Converting a Texas/North Carolina Dory

[William H. Vollrath]

Gentleman:

I have a unfinished Texas/North Carolina Modified dory in the shop and would like to complete it soon.The plan was to use the original designed flat bottom for Perch fishing on Lake Erie.After reviewing the newer Simmons V-bottom design I would never be happy with a flat bottom boat.Can I buy a proven plan to graft the Simmons V-bottom system to my 100 % flat bottom? The boat will be 19.5 footer with well mounted outboard motor.:confused:
Thanks for your support.

William Vollrath

[Robert Meyer]

You didn't really say how far along you are with construction (is the bottom on?) and who the designer is. If it's a simple plan such as a Spira Carolina dory you might check with him ... his v bottom dories are framed somewhat similar to the flat bottoms. I can understand your worry about a flat bottom boat on Lake Erie. In my youth that evil lake pounded me silly with it's high waves that seem 3 ft. apart and I was sailing on a big Islande. I believe you would be better off finishing your flat bottom dory then selling it and building a Simmons Sea Skiff from scratch or finding a used one.

[Thorne]

What Robert said.

[Gary E]

Can I buy a proven plan to .........

I would guess NO....But why let that stop you from DOING it?

Have you never seen a chopped and channeled '32 Ford roadster with a Chevy 327 V8 engine in it?
Or seen a custom crafted boat that looks like NOTHING else floating??

There's no plans for any of those...

Just DO IT

[ABfish]

There was a guy in WB magazine not too long ago that built a v-hull by first building a flat bottom hull. The v-hull frames were then attached to the flat bottom. As I remember, the v-hull frames stopped short of the sides, and provided a chine step (I guess that's the right term) in the finished hull form.

This is not exactly a "proven design", but the builder seemed to have worked out the construction method pretty well.