I bought what I believe is an Old Town canoe, but the serial numbers are missing. It is 17' long with a 30" beam. I am used to usually seeing a beam of 35 or 36" - did Old Town make a 17' canoe that was 30" wide? The canoe has the diamond bolts, typical Old Town deck, a keel and brass stem bands. There is not much rocker and the bottom is fairly flat. Thanks.
30" Beam?
- Thread starter cropalt1
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Michael Grace
Lifetime Member
You may have a canoe from another manufacturer, or perhaps someone has dramatically pulled the beam in during previous work. It also may simply be a discrepancy between how you vs. the manufacturer measured the beam. For a 17' canoe a 30" beam sounds narrow. Attached here is a dimensions chart from the 1920 Old Town Canoe Co. catalog.
A serial number and detailed photos would help with accurate identification. There were other manufacturers who used deck styles that were similar to those of Old Town. As for the diamond-head bolts, these sometimes get added to canoes that didn't originally have them.
A serial number and detailed photos would help with accurate identification. There were other manufacturers who used deck styles that were similar to those of Old Town. As for the diamond-head bolts, these sometimes get added to canoes that didn't originally have them.
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Michael Grace
Lifetime Member
Notice that in the chart, beam is listed as "extreme width." This would be at the widest point of the canoe, and with tumblehome the gunwale to gunwale measurement will likely be narrower especially if measuring from outside the inwales, and possibly even from the outside of the outwales depending on the type of outwale.
I agree with Michael that pictures can help in a situation like this, especially some showing the inside stems from both ends if there are any signs of the original numbers. Old Town did offer a 16 foot long canoe with a 30 inch width in the 1929 catalog as shown in the link below. They would also modify standard canoes to a customer's specifications on occasion. What does your canoe look like?
Benson
Benson
Pictures of the interior are usually more useful for identification purposes. Jim listed this in the WCHA classifieds during June, 2021 with the images shown below. He described it as a "late 1950's Old Town" which seems correct. This style deck first appeared in the late 1940s. It is probably a CS grade which was discontinued in 1957. It does look more narrow than usual and was probably made on the HW form. Jim checks in here occasionally so may be able to offer more details. Nice canoe,
Benson
Benson
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Thanks, Benson. I talked with Jim at his house before buying the canoe. I was a little leery because of the serial numbers missing and the narrowness... but Jim told me everything he knew about it before I made an offer. It is a beauty, and I hope it is not too tippy!
Doug Cropper
Doug Cropper
Dan Lindberg
Ex Wood Hoarder
Benson,
that hull looks very flat, the only other OT's I remember like that are the Guide's -
but could this be a late OTCA that has a flattened bottom?
any HW's I've seen are well arched and (to me) tippy)
Dan
that hull looks very flat, the only other OT's I remember like that are the Guide's -
but could this be a late OTCA that has a flattened bottom?
any HW's I've seen are well arched and (to me) tippy)
Dan
It can be exceptionally difficult to distinguish the various Old Town models from the hull shape alone. An end view like the one at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/models.jpg is usually the best angle to judge this. The "late OTCA that has a flattened bottom" (a.k.a. the Yankee model) is 16 feet long and this canoe is 17. The 1906 to 1909 catalogs were the only ones to list a 17 foot long version of the Guide (or IF) model so it probably isn't one of those. The Otca models had long (20 inch) decks until 1956. Therefore, it seems most likely that this 17 foot long canoe with short (18 inch) decks is an HW model (which was last listed in the 1953 catalog).
Shrinking the thwart length will usually cause any hull to become more round making an identification even more challenging. It really is unfortunate that the serial numbers are gone since a build record could probably answer most of these questions. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question.
Benson
Shrinking the thwart length will usually cause any hull to become more round making an identification even more challenging. It really is unfortunate that the serial numbers are gone since a build record could probably answer most of these questions. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question.
Benson
