As she sat on the trailer at Round Pond Harbor Friday, the 17-foot-long dory named Republican looked fast and strong.
When Walter M. Wales and Thad Danielson eased her into the water she pulled at her painter like a thoroughbred ready for a stakes race.
When her owner, Wales, and his wife Karen pulled on her oars, she lived up to her pedigree.
She is a Marblehead “Gunning” dory, a special craft built light, so she could be hauled up on the rocky islands by hunters seeking sea ducks. She was built strong, for she had to venture into the pounding surf. She had to be quick so the pair of hunters could propel her at a good clip, using only oars, without spending too much energy.
Acclaimed marine author John Gardner, in his text “Wooden Boats to Build and Use,” wrote a chapter about the Republican calling her “the ultimate dory.”
After several weeks in the Carpenter’s Boat Shop in Pemaquid, where she was refitted after years of storage, she was launched on Friday.
Marblehead, Mass. boat builder Capt. Gerald Smith built the Republican in 1960 for his own use. Lacking a set of detailed plans, Smith built her on a set of molds.
In 1968, Wales, who had built a similar craft, drew a set of plans based on the Republican.
Smith used his dory for 20 years, until he was 85, when he was persuaded to give up gunning. She sat for years at the home of his son.
Recently, when Smith’s son Lyman told Danielson he wanted to part with the dory, Danielson called his friend, Wales.
“He told me about the boat, and I said it is mine,” said Wales.
Wales, who has a home on Long Cove, brought the dory to Maine and asked the Carpenter’s Boat Shop to refurbish her.
“We refastened her frames, we lowered the seat rise, installed a mast step and redid the fiberglass on her bottom. Then it was just calk and paint,” said Darrin Carlucci, the shop foreman.
The dory still had a hand made scoop to bail out water. Using the scoop, Wales was able to convince a paint store to duplicate the color, a sort of gray-blue-green.
“It was an interesting color, for, if I remember correctly, Smith painted her using a mix of paint he had sitting around his shop,” said Wales.
Rev. Bobby Ives, the founder of the Carpenter’s Boat Shop, officiated at the re-launching of Republican.
In his speech, Ives quoted Camden boat builder Jim Rockefeller, who in 1969, wrote: “The Marblehead gunning dory is the queen of the double enders.”
“(She) is the embodiment of the perfection of form and function. Blessings on you, and on all who row this boat. Amen,” said Ives as she was slipped into the harbor.
Then it was time to try her out.
After a quick trip around the Round Pond harbor with his wife, Wales, sporting a wide grin, said the refurbished dory was quick and light and nimble.
“I didn’t think she would be good. I knew she would be,” he said.
