Team Dory + Southwester Dory

Has anyone considered building a team dory and adding a motor well (from the southwester Dory?) 

- adding sailing components wouldn't be done b/c of the added complexity.

- rowing might much less feasible for one person. 

any other pro's / cons I am missing?

 


1 reply:

« Previous Post       List of Posts       Next Post »

RE: Team Dory + Southwester Dory

So, you're contemplating this as a motorized dory with rowing as auxiliary?

Haven't comtemplated this idea, myself, but I do think the Southwester design has a lot to recommend it, and John has mentioned that it could be, and I think has been, built with the motorwell but without a sailing rig to make a nice motor launch.  That would certainly be practical for rowing with one rower and two oars as auxiliary power, with a load rating of  667lbs in that configuration.  She has a lot of floatation to be more survivable when swamped, a good thing.  All in all, a well thought out compromise design with realistic three mode (sail, row, motor) possibilities.

The Team Dory seems a pretty specialized thing to me, meant specifically for four rowers four oars.  She's actually lighter and narrower than her shorter cousin, a concession to being able to arrange the crew with good geometry for rowing with each rower handling a longer oar than you'd want for a rower with two oars.  She's meant to float 1000 lbs., which makes sense for four hearty rowers, a cox'n, and minimal gear.  She might do all right with two rowers with a long oar each or with two shorter oars apiece, She's going to be a handful for a solo rower, who would, methinks, shortly wish for a shorter, more manageable boat.  In a light condition, i.e., with much less than 1000# payload, she might be unmanageable in any real wind for a solo oarsman.

I haven't scaled it off, but it looks like adding the motorwell would require elimination of the aftmost rowing thwart, which would lose its built in floatation.  That also raises the question of where the helmsman would sit to steer under power and how that would be accomplished, as the stern would now seem really far back.

In short, I'm not sure what the point would be in motorizing a Team Dory vs. building a non-sailing Southwester.  I curious as to what you'd be hoping to achieve that way that might not work better with the Southwester.

I don't mean to rain on your parade here.  The concept could work.  Since nobody else had chimed in as yet, I thought I'd just throw out a couple of thought by way of stirring the pot.

.....Michael

 

« Previous Post     List of Posts     Next Post »


Please login or register to post a reply.