Building a Chesapeake Light Craft Northeaster Dory -- Day 1

Yesterday the five boxes containing the parts for our Northeaster Dory finally arrived in a big Ryder truck. It was a long wait since the kit did not ship immediately from the company, and then along the way one of the shipping companies handling the boxes went out of business. For a couple of anxious days the boat seemed to have been lost at land (rather than lost at sea) in Little Rock. But eventually things got sorted out, and the boxes arrived in reasonably good condition.

I spent the afternoon unpacking the boxes, somewhat daunted by the number and variety of parts.

Most of this is additional supplies -- not part of the kit

Perhaps the most valuable thing in the entire shipment is the 179 page instruction book -- which is included as part of the kit but is a real bargain for more adventurous builders at only $99 (along with full sized plans). I spent the evening reading the book and then the morning rereading it.

This afternoon I got down to work. First I cut about 30 clamps from 4" PVC pipe based on a construction tip from the Chesapeake Light Craft web site.

I actually should have cut an additional 30 clamps since I could have used a few more in gluing up the bulkheads pictured below. The biggest problem in the task (as was pointed out in the instruction book) is that the pieces tend to slide around as glue is squeezed out by the clamps, necessitating some finicky efforts to align them again. I wasn't able to align them all perfectly, but I do think they will be good enough.

All in all I think it was a successful first day of Dory building, but I'll know more when I examine the bulkheads after they have dried.