Marblehead Gunning Dory 18' (Beachcomber)
Description
The Marblehead Gunning Dory 18 is a classic double-ended rowing dory, a variant of the Chamberlain Gunning Dory originally designed around 1900 by William Henry Chamberlain of Marblehead, Massachusetts, for waterfowl hunting along the New England coast. Naval architect John Gardner, who measured an original in 1942, praised it as the "handsomest of all pulling dories" and the "ultimate embodiment of perfection of form and function" in his books The Dory Book (1975) and Building Classic Small Craft (1977–1996 editions). Gardner's plans, detailed with lines, offsets, and construction notes, popularized it for amateur builders, emphasizing its rugged yet lightweight design for rowing to rocky ledges, beaching, and handling blustery conditions. The 18' version stems from adaptations by builders like Gerald Smith (17' REPUBLICAN in 1960) and Walter Wales (18' INDEPENDENT in 1970), who used Chamberlain's original molds and added features like a daggerboard for occasional sailing.
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Blueprints
Sails
| Sail Type | MAINSAIL |
|---|---|
| Luff | 11.75 ft - (3581 mm) |
| Foot | 11.75 ft - (3581 mm) |
| Leech | 13.79 ft - (4203 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 71.14 ° |
| Diagonal | 13.67 ft - (4167 mm) |
| Head (inches) | 2 in - (51 mm) |
| Area | * 66.12 ft² |
| Sail Type | JIBSAIL |
|---|---|
| Luff | 7.5 ft - (2286 mm) |
| Foot | 4.25 ft - (1295 mm) |
| Leech | 6.67 ft - (2033 mm) |
| Length Perpendicular | * 3.76 ft - (1146 mm) |
| Area | * 14.09 ft² |
Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.