Crosswordese.Com



Word of the Day – Thursday, October 19th

 


Home

Word of the Day

Archives

Clever Clue of the Month

The Cruciverbalist

Links

Daily Email







DORY (DOOR-ee)

A small, narrow, flat-bottomed fishing boat
Common
clues: Flat-bottomed boat; Fishing boat; Small boat; Flat-bottomed rowboat; Boat with oars; High-bowed boat; Lake craft
Crossword puzzle frequency: once a year
Frequency in English language: 44835 / 86800
News: Turning Old Boats into New Solutions
Video:
Fishing in a Dory


A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat of approximately 5 to 7 m (15 to 22 ft) in length. Lightweight and versatile, these boats are used in the open sea for commercial fishing applications, as well as in whitewater rafting on interior rivers. McKenzie River Dory versions usually seat from two or three to four people including the oarsman.




The hullform is characterized by flat sides angled approx. 30 degrees from the vertical, and a bottom that is transversely flat and arced fore-and-aft. (This curvature is known as 'rocker'.) The stern is frequently a raked surface that tapers sharply toward the bottom forming a nearly double-ended boat. Nested stacks of dories were frequently carried on the decks of fishing schooners out to the fishing grounds, where they were then deployed to lay longlines or tend nets.


More glamorously, dories were once used to travel dangerous whitewater rivers, where their superior maneuverability made them preferable over other watercraft available at the time. They have since been supplanted in this purpose by inflatable rafts which require less skill and are generally more durable for collisions with rocks. However, fishing guides on many western U.S. rivers still use drift dories because of their maneuverability and ability to be rowed upstream. Additionally, their high rocker and extremely shallow draft give them low resistance to the flow of water, effectively holding the boat in place for the prolonged fishing of holes in the river. Typically salmon, trout, and steelhead are fished for this way.


The double-ended nature of a dory makes it very suitable for these uses in broken water. As with the more elaborately-built surf boats used in various parts of the world, and the old, pulling whalers, the form of their stern allows the boat to rise to a following sea without the boat's broaching to.




This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dory".  













NA