32 ft Sailing Dory Shoestring

Design number 36, drawn in 1968, and 27 ft 0 in on the waterline with a beam of 9 ft 0 in. She draws 4 ft 0 in on the fin keel. Displacement in coastal cruising trim is 6,900 lb, of which 2,760 lb is ballast, a ballast ratio of 40%, for a displacement-length ratio of 156. She carries 500 sq ft for a sail area-displacement ratio of 22.10, has 6 ft 1 in of headroom below, and the drawings allow 9 hp of auxiliary with 25 gal of water and 25 gal of fuel. The dories are all built the same way, and the scheme is the point of the type: plywood planking glued and fastened to the bulkheads and the furniture, so the interior is the structural framing and there are no ribs and no deck beams to work around. Floor timbers run chine to chine to carry the keel bolts, and the ballast keel, cast lead or concrete and scrap metal, bolts on near the end, which lets the hull sit low in the shop for most of the build. The straight-line hull lofts in hours rather than days, and because almost nothing has to be fitted to a curve the joinery goes faster than it would on a round-bilge boat. Flat-bottomed boats are expected to pound, and these do not: heeled, the hull presents a V to the water.

The displacement above is coastal cruising trim, tanks full with the crew and their stores aboard, not a shipping weight. Loading down for voyaging can add half as much again. Plans are sold to owner-builders, and study plans are sold separately for anyone wanting to look before committing.