Large boats offer advantages including seaworthiness.

That doesn’t mean that anglers with small boats are less serious about fishing.

To them, small boats offer advantages over large ones, like that the smaller boat can fish shallower water, and is more transportable, and economical.

But seaworthiness still matters.

Dories, small boats made for fishing, with high freeboard, were built for rough seas.

They were originally made to be launched from a mother ship to fish the Grand Banks.

As outboard motors became popular, dories were adapted to use them.

Stur-Dee Boat Company’s Amesbury Dory is at home in rough seas, the company says.

The boat features unusually high freeboard, but can be used with a small engine.

The flat bottom enables the small engine to motor the boat to planing speed.

When dories were adapted to use with engines, the boats retained their best seagoing characteristics, the company says.

One reviewer, who owned a Stur-Dee Amesbury, said the vessel, a 16-footer with a 20-horsepower outboard, typically used 1 ½ gallons of gas on a 6-hour trip that trolled and power-drifted for fluke.

Economical, indeed.

But the main thing seems to be that this former work horse of the Grand Banks reportedly survived nearly everything the ocean threw at it.

Plus, the boat is built with craftsmanship, and looks beautiful, yet rugged.

Stur-Dee Boat Company, in Tiverton, Rhode Island, is a family shop that Heidi Reid and daughter Mackenzie Reid took over, once Heidi’s father, Ernie Gavin, the founder, passed away.

Once he passed, Heidi and Mackenzie used everything their beloved taught them, from boat-building to life’s lessons, to move forward, the company says.

The boats are built in-house, and Heidi and Mackenzie hand-lay the fiberglass on Gavin’s original molds.

The wood, like the oak gunwales and mahogany seats, is milled at the
shop, and the finish is hand-painted.

The Amesbury Dory is available in 12-, 14- and 16-foot lengths, for outboards with a maximum 10, 15 and 25 horsepower, respectively.

Many features come standard, including the gunwales, seats, bronze oar sockets and more.

A center console version is also available.

Many options are also available, and the company offers complete customization, from basic needs to complex, for all its boats.

“If you need it, we’ll do it!” the company says.

Boats available also include a cat sailboat, a harbor-master dingy and a rowing skiff.

The Amesbury Dory is a small boat built to be tough and efficient.

It’s also one of the best-looking boats in the harbor.

For more info, visit Stur-Dee Boat Company’s website.