.


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RE: Weight of Northeaster Dory?

As someone who started out building boats that were also 10 to 20 pounds heavier and now build at or below the design weight I can tell you that the problem is usually epoxy use, especially if you're building from a kit. Fillets that are too thick, overfilling the weave and using too much epoxy to fair the boat are the big culprits. 

Some cures are to make the minimum sized fillets needed (mine are now typically 1/4 inch or so) and to use phenolic microballoons to fill and fair painted areas. When filling under varnish, apply many very thin coats instead of a few thick ones and stop as soon as the weave is filled. When fairing with epoxy apply only to the low spots and sand mainly the high.

Epoxy is the heaviest optional material in your boat. That's where you'll find all the variation. Learn how to apply it efficiently and you'll be building light boats.

Note that your extra weight will actually have very little effect on the boat and may even help in choppy waters. It'll only be a nuisance when you're loading the boat onto a trailer or racks.

Laszlo

RE: Weight of Northeaster Dory?

   I will just add that a17 foot boat weighing 120 pounds is still extraordinarily light.

RE: Weight of Northeaster Dory?

   Interestingly, I just weighed my Annapolis Wherry. It's listed as 65 pounds, but mine weighs 80. I suppose that's due to overuse of epoxy. But 15 pounds is  a lot.

RE: Weight of Northeaster Dory?

I believe mine is about 100 lb. 

RE: Weight of Northeaster Dory?

By my calculation, the surface area of a wherry inside & out is about 15 m2 so a 1/100 inch increase in the thickness of the epoxy (sp Gr ~ 1.2) coat adds around 10 lbs to weight of the boat (and maybe $200 to the cost).

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