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.
