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Community Corner

Swampscott Dory Set to Add a Sail This Summer

Jimmy LaChance got his boat, A Swampscott Dory, on the water last year with the help of his grandfather, Howie Vatcher. This season their craft will add a sail to cruise around the waters of the North Shore, the product of three generations.

 

Last October, over Columbus Day weekend, the Katy Rose made its maiden voyage off of Fisherman’s Beach. The boat-building project was started by Jimmy LaChance of Beverly, and his grandfather, Swampscott’s Howie Vatcher.

The Swampscott Dory was named after Peter’s aunt who had passed away, and left the shore at Fisherman’s Beach with close to 40 people looking on.

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“We took it out, it was sea worthy, no leaks,” Vatcher said from his home on Pleasant Street where the Katy Rose was built.  “Everybody who wanted a ride on it got a ride, and Peter and his girlfriend took it out for a long cruise, around Lincoln House Point and Eisman’s Beach before they came in around seven.”

The 27 year-old LaChance will get his Master’s Degree from Brown University in May, and by that time his mother Judy will have sewn a sail to add to the Katy Rose so travelers don’t have to do so much rowing.

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“We talked to Doyle Sailmakers in Marblehead, and they wanted $800 for a sail, but we could get a kit to build our own from them for $200, so Peter got the kit and his mom is helping to sew it before he gets back from school,” Vatcher said.

The Swampscott Dory has been a dependable craft locally and all around the country, wherever people head out on the water.

“Very sturdy boat, we make a few every year, and people do ask why it’s called the Swampscott Dory,” Dave Robertson of Gig Harbor Boat Works said. “We make a version that sells for about $4,500, but you can get one with a special paint job and sliding seats that goes for between $7,500 and $8,000.”

“Gig Harbor is a little community, on the water, about an hour south of Seattle, I’m sure it’s pretty similar to where you are,” Robertson said. “Most people who buy Swampscott Dories from us have had one before and are familiar with how it handles on the water.”

The Swampscott Dory sales pitch on Gig Harbor’s website reads, “The Dory is an excellent open water and expedition classic small boat. Swampscott Dories were launched off the beaches of Massachusetts for fishing and lobstering, as well as used in the North Atlantic for fishing on the Grand Banks. The boats were noted for their ease of handling and speed through the water. Today's adventuresome boater will find its carrying capacity suitable for long trips.”

In addition to the Swampscott Dory, Gig Harbor Boat Works makes other crafts with colorful names like the Jersey Skiff, the Melonseed, the Navigator and the Point Defiance.

The Katy Rose is 16 feet, six inches long and took two years to build, and wintered at LaChance’s house in Beverly. LaChance and Vatcher’s craft cost around $2,000 to put together.

“The most expensive materials were the copper rivets and the bronze screws that we used to hold everything together,” Vatcher said.  

“When the sails are added you won’t need so much arm power,” Vatcher said.

There’s a long and storied history of boat building all along the North Shore, Emily Murphy said.

Murphy is the Park Historian at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.

“Many communities built dories and there were variations from community to community on how the boats were built," she said.

The dories were built so they could be launched from the shore with one person in the boat. They were used from everything from fishing to checking the cod nets.

“The Swampscott Dory was developed for the small, individual fisherman who wanted to launch from the shore as opposed to being dropped off the side of a ship,” Murphy said.” “Amesbury has their own design and Marblehead has their own design too.”

“There are a couple of boat building companies still in existence in the area, Lowell Boat Shop in Newburyport and Harold Burnham in Essex,” Murphy said.

Jimmy Lachance will have his degree and a new sail when the Katy Rose hits the water later this year, three generations working on the project over the past two years.

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