Old town canoe serial # 107928 or 107923

[amethystrose558]

I am trying to find information for a mint Old Town Canoe. NO repairs have been made. It has wooden rattan seats which are in mint condition as well. I need to sell it as my father passed and it was his. I would like to know about the serial number and the realistic worth of the craft. I cannot quite read the last number, as the canoe is in an awkward place. Thank you so much.

Robyn

 

[Todd F]

Robyn, can you share any pics of the serial number? From those 2 serial numbers one is a Guide model, one an HW model. Pics of the canoe will also be helpful. Both 1931.

 

[Benson Gray]

Welcome, the Old Town canoe with serial number 107928 is an 18 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, HW (Heavy Water) model with western red cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, oak decks, oak thwarts, oak seats, and a keel. It was built between October, 1930 and March, 1931. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on April 16th, 1931 to City Island, New York.

The Old Town canoe with serial number 107923 is an 18 foot long, GS (Guide Special or utility) grade, Guide model with western red cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, oak decks, oak thwarts, oak seats, half ribs and no keel. It was built between October, 1930 and May, 1931. The original exterior paint color was G.S. (Guide Special) green. It shipped on June 19th, 1931 to Branchville, New Jersey.

Scans showing both of these build records can be found below. These scans 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 join or contribute to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See https://www.woodencanoe.org/about to learn more about the WCHA and https://www.woodencanoe.org/shop to donate or join.

It is also possible that you could have other numbers or manufacturers if these descriptions don't match the canoe. The half ribs and keel will be the most obvious way to distinguish between these two. The information at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?57 has a good summary about how to value a canoe like this and the classifieds at http://wcha.org/pp-classifieds/showcat.php?cat=3 have some similar ones for comparison. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the sale,

Benson

 

[John Sand]

Old wooden boats can be hard to sell. When I price something, I check local listings on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, and "Sold" listings on Ebay. Ignore the very high numbers, they're usually dreaming. I price mine at or below the most similar. Good luck.