Blackberry
An 11' 3" x 4' Dory skiff designed for taped seam construction.
by John Bell  jmbell@mindspring.com 
 


 
Click for Plans (.pdf)
(Updated: 11/27/2001)
 
The genesis of this design grew out of my experience with my Michalak Sportdory. Sportdory is a wonderful rowing boat, but it is a little too long and heavy to be cartopped easily. It is also a little too tiddly for fishing to be relaxing. 

I have a friend who happens to live on a lake and who also harbors some affection for my Sportdory but needs a smaller, more forgiving craft than the dory. So I imagined him as my client and came up with  Blackberry. 

To adjust for his needs, I started with the general form of a dory built for rowing fast, that is long and narrow across the bottom, and shortened it from 15 to a little over eleven feet. I kept the breadth across the gunwales at 4', but widened the bottom from 24" to 34". This has the effect of increasing initial stability to where the solo fisherman can move around the boat with fewer worries about dumping his tacklebox. Being able to get out closer to gunwale also makes landing the big ones a little easier! One day I'd like to build Blackberry and present it to my friend as a gift.

This is a pretty straightforward design and I anticipate no problems for either the beginning or the experienced builder. I've already modeled it in cardboard which confirms the pieces will go together to make a boat. The conversion to PDF made some of the curved lines on the panel expansions a little jagged, but the information need to make the boat is all there and should be accurate. I can send a DXF format if some really wanted it.

I don't have the time to do a step-by-step how-to for this one right now since I'm busy working on my Duckworks Design Contest entry (and it's looking pretty special, if I do say so!). But there are a lot of resources out there explaining the general how-to with taped seamed plywood boats that anything I might add on the subject would likely be superfluous.

I don't want anyone to pay me for these plans. They are free for the asking.   I'd like one of these myself, but I've got my eye on a 16'  mulitchine wherry I designed as the next boat to come out of my boatyard (garage). 

Hopefully someone will take a chance and build one so I can see Blackberry on the water someday.

Best Regards,

John Bell <><
Kennesaw, GA

https://jmbell.home.mindspring.com 
jmbell@mindspring.com
  - personal email
jbell@viningsind.com
  - office email

(770) 592-2165 - home
(770) 514-6016 - office
(770) 595-2311 - cell


 

 

 


Click for Plans

 

Home | Articles | Books | Columns | Projects | Links | Subscribe | Boat Index