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Community Corner

Local Man Almost Ready to Launch his Backyard Boat [VIDEO]

Howie Vatcher and his grandson have been working on a Swampscott Dory since 2009 and they're set to launch the boat later this year.

“Gramps, let's build a boat.”

Jim LaChance asked his grandfather, Swampscott’s Howie Vatcher if they could build a boat back in the fall of 2009, and Vatcher told his grandson, sure, and the two of them got to work on building their own legendary Swampscott Dory.

The reference guide that Vatcher and LaChance used, “Building Classical Small Crafts” by author John Gardner, even has a full chapter on the Swampscott Dory, chapter eleven.

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"Fisherman have used these boats in town for hundreds of years," Vatcher said. "They build them, the bottoms wear out when they pull them ashore, they flip them, fix the bottom and send them back out to sea."

The Swampscott Dory can be used for fishing or sailing, the boat seats 3-4 people for a good sail, or two fisherman can go out to grab some flounder or pull up their lobster pots along the rocky Swampscott coast.

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The Swampscott dory is a traditional fishing boat, used during the early 19th century in coastal villages up and down the coast of the Bay State, most were built by the fishermen that used them, designed to be launched off the beach. Dories were originally built by the fishermen themselves to save money, but were then built by commercial boatyards and sold up and down the East Coast.

Vatcher and LaChance have been working on their dory in the backyard of Vatcher’s Pleasant Street home, when LaChance is available. LaChance attended Brown University and will be working as an intern this summer in Washington for the Environmental Protection Agency as part of his Graduate School program.

Vatcher is no stranger to building, in 1960 he began building his home on Pleasant Street, with an initial investment of 16 thousand dollars, today his home is valued at close to $300,000 dollars.

“Dad has built every kind of boat,” Vatcher’s daughter Elizabeth said. “He’s built boats and furniture for dollhouses and others of all sizes that are all over our house.”

Vatcher has three grown children, five grandchildren and has lived in Swampscott for over 50 years. He worked at the GE until his retirement in the mid-1980’s.

“There’s been a long history of boat building in Swampscott, from the days of the Dion Boat Builders and the Chaisson Boat Builders,” Vatcher said. “Jim and I have been working on this for a while, I tinker with it, and the two of us jump right in when he’s home from school.”

There’s no name for the boat yet, Vatcher said Jim would choose the name when it’s finished, the boat will hit the water this September. The Vatcher-LaChance dory measures at 16 feet four inches and will be used for fishing and sailing.

“It’s a modified Swampscott Dory, Jim and I have had a lot of fun putting it together and he’ll be here when he can to make the finishing touches this summer, and we’ll get it in the water in September.”

 

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