Info for Old Town #76588

Mark Greimel

New Member
Hello-

I am researching the manufacturing details for my Old Town eighteen feet long wooden canoe, which I will be restoring this winter. I would be really happy to get a copy of the company build sheet. I am also wonderig about some short metal pieces on the canoes bottom which are attatched thru the canoe bed, and what they may have been for.

Thank You,
Mark
 
The Old Town canoe with serial number 76588 is 17 feet long so you may want to verify the length and the serial number. The ones with numbers 76538 and 76533 are 18 feet long. Copies of these three build records are attached below.

These scans and several hundred thousand others were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/join.php to join.

You may have another number or manufacturer if these descriptions don't match your canoe. It would be helpful if you could attach pictures of your canoe, the serial numbers, the decks, and the "short metal pieces" to help identify them. Please reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson
 

Attachments

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Hi Mark,

The three canoes that go with the scans above are different enough so that it should be easy to tell if any of them matches what you have. If you want help distinguishing your canoe from those in the build records, please post pictures (we like them anyway)... and pictures of the metal piece you mention would help too. Sometimes such things are a "fix" of some sort, but sometimes they are a genuine canoe-thing.

The information on Old Town canoes found at www.dragonflycanoe.com/id/ (scroll to Old Town on the left) helps with distinguishing the different deck types, and may help you decide what model you have, and which record might fit your canoe. The older Otca and the deck that would be on the HW are pictured there.

Consider the location that the canoe was shipped to-- most of the time, a canoe will live its life fairly close to its original destination.

Sometimes posting a digital picture of the serial number and having many pairs of eyes decipher the digits is the best way to be certain.

Good luck!
Kathy
 
Ot 76588

Hi mark the little metal bars in the bottom of your canoe are for holding in a floor rack. The second build sheet for the OTCA is the only one showing a floor rack being installed. good luck with your search. Jon K.
 
Updated info on this wooden canoe



Thank you for your help on this. The canoe is absolutely eighteen feet long. It has brass diamond shaped insets in the wooden rail. I again looked at the serial number, and found that it is different than I first reported. The canoe was purchased from Madison Wisconsin, and the seller indicated it had been used alot in the boundary waters up north.

The serial number is either 785883, or 185883, and several inches away it is stamped 18.

I will post some photos of the canoe as soon as possible. Thanks for your help.

Mark
 
Hi Mark. We'll need pictures to figure out what you have. Old Town 185883 is a 14 foot fiberglass canoe from 1971. Our records don't go as high as 785883-- you could contact Old Town to see if a record for that number exists, but before surrendering the three dollars to do that, there's more detective work that can be done here.

It's possible you have a canoe by another builder that had diamond head bolts added during restoration.

Meanwhile, I'll try a couple other numbers...

Kathy
 
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