Going to Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts, is like going to a dory candy store. Do you pick a straightforward rowing dory like the Salisbury Point Skiff, developed in the 1860s? How about the outboard-motor-powered version of the Amesbury Skiff, an adaptation from the 1920s? What about a high-sided Banks Dory, set up for traditional tholepin rowing? Having but one choice to make, I selected what I thought for me, and I suspect for many others, would be a fine compromise: a Sailing Surf Dory. A comparatively round-sided dory, the Sailing Surf Dory handles well under sail or oars. This boat is a 14-footer, and Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts, also builds 16’, 18’, and 20’ versions.
Corinne Ricciardi
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The Lowell Boat Shop / Museum offers classes in wooden boat building. I took two hands-on classes, taught by Graham McKay and his right-hand man Jeff: Pete Culler’s 13’ Good Little Skiff and a 15’ Amesbury Skiff – both hulls of traditional clenched copper nail lapstrake construction. I won the latter in the end of class build raffle and felt a bit of history. Other courses such as lofting (the boat in this article) and making a set of spruce oars were also very interesting. Great to be (relatively) near this historic shop-museum.
E. Strizhak
Framingham, Ma.
Beautiful boat. The 14 feet are the waterline, so it’s as big as my CLC NE Dory. The only thing I would hate is the tiller. It looks uncomfortable.