73? Old Town FG 16' SN 18759 0

[Jack D]

Yesterday, I purchased a one owner, 16' OT canoe SN 18759 0. The previous owner said he purchased it from Staff Jennings Marine, Portland, OR in or about 1973. This canoe is different from any canoe I've ever seen before in that it does not have thwarts or yoke and never had any. It also has floatation under the gunwales and decks. Was this an option or was it standard?

Along with the canoe I was given a poster(?) about 11x14 laminated showing the construction of OT canoes in three materials; fiberglass, ABS and wood. Along the bottom are four "Special Colors and Designs" #46, #45, #4 and "Breakout". What year was this available?

The trailer is my own design and the second of this design that I have built. I just sold the first one along with my Grumman, thus the need for another canoe.

Thanks for any information on the canoe and poster(?).

Jack D

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 187590 is a 16 foot long FG (fiberglass) model. It was built between September and October, 1971. The original exterior gelcoat colors were desert white on the deck with a red hull. It shipped on May 11th, 1972 to Portland, Oregon. The back side of the card indicates that there were two tiny patches on the bow hull's left (port) side near the end. Scans of this build record can be found by following the links at the thumbnail images attached 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/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/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/join.php to join.

The flotation and lack of a thwart were standard. The poster appears to be an enlarged copy of page 22 from the 1973 Old Town Canoe Company catalog. This is also available on the Old Town Catalog Collection CD available from http://woodencanoe.org/catalog/prod...d=404&osCsid=8c17be38c46cf65459a9a53f548cc904 and http://www.dragonflycanoe.com/cdrom.htm on the web. Some of the "Special Colors and Designs" date back to the 1920s as shown at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/ and on the catalog CD.

Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

 

[Jack D]

Wow! Thank you so much, Benson. That is a lot of information in a very short time.