1914 Old Town

[Ken Fischer]

I'm restoring a 17' 1914 Old Town. It's in amazingly good condition needing only a new coat of varnish, new canvas (which just might be original-any ideas how to tell?), new cane for the seats (which I'm pretty sure is original) and 2 new thwarts, which brings me to my question: The only remaining thwart is the stern one. The others have probably been gone for ages. I'm sure the boat has splayed (stretched, warped, expanded, whatever the correct term is) to the sides without those 2 thwarts to hold it in shape and I have no idea how long to make the new ones to restore the boat to its original shape. Does anybody have one they could measure, or are there plans somewhere that I could refer to? Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

 

[pklonowski]

Which model? I have a 1918 HW, could measure those easily. But different models could have different thwart lengths.

 

[Ken Fischer]

Mine's an HW also. If you wouldn't mind taking the measurements I'd be most appreciative--bow and center thwart. Thanks Paul.

 

[pklonowski]

Bow & stern thwarts are identical, at 28 & 7/8". Center is 32 & 1/32". The canoe is 17feet, like yours, so hopefully they're close enough. Glad to help!