Norumbega Chapter Rehab Project Boat

[Fitz]

Well, we have a project canoe for Assembly 2015!

It's a long story, but Jim Clearwater noticed a canoe on Craigslist and suggested that we follow up on it. Everybody we know has too many projects already, but Steve suggested it would make another great Chapter rehab project and I agree.

It is a Robertson sailing canoe, serial no. 420 35. 16 footer. We have stashed it away until we can get the Chapter working on it. It will be a fairly easy project, the ends need help, but the rest of it is pretty solid and straight forward. Unfortunately, it did not come with mast, sail, spars, rudder or leeboards. The seats and thwarts have the Robertson Stamp. The deck cutouts have been modified some by squirrel/porky teeth.

It would be overly optimistic to try to have it ready for 2014, let's do it right and have it ready for 2015.

Here are some poor phone photos. It was rather a tough day here for photography too. We will have a chance for plenty of photos as the rehab progresses.

Cheers.

Fitz and Steve

 

[Dan Miller]

I like that one! Looking forward to seeing progress.

Dan

 

[kayamedic]

Looking forward to hearing of project progress. Ought to serve as a kick in the butt for us and our Robertson. Would be neat to have them side by side in 2015 at Assembly.

 

[Fitz]

Sailing Gear?

Yeah, Dan even the varnish on this one is decent. I am just curious. Do you know of a catalog page showing Robertson sailing gear? If so, I would like to see it. I have some Robertson page copies somewhere and will see if I can find them too.

Thanks,

Fitz

 

[Benson Gray]

Do you know of a catalog page showing Robertson sailing gear?

Dan appears to be away at the moment so I will jump in with their 1938 advertisement as shown below. Yours could be an Old Town rig. Does it have any rudder gudgeons?

Benson

 

[Dan Miller]

In addition to what Benson posted, the earlier catalogs show the leeboards (see attached). Apart from that, there is not much information. I can't recall seeing leeboards that look like those shown in the catalog.

I also wondered if the sail rig was a later addition.

 

[Fitz]

Yeah, now that you both mention it, a later Old Town rig is a very distinct possibility. The mast step suggested Old Town to me when looking at it. The mast ring in the seat, not so much, but it very well have could have been added to the original Robertson seat. If so, both the step and the seat ring were well done/installed. The canoe does have gudgeons, but I did not scrutinize them in the rain, and the photo did not work. I suspect the gudgeons could be Old Town too (although at first glance, I thought they were heavier construction than usual gudgeons). We will look hard at these details when working on the canoe.

Many Thanks,

Fitz.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Nice! at least you dont have to cane the seats. God, i hate caning.

 

[SWEETWATER]

Nice i cant wait