About Dory

Dory is a 36 foot Grand Banks trawler, built in 1971 by American Marine, Ltd. (The factory is in Jurong, Singapore, thus explaining the company name.)

The decks are teak, and the hull is made of 1¼ inch Philippine mahogany planks attached to oak ribs. Finding skilled carpenters became harder and harder, so, like many manufacturers, American Marine switched to molded hulls a year after Dory was built.

Dory weighs about 34,000 pounds, and has a draft of 3’11”. She has dual GPS navigation, an auto­pilot, three depth sounders, two VHF radios for short-range communications, and an HF single sideband radio for world­wide communications. She has two 120 horsepower Ford diesel engines, and a 7,500 watt diesel generator. She carries enough fuel to cruise over 1200 miles and enough water for the two of us plus dog Sandy, for two weeks to a month, depending on whether we are being careful with water or not. We have a full galley, with stove, oven, refrigerator, and deep freeze. We can sleep 4 pretty comfortably, and another 2-3 if they care little for privacy. There are two heads (toilets, for you landlubbers), and one shower. The holding tanks sometimes seem like they are only sufficient for the, uhh, “aftereffects” of a single wild beer and pizza night, so we have an on-board waste treatment unit.

We became the fourth owners of Dory when we bought her in 1999. We don’t know anything about the first owner, who named her, nor the origin of the name. But it is her original name, as it is considered bad luck among seamen to rename a boat. As of October 2002, Dory was the only documented vessel in the United States with that name, according to US Coast Guard files. (There were, however, about a dozen boats with the name Hunky Dory. No comment.)