Building a dory on Great Slave Lake OR how we spent our summer
vacation.
The house boats on Great Slave Lake in Canada's far north and the folks
who live on them are a colourful part of the Yellowknife community.
Our daughter Jennifer has many friends who live on house boats anchored
in the middle of the bay where the view from their windows changes depending
on the direction of the wind. In the summer float planes land in the yard
and fishing boats cruise by - in the -50 c. winters they can drive to
the door as the boat's steel pontoons are constructed to withstand the
5 ft thick ice.
One of the challenges living on the boat during the warmer months involves
being able to get back and forth safely to shore. Many of the house-boaters
keep a small motor boat to use when hauling large items such as propane
tanks and building materials but for the most part they prefer the low
impact canoe for the 1 km. crossing to town. Commuting is particularly
dangerous during break up and freeze up when they must cross open water
with shifting ice floes.?
Ted came up with an idea. Jen is an environmentalist and always thinks
of ways to minimize her impact on the universe. She also likes to keep
fit. We could build her a row boat that was designed to withstand the
ice and wind conditions and be capable of efficiently hauling heavy loads.
It could also be used for a pleasant evening's jaunt around the 'neighbourhood'
- using oars would be much more efficient than canoe paddles. Ted had
a copy of Dynamite Payson's book Building the Gloucester Light Dory and
decided that a dory would be ideal. Dories were designed for ocean use
including icy and windy conditions and have been used by fishermen for
generations.
This Gloucester Dory was designed by Phil Bolger to be constructed out
of plywood so it would be fast to build. While the boat Dynamite built
in the book is mainly a work boat we knew Ted would add some details that
would make it pretty enough for Jenny to be proud of. We bought the plans
and knowing the builder and designer gave us confidence that the lines
were accurate and the bevels could be trusted - something that saved us
time during the building process. We planned to take 12 days off work,
booked our tickets using air miles and started to plan a family vacation
building a boat. The parts could be pre-fabricated in our workshop and
shipped north.
Jen arranged for us to use a corner of a local woodwork shop. The workshop
was situated smack in the middle of the busy waterfront in the historic
part of town where fishing boats, float planes and barges load people
and supplies for transport to remote parts of Great Slave Lake and up
the MacKenzie river which empties into the Arctic Ocean. In addition to
our family members, the building crew included Jake Kennedy the editor
of the award winning northern magazine UpHERE and Marcos Ortega our Belizian
apprentice.
Ted made some improvements to the methods used in Dynamites book to make
the boat lighter and more durable. Okume Lloyds certified marine plywood
replaced the lumber yard grade fir plywood and we added bilge keels and
chines, as well we sheathed the hull with fiberglass cloth inside and out
rather than just taping the seams. We made some changes to the order in
which the parts went together so by the time our visit was up the boat was
ready for final sanding and painting. And we even had time to catch a few
big fish and take in some of the northern culture.
click here for more photos
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