'73 Old Town Ojibway (Fiberglass)

[Angela Raig]

I recently spent a few years living on the water and my friend gifted me a beautiful '73 Old Town canoe. Loved taking it out but, have moved and no longer have room for it so, I'm looking to sell it.
It is well kept and in very nice condition - pictures attached (including what appears to be its featured page from OldTown's original catalog, provided by OldTown).

Can you all let me know a best estimate of its value or where might be the best place to seek that out?

Thanks so much!
Angela

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Ooooo, Deja vooski. A friend of mine had one back in the '70s and we rigged it for sail with an old Grumman sail rig. It was the first canoe I ever sailed and with that rockered Berrigan hull and open cockpit it sailed quite well. It is kind of an odd canoe and maybe not as easy to get top dollar from as something with a more traditional shape and style might be, but is is a very nice boat to paddle, especially for river touring (and sail with some additional stuff added). Assuming the bottom is in good shape and the boat isn't too badly scratched up, I'd think you might get $500 out of it if the potential buyer knows enough about what it is and what it can do. For buyers who don't know much about it and just think it's some sort of an oddball canoe, or if it has a lot of cosmetic damage, maybe not that much. Since the seats are molded-in, it is important to make sure that they are structurally solid. Old Town used such thick gelcoat that it is not out of the question to have some hairline gelcoat cracks in highly stressed spots like the seat-to-deck junctions, but it is important that the load-bearing fiberglass in those areas is sound (or at least repairable). This is an issue on any canoe with the seats molded into the deck.

 

[Benson Gray]

The picture isn't clear but I believe that you have the serial number 193109. This is a 16 foot long fiberglass Ojibway model that was built in February, 1973. The decks were yellow and the hull was desert white. It weighed 61 pounds and shipped to Lakewood, Ohio on February 19th, 1973. A scan showing this build record can be found below.

This 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 http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to join.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. The information at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/57/ was written for wooden canoes. Most of the principles there will apply to your canoe but the price range is much lower. The $500 that Todd mentioned is probably the high end. Most fiberglass canoes typically sell for a few hundred dollars. This usually isn't a great time of year to sell any canoe. The classifieds at http://www.wcha.org/classifieds may be a way to find a good new home for it. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the sale,

Benson