self edit, first line should be "I've seen dories..."

psimian,

I think it's asthetics but now I have a concern about there being enough meat on the inner rail for the socket...see picture below.  I may have to call CLC and ask if they intend the socket to be mounted right up against the hull (like in the picture) which would angle it. 

I ordered my Dory a few weeks ago and and am also doing scuppered inner rails.  CLC (sorry dont remember who) recommended I not do the risers but instead use the "thru" sockets and just make sure a block (not a scupper slot) be positioned where the oar lock should go and make that block a little longer than the others and drill the hole for the socket into the scupper block..with no riser.   It's a better look.   I hope if we do this and push the oar handles down, raising the oar ends the oar wont hit the end of the inner rail.

I took this picture just now of the arrangement CLC recommended.

The material, by the way, is 1/2" thick and 3/4" wide so you can see there's no room to spare for the socket

https://picasaweb.google.com/114717787929554738224/BuildingWoodenBoatCLCNortheasterDory?authkey=Gv1sRgCKCBzczm_aKs2wE#5958607807765610930

Something just occurred to me in regards to your plan to leave the inner rails off--the middle oar lock socket is smack in the middle of where you would sit for sailing, so if you leave the inner rail off in this area, you wont have anywhere to install the top mount oarlock socket. You would either have to put a block in for the top mount socket, or use an angled socket for the middle rowing position.

psimian,

Good catch, as it happens I had decided to run the inner rails fully fore to aft on both sides.

On the riser issue, I spoke with CLC today and they agree no riser is required.

Click below to see how I'm going to do it...3 more pics after the first one, click "right"

https://picasaweb.google.com/114717787929554738224/BuildingWoodenBoatCLCNortheasterDory?authkey=Gv1sRgCKCBzczm_aKs2wE#5958607807765610930