My newest challange

Just bought a 1911 OT AA Grade Otca in great shape - and it's already been stripped!

Has original painter rings, flag pole sockets, cane seat backs, mahogany OS Stems and sail thwart.

Needs canvas, seat repair, 1 new thwart, paint and varnish. No broken ribs or tip rot! Stay tuned!

Gorgeous boat!

What a great find! Was it hiding in the barn of the original owner?

A craigslist find. Owned for 35 years by a guy who bought it from an 80 year old guy who was the original owner.

not much of a challenge

That looks great, very nice find!

Looks nice Mike,

Keep us posted with plenty of pics.

Dan

Hi Mike,

What a nice canoe. Good for you! The condition is great despite the damaged inwale (bummer about that!). The canoe seems to have some interesting features:

1. The gunwales appear to be chamfered, which I've seen on middle-teens AA-grade Otcas. True about this one?

2. The coamings seem to be attached with nails or escutcheon pins as opposed to screws- true? And how about those doubled fasteners at the ends of the coamings? That feature was apparently abandoned shortly after this canoe was made.

3. The caps are very interesting (a la Kennebeck)... I haven't seen this treatment before.

4. Are the outside stems "chubby", with convex sides, oval in cross section? This is characteristic of some of the Charles River-area builders, but we have a 1916 and a 1917 Otca (both AA), and these both have the usual stems with trapezoidal cross section. They taper in thickness and in width from the keel to the stem, but the sides are angular, not convex.

Would love to hear more details. Congrats on a nice find. You're obviously proud, with good reason!

Michael

Hey Michael -

The condition is great despite the damaged inwale (bummer about that!).

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I'll be asking for opinions on the inwale - doesn't seem to be structural (yet) Hoping I can splice in a piece of wood to strengthen it. Same thing with one of the seats - has a triangular piece missing from the seat cross piece to the rail end, about 4" long x <1: wide at the rail, tapering to nothing.You can see it in the photo

The gunwales appear to be chamfered, which I've seen on middle-teens AA-grade Otcas. True about this one?

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Yep - chamfer for about 1/4-5/16" then slightly rounded.Outwales are on with stainless steel screws - probably done when it was re-canvassed

The coamings seem to be attached with nails or escutcheon pins as opposed to screws- true?

Click to expand...

True - escutcheon pins

And how about those doubled fasteners at the ends of the coamings? That feature was apparently abandoned shortly after this canoe was made.

Click to expand...

Just 2 Escutcheon pins

The caps are very interesting (a la Kennebeck)... I haven't seen this treatment before.

Click to expand...

All seems to be original - wood grain and age seems the same.

Are the outside stems "chubby", with convex sides, oval in cross section? This is characteristic of some of the Charles River-area builders, but we have a 1916 and a 1917 Otca (both AA), and these both have the usual stems with trapezoidal cross section. They taper in thickness and in width from the keel to the stem, but the sides are angular, not convex.

Click to expand...

The outside stems are convex and tapered from the keel toward the shear line giving a very graceful appearance. I haven't looked too closely, but the keel is dark, maybe even mahogany.

As I get into this boat, a couple of interesting features have come up...

1) The keel was screwed on without the use of washers of any kind - just through every other rib.

2) The inwales were attached with two nails in each rib - through the planking - even up to the stems. Seems to be original.

I had originally told some of you that the outside stems appeared to be mahogany - After taking them off and a little sanding, they are ash. Was wondering how they bent mahogany so tightly!

More to come - taking my time with this boat - might be worth it!