And while he had initially closed the book on his rowing career in 2023, the Oamaru rower is dipping his oar back in the water this season.
"I don’t know if you want to call it some sort of epilogue to the book," Docherty said.
Docherty retired three years ago when the International Olympic Committee announced lightweight rowing would be scrapped after the Paris Olympics, leading him to focus on his career off the water.
The 24-year-old finished his electrical apprenticeship and then trained as a police officer, joining his home-town beat as a frontline constable in July 2023.
But Docherty recognised something in Oamaru rower Paddy Spillane — who placed fourth and fifth in the single and double at Maadi Cup last year and won bronze in the club coxed eight at the New Zealand championships — and saw the potential they could have in the boat together.
"I saw him and that was pretty much it," Docherty said.
"I swore that I would never touch a boat again after 2023.
"But Paddy did really well, and I guess the athlete in me thought I could give it a crack and get myself back to where I was if I started early enough.
"He kept me honest all winter and here we are today."
After starting training in May, Docherty acknowledged his return had its challenges, but enjoyed the development in himself and his crew-mate.
"What I’ve really enjoyed is actually coming back to the club scene, coming out of the high-performance group... back to grassroots where it all started for me, has been quite rewarding in that sense — pretty much to give back to a club that gave so much to get to where I got to in sport.
"It’s been great for me seeing so many young athletes that are enjoying the sport for what it is and the camaraderie, the commitment, the dedication and all those really good values that you can build from rowing itself."
Docherty is part of a 16-strong squad from Oamaru lining up at the national championships at Lake Karapiro which begin today.
He will race in the single and hop in the boat with Spillane for the double and a composite quad with two Nelson rowers.
They are in good form, too, having won bronze in the men’s senior double sculls at the South Island championships recently and Spillane won gold in the men’s club single.
"It’s the old saying ‘if you haven’t done it in training, you’re never going to do it on race day’," Docherty said.
"We’ve done the training, it’s just about trusting the process.
"It would be nice to obviously get into the A finals for all three events and then we’re in the hunt and it’s anyone’s game, really."
Rowing has long been in Docherty’s blood — his father, Ivan, is the club’s head coach and has dedicated most of his life to giving back to the club — but he does not see the same coaching path in his future.
"I take my hat off to him, really. The commitment and the dedication to coaching is just as much as it is for one to do the training."
Instead he is quite content to rewrite the script and hang up the oars again after this season.
"I’ve committed to one season and that’s what it was.
"I’d like to keep involved in a sort of backwards step level within the club, but I have no desire to continue rowing after this.
"That book’s going to close for rowing."
