Help with IDing a... Uh Hmm..jem.

Canoeal

Canoeal

Canoe/kayak builder/resto
I picked this one up today...It was covered in canvas (to stop all the leaks many years ago and used that way far a time. It is 12' 10x 271/2" It has an odd planking pattern reminicient of Ken wallo's racine Six planks bottom 2 5" at center top four 3"), but the mahogany decks are configured differently. The outwales are mahogany also. missing the floorboards but obviously had them at one time... Any help greatly appreciated. 100_6643.jpg100_6644.jpg100_6645.jpg100_6647.jpg100_6648.jpg100_6649.jpg
 
Interesting. It looks like it is a feather lap too. I guess markings on a thwart tag would have been too easy, huh?
 
In going over the canoe a little more, several other details emerged. The coaming, little more than a raised deck edging, wraps around all the way from the thwart at the ends to the other side of the thwart in one piece. All of the screws in the decks inwales and in the stems from the inside are slotted. The rib fastenings are copper or bronze, and clench tacked, not bent nails as I have seen in other boats...Some things are obviously repairs like the thwart ends, so I left those details out. Keel was replaced and only nailed on with steel wire nails no help there...
 
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I believe I have figured this one out. Some version of a fancy grade of the Racine Canadian Paddler as described in the 1904 catalog...How do I check the planking for the different woods?
 
I'm not sure. The catalog describes the Fancy grade as alternating strips of white cedar and red cedar. The grade A is described as lapstrake clinker. It doesn't have the Racine "look" to me... but neither have we ever seen a Canadian Paddler, so far all the Racine all wood canoes have been the Indian Paddler model...

Notice in the attached image how the Canadian Paddler has a real strong sheer - enough like the Rushton Indian that I believe both were designed by Fred Martin...

I'd think you've been doing this long enough to tell red from white cedar... :D
 

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In looking at actual photos (not catalog drawings the sheer does not seem so great. Also the catalog sygest not onloy strip decks but one of cedar/ with a smal coaming that extended into inwales. the Canadian Paddler also shows three thwarts, which it appeas mine originally had Check the photo in issue 114 of the Journal and the one from the "04 catalog, and any pictures you might find from assembly of Ken Wallo's Indian Paddler, which has the same planking pattern except for the lapstreak vs smoooth skin...I will check the planking and photo today...
 
Ok, so I went over the few pictures I have of Ken's Indian Paddler and there are some significant differences.
In Ken's the ribs seem to go over the keelson in mine they are under and notched into it (big difference). In Ken's the inside and outside stems came up past the deck. Mine the outside did inside does not.Kens the outside keel fits up tothe outside stem. mine the outside stem disappears..So maybe not a Racine, but very close in shape. I'll add the pictures I took today later, but the planking is all white cedar. Any suggestions where to look?
 
Canoeal said:
Any suggestions where to look?
Click to expand...

Lots of good suggestions, and no good ones, all at the same time!

This first list is builders who appear on the Historic CD that built all-wood lapstrake canoes, many of them in smoothskin.

Bowdish - lapstrake 1889
Detroit Boat Works - smooth lap, 3 planks per side
Douglas - smooth lap with ribband
Partelow - smooth seam
Racine Boat Company
Racine Boat Manufacturing Company
Racine Yacht and Boat Works
J.R. Robertson
J.H. Rushton
Skaneateles Boat Company
W.P. Stephens

This second list is additional builders not on the CD that also built all-wood canoes, again many in smoothskin lapstrake...

A. Bain & Co.
J.H. Bradley & Co.
Fulton Pleasure Boat Co.
Wm. Jarvis (sailing canoes only?)
Minnesota Boat and Power Co.
St. Lawrence River Skiff, Canoe & Steam Launch Co.
Spalding St. Lawrence Boat Company
H.M. Sprague
St. Lawrence Boat Works
Threehouse
Watertown Boat and Canoe
Wilbur and Wheelock

The third list would be Canadian builders, but I didn't try to list them here... not as likely, yet possible all the same.

There is also a fourth list, which does not show up here, because I either forgot about them, or don't know about them yet...

Helpful as a tire jack on a hot air balloon, eh?
Cheers,
Dan, who gets to see next week a decked lapstrake canoe I bought last fall, maker of which may never be known....
 
Guess I need a new CD mine is first generation...:( I took more pictures... I am not sure this helps but I took details of the stems, the section under the keel (keel may not have been there originally) inside the end, and a new profile. Oh and the tags at the thwarts seem to have just hidden the thwart screws, maybe not original...
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