DOROTHY was originally designed as a gunter-rigged sloop; an optional yawl rig was never used. Her current gaff rig dates from the 1980s and is fitted with a new suit of sails made by Sanders Sails in Lymington, England. The logo on her ensign is that of National Historic Ships U.K.; she is No. 2477 on the NHS register, where she is described as a Thames Rater, as opposed to a Thames A-Rater, which is a lightweight river-racing craft.
Canadian boating enthusiasts in Ladysmith, British Columbia, were overjoyed when the 30′ wooden sloop DOROTHY was relaunched in May 2023 after an 11-year restoration. Built in 1897, she was billed as one of Canada’s oldest yachts and possibly the oldest still sailing. An extensive archive of papers showed she was built in Canada from a set of lines drawn by British yacht designer Linton Hope. Her design was based on another boat, also named DOROTHY, that had been built in England in 1894, although that boat’s fate was unknown to the Canadian restoration team (WB No. 296).