History of the Dory.

Dory boat history. A dory boat is one of the most beautiful fishing vessels of all time and it has an important history in North America. On the other hand the river dory is very much a dory designed for use on the river rapids of the Western United States. Relatively Light and simple to build and stackable they were used as fishing dinghies.

The true history of the dory has been lost through the centuries but thanks to the research of John Gardner as outlined in his published work The Dory Book we do know that the first really detailed account of a dory was back in 1719. It had a flat bottom generous sloped sides and an ample length to width ratio with good cargo capacity and was relatively easy to construct. It is a seaworthy boat that can be rowed engine-driven or sailed.

There are many types of dory type boats in the world. With a long history of building the finest fiberglass pilothouse style boats in the industry NMI Boats in Bellingham Washington is proud to be the exclusive builder of the C-Dory boats. In 2014 we started our Dory boat building business under the name of Breaker Dory Inc.

Modern rowing dories are used on inland waters and motorized dories are used in the ocean. The name dory usually brings to mind the Grand Banks Dory with its straight sides flat bottom narrow transom and characteristic straight bow. VanGogh left us a drawing of dory like boats.

A dory may be up to 22 feet 7 m long and commonly has a narrow V-shaped stern and a narrow flat bottom. After many years of designing and building small portable boats of unique but rather. The dorys origins came from the turn of the 20th century surf dories and Nestucca River gill net boats that sold their fish to the salmon cannery established in 1887 near the mouth of the river.

In the early 1800s dory boats became quite popular in the Northeastern portion of the United States and Canada and later along the coast of the Pacific Northwest as well. The dory skiff is yet another deviation of the dory. The drift boat evolved from the dory.