Please help (new member) given two older Old Town Canoes

Paul Varadian

Curious about Wooden Canoes
I would be very appreciative to learn any history of two 15 ft. Old Town canoes which were given to me, serial numbers 119072 and 181903. 119 came with blue or green canvas, now gone and 181 with red canvas now removed. They both need a good home, so let's start with their history. Many thanks in advance, Paul (MA)
 
Welcome to the WCHA! Someone who has the records will be along with the information on your two canoes.

If you can, we're always interested to see pictures of canoes, in all stages of repair and disrepair... we call it "Canoe Porn"...

Are you interested in fixing these up? If you're in MA, there's a local Chapter not far from you, with people who are willing to offer advice, and who knows, maybe even a helping hand...
 
Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 119072 is a 16 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Yankee model with red Western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, oak decks, oak thwarts, oak seats, and a keel. It was built between September, 1936 and February, 1937. The original exterior paint was similar to the one shown at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design33.gif which was known as the design number 33. It shipped to Lake George, New York on July 23rd, 1937.

The Old Town canoe with serial number 181903 is a 15 foot long Lightweight model with a keel. It was built between November, 1968 and January, 1969. The original exterior paint color was red. It shipped to Sturbridge, Massachusetts on July 2nd, 1969. Scans showing both of these build records can be found below.

These scans and several hundred thousand more 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/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will donate, join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to join.

It is also possible that you could have other numbers or manufacturers if these descriptions don't match the canoes. A classified listing at http://www.wcha.org/classifieds is usually the fastest way to find good new homes for canoes like this. The outline at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/16513/ explains the process. The information at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/57/ may be useful if you are not sure how to price them. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson



119072.jpg




181903.jpg
 
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