We told you the fellows in this spring dory building class were quick learners. Turns out they are also quick builders! Check out these photos of their dory, taken Friday afternoon.

We’d like to extend, a little belatedly, a big welcome to participants in our spring 2011 dory building class, which got underway Monday. We’re always wondering how we manage to get such great groups of people – truly! And this gang also includes some pretty fast learners. At this point, they actually have the dory fully planked (more photos to come obviously!) and will be fitting her knees this afternoon. Jay is highly impressed.

For those folks fortunate enough to have grown up on the water, thoughts of summers spent ‘messing about in boats’ bring back some pretty wonderful memories. And it’s just those warm thoughts that have our gang here at The Dory Shop so stoked as we begin building a big Fortune Bay sailing dory for the Tim Horton Children’s Foundation Summer Camp at Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia.

Who says all the fun ends with Old Christmas? Not here at The Dory Shop, where we’re busy planning a special celebration to mark a major milestone in the building of the twin schooners.

It’s that time of year again – time to receive our annual delivery of dory knees, courtesy of the Hatt family. For more than 50 years, and through four generations, the Hatts have supplied The Dory Shop with this oh-so-critical construction material

It’s a little over a month until the start of The Dory Shop’s fall dory building course and spaces are still available. I could give you the ‘hard sell,’ telling you all about how great the course is, and of course Lunenburg is spectacular in the fall. However, I’d prefer to pass along some comments from past participants instead

Lunenburg’s hopping today as people arrive for the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival. This is an amazing festival that just happens to be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The line-up (including a band called the Dory Bungholes!!) is spectacular. Meanwhile, down at The Dory Shop, we’ve been welcoming a steady stream of folks, many drawn by the sight of Jay rigging our latest Handline sailing dory.

If you’re hanging out reading our website, chances are you already think dories are pretty great boats. What I can also tell you is that the people who like dories are generally pretty great people. A case in point…last fall, a couple from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia were enjoying a brief holiday on the South Shore when they happened by The Dory Shop. The gentleman had grown up with a dory and had passed his love of boats on to his children. In fact, he had once considered building a dory with his daughter but life gets in the way of these things and the project was never undertaken. However, inspired by the site of dories outside the shop, the gentleman and his wife decided to have a dory built as a Christmas present for that daughter. They were back in December to pick up the sweet little Black Rocks. And returning to work after the holidays, we received this wonderful letter from the daughter, which we offer here with her permission:

The Dory Shop was home to quite a time on Saturday when we hosted keel laying ceremonies for the twin 48-foot wooden schooners being built outside in the boatyard by our parent company, Dawson Moreland and Associates. More than 200 people braved brisk nor’ westerly wind and a minus 14 degrees Celcius windchill (that’s about 6 degrees Fahrenheit!) to watch Capt. Phil Watson of the Schooner Bluenose II and Capt. Matthew Mitchell, a 91-year-old seafarer who sailed aboard fishing schooners, including the original Bluenose, and skippered some of the first fish draggers out of Lunenburg, drive the ceremonial spikes into twin lengths of Mountain Gommier.

As much as Jay loves dories, it’s nice when he gets a chance to build something a bit different from time to time. For instance, right now he’s working on a 7’ 7” Nutshell Pram that will serve as tender to the lovely little schooner Kitty Cochrane, launched at the Dory Shop in September. Speaking of schooners, there’s a big event taking place here this Saturday as we lay the keels on two 48’ schooners that will be built in the Dory Shop Boatyard over the next year and some.