Hello from Paris, france

ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• May 31, 2013

• #1

Hello paddlers

Last year I've been told about the WCHA. I've waited a long time before registering.

I've bought a canvas Peterborough and am looking for informations about it. I'll post picture of it when I'll have learned how to.
In France we very seldom meet wooden canoes on rivers. I've been kayakist for ten years and have never met any.

For those who speak french, we're opening an new forum about wooden canoes (in france) : forum Canoë Bois.

I hope I'll be courageous enough to read you in english to learn the many things I need to know.
Quite proud to become a member of this forum!

hans

 

Last edited: May 31, 2013

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Bill TRAPPEUR

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• May 31, 2013

• #2

Welcome to the forum WCHA Hansrick, you took me of speed to make known your new site here.
Good reading of the various posts

 

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ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• May 31, 2013

• #3

4,47 m * 97,5 cm (89 à inside), depth : 33 cm

I've been to Drangonfly but couldn't manage to identify this boat. Didn't know how to do. May be I didn't understand english.

 

Last edited: May 31, 2013

Dick Persson

Canoe builder & restorer

• Jun 1, 2013

• #4

Welcome to WCHA Hans.

Is it possible that the overall length of your canoe is 15 feet (4.57 m) and its width 36 inches (91.44 cm) measured to the outside hull not including the gunnel?

If so it is most likely an early Peterborough “Trapper”, model # 90 built sometime between 1909 and 1914.

Dick Persson
Buckhorn Canoe Company
www.buckhorncanoes.com

 

Last edited: Jun 1, 2013

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ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• Jun 2, 2013

• #5

Thank you Dick

No it is 14,6 feet long or I mistook when measuring. I'll check it again.

Could you please help me know how to measure a boat in order to identify it ?

Width : inside / outside the gunwales ? at the widest width if wider than gunwales ?
Length : at the top of bow and stem / at the longest length (if bow and stem are shorter) ?

 

Last edited: Jun 2, 2013

Dick Persson

Canoe builder & restorer

• Jun 3, 2013

• #6

Hi Hans,

Length is measured in a straight line between the extreme points on the outside of the canoe.
Width is measured at the canoes widest point at the outside of the hull (not including the gunnels).
Depth from the top of the gunnels to the outside hull bottom at the canoe midships.

See sketch below.

Dick Persson
Buckhorn Canoe Company

 

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ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• Jun 3, 2013

• #7

Thank you Dick

So I'll have to do it again. That'll change a little bit.
Would the thwart tag be a help to think about dates?

 

Last edited: Jun 3, 2013

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ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• Nov 10, 2013

• #8

Hi

For those who speak French, a website about wooden canoes in France Héritage Canoë Bois.
About boats, construction, literature, history...

 

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ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• Jun 17, 2015

• #9

Hello

Just bought a new one today by that beautiful day. Hopping she's Canadian...
Don't have measured yet.

I've never restored a wood and canvas. I've done it on all-wood.
In France, there's no store selling canvas for canoes. I'll have to buy it in a cloth store. So which specifications for the canvas please ?
Would you keep all those little keels under the hull or prefer to remove them ?

 

Last edited: Jun 17, 2015

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ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• Jun 17, 2015

• #10

 

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ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• Jun 22, 2015

• #11

She's not home so I can't have her dimensions now. Could you tell me which builder(s) it could be so that I look for informations in the right direction, please ?

Would you keep all the out false keels or would you remove them ?

 

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Larry Meyer

Wooden Canoes are in the Blood

• Jun 22, 2015

• #12

It certainly could be Canadian, one of the many models made by the Chestnut Canoe company.

The mast step could be original but the two long battens on the interior floor and the many superfluous keel strips on the bottom of the hull are almost certainly not original. In fact I have never seen a wood canvas canoe thus modified. It suggests someone’s idea of a way to stiffen the hull and protect the bottom from very rough waterways.

 

Greg Nolan

enthusiast

• Jun 22, 2015

• #13

I suspect that the wear strips were added to the bottom, not to protect against rough waterways, but to protect the bottom when the boat was pulled onto a rocky home beach -- and judging from the paint wear, such protection may have been necessary if the canoe was used in that fashion. If you are planning to use your canoe more gently, and to carry it onto the shore rather than dragging it, there would be no dwonside to removing the wear strips, and you would certainly get a lighter canoe.

 

Andre Cloutier

Firestarter. Wicked Firestarter.

• Jun 22, 2015

• #14

The strips look like they were put on with tacks or small clench nails, they will need to come off of course to canvas the canoe but you will want to go very slowly if so as they will want to tear out of the ribs. I would think you would have luck in grinding off the heads and pushing the body up through the ribs, in which case they shouldnt ruin the rib or look too bad. The boat looks like it might be one of the Canadian Canoe Co. models, rather than Chestnut. They used the square seat spacers on the bolts early on, and the ribs dont have any taper. The half ribs are unusual for a Canadian boat, but it looks in fine shape.
Andre

 

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ansrick

Curious about Wooden Canoes

• Jun 23, 2015

• #15

Thank you for your answers.

She looks like a Chestnut, a Peterborough, a Canadian Canoe Co. I think those companies worked together, that's why boats where similar.
I'll come back to you when I have measured her.

About the wear strips : Canadian boats imported in France were equipped with those strips because here in Europe, rivers are smaller than in America, so "rockier". The boats had to be well protected. Many Lakefields, Peterboroughs, Chestnuts imported have those strips in France.