Please help! Possibly Rushton sailing canoe???

I used to own that canoe. It is a four-plank-per-side batten-seam wide board canoe. The design is distinctly Canadian. "AuthenticBoats" is John Summers former general manager of the Canadian Canoe Museum.

Just about every canoe manufacturer from the 1870s through 1900 offered decked canoes of some sort. The difference is that none of them used the construction technique that yours exhibits, which would be typical for a home-built canoe. Your best bet is still to compare the lines of yours with the various canoes in Stephens's book.
 
for some information on John Summers, see: http://authenticboats.wordpress.com/author/authenticboats/

Dan, I'm puzzled. The picture in post 21 clearly shows a batten-seam wide board canoe. But John's pictures of his boat in posts 1, 14, and 19 show something that, at least currently, is not batten seam construction. Could the original boards and battens have been replaced with widely-spaced planking that makes the construction almost skin on frame?

Greg
 
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for some information on John Summers, see: http://authenticboats.wordpress.com/author/authenticboats/

Dan, I'm puzzled. The picture in post 21 clearly shows a batten-seam wide board canoe. But John's pictures of his boat in posts 1, 14, and 19 show something that, at least currently, is not batten seam construction. Could the original boards and battens have been replaced with widely-spaced planking that makes the construction almost skin on frame?

Greg

Not likely. See http://dragonflycanoe.com/stephens/plates2.html#canvas - this was a "common" alternative to planking a canoe back in the day. I expect this was the way John M.'s boat was built and quite possibly using Stephens's book as a guide.

By the way, it was W.P. Stephens who sent me down this path in life. Not sure whether to thank him or or not!
 
I just wanted to thank all of yours, especially Dan Miller, for so much advice and patience. I'm definitely going along with Dan's home build of a WPS Jersey Blue. I see there are screw holes for something about 3' long to have been fastened to the keel , centered more towards the front of the canoe, and I'm continuing to be fascinated by the actual amount of designing that went into the making of these old sailing vessels.
 
I used to own that canoe.

So John will be practicing his Dutchmans (Dutchmen?) will he? Nice that its back in Ontario - has he ID'd all of the woods in it yet?
 
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