I chose the Spira International Tillamook Pacific City dory design for my first build. Aside from the remarkable feeling of splashing a boat built with your own hands, this boat is a deeply personal accomplishment for me. One of my ancestors, Capt. Joseph Bernard, was an Arctic explorer (and boatbuilder) who spent ten years wintered over between Nome, Alaska, and Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic in his little gas schooner TEDDY BEAR at a time when much of the region remained uncharted.