1979 Old Town Tripper - Yellow

[NSW]

I just purchased a new to me yellow Old Town Tripper in Royalex/ABS. Based one the hull identification number it was made in 1979, possibly May (79J at the end).

Is anyone able to provide me more info on this canoe?

SN: 226516

Also on the HIN on the other metal plate is: XTC26516M79J

Thanks for any info that can be provided!

 

[Benson Gray]

Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 226516 and hull identification number XTC26516M79J is a 17 foot long Chipewyan Tripper model with aluminum inserts in the rails that weighed 81 pounds. It was built in May, 1979. The original exterior color was yellow. It shipped on May 24th, 1979 to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The back side of the card shows that it had some dirt marks on the outside of the bottom. Scans showing both sides of this build record can be found below.

These scans and several hundred thousand more 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 donate, join, or renew your membership 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 another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. Page four of the 1979 catalog at https://www.woodencanoe.org/_files/ugd/537308_8ea082c37bef481f98a72b03f1d9df9e.pdf has more details. Let me know if you have other questions or need anything else.

Benson

 

[NSW]

Thanks Benson! I do have two further questions.

Did all Chipewyan Trippers at that time come with only a single thwart as shown in the catalog? Mine has both a yoke and thwart, which appear to be crafted from the same type of wood and use the same shape. These may be later upgrades.

What is the Sprayed Hull: 3A79-1 referring to?

 

[Benson Gray]

The Tripper models were shown in the catalogs with a single thwart from 1973 to 1979. The stern quarter thwart first appeared in the 1980 catalog so yours may have been a transition version. The yoke was always an option but wasn't shown as standard in the middle until the 1987 catalog. Yours is likely to be a later upgrade.

My brother was working at the factory in 1979 and reports that the "3A79-1" was a sheet number to "track the success or failure of different layups." Old Town would specify different thicknesses of the components in different areas of the sheets they purchased from Uniroyal. Some of the early canoes had a problem with 'soft ends' so they increased the amount of substrate there to resolve that issue for example. This line was labeled "Sprayed Hull" since the format of the build record was still left over from when they were primarily making fiberglass canoes and spraying the gelcoat in the hull was the first step.

Let me know if this doesn't answer your question.

Benson