Old Town Serial number 176416

[RCleveland]

We have a 16 foot Old Town in for repairs serial number 176416. Great bones, a little bit of damage at the end of some of the ribs. Missing the outside gunwale and, unfortunately, fiberglassed. Fortunately, fiberglassed over the old canvas! They used old inner tube to replace the outside gunwale and there are no seats or keel. The serial number was almost sanded off in an effort to "clean up" the interior. Would it be wise to deepen whats left of the serial number? Thanks!

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 176416 is 16 foot long Otca model with a keel. It was built between June and August, 1966. The original exterior paint color was similar to the one shown at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design46.gif which was known as the design number 46 but this one had a pale blue body with a black stripe. It shipped on August 18th, 1966 to Castro Valley, Calif. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link behind the thumbnail image attached below.

This scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. I would probably leave the serial numbers alone but it is your canoe so you can decide what would be best. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

 

[RCleveland]

Thank you, Benson! Helpful as always!