Barn Find, 15' Old Town Rowboat, was never finished

woodcanoe

Curious about Wooden Canoes
I have made a barn find that I never expected. A local man I met last winter as I was recovering from knee replacement surgery invited me to come over and use a nice woodworking shop that had been built by his dad and sitting virtually unused for 20 yrs. All Powermatic tools so steel still in nice condition. American steel for you! He said you got to look at the old boat hanging in the pole barn so could never imagine what I would find. I am pretty sure this is a row boat built by Old Town at the end of their production of these boats. It is pretty clear that it was taken off the builders mold and the seats and risers installed plus stern knees, deck and seat knees. Then work evidently stopped. It never had canvas put on it as the frames were never cut down to the rail. It has never been in the water but has been sitting for a long time, hung up on it's side, in pole barn in Bradford, ME about 20 miles from the Old Town factory. Stern is good, planking and frames are excellent. In one photo you can see where I lightly sanded a few frames and it looks like new wood! Seats and deck are all mahogany that is still in great condition. The owner and I are going to work to finish it next summer.

There is no number on the stem. I think that is likely because it was not finished. I would be interested in the history of this boat, from some one with knowledge of Old Town's operations when they gave up building these. I know Old Town bought out White at some point. White had been building 16 ft runabouts with 3/8 fir plywood planking with varnished ribs and inside plank and windshield. I have seen those both with the White name as well as the Old Town name. I suspect they went to making them after they stopped production of boats like this barn find as the larger boats could handle much more power than this boat ever would
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. I would be very interested to know what I can find out as to how they did things during that transition. Several photos are attached. More can be taken once I can get it where I can take better picks of the inside. As near as I can tell from measuring in this awkward location it is 15 ft long.
 
My guess is that this is not an Old Town or White if it is really 15 feet long and has no serial numbers. Their boats like this were either 14 or 16 feet long and were commonly numbered as soon as they came off the form. Skowhegan and some other builders made a 15 foot version and these were often built without serial numbers. Old Town purchased White in 1984 but that was long after the era of wooden boats like this. Please post some more detailed dimensions when you get a chance. Good luck,

Benson
 
Benson, Thanks for the reply, I was hoping you might see this as you have lots of knowledge of Old Town. The man that owns this was my home therapy guy after knee surgery. This has worked out good for both of us. He is around 40 yrs old and has no idea where this came from, it has been there for a very long time. I am not real sure on the measurement but will try to get a better handle on it next week. The mahogany seat risers. the seat knees all look very much like similar boats I have seen built by Old Town. So my best guess, plus it ended up only 2o miles from the Old Town plant. Further study will be forthcoming shortly.

Can you tell me about what year Old Town stopped building the boats similar to this? My best guess, since it was never finished was that this was built at the end of production and was just left unfinished until someone hauled it off. The planking and frames are all excellent, and sand up to look nearly new. The tacks are very loose in spots and will need refastening for sure.
 
Old Town did list a 15 foot long square end paddling canoe in the catalogs from 1932 to 1972. However, this had a 29 inch wide transom and the one in your pictures looks like much more than that. The proportions really don't look like any Old Town model. It is most like their square stern model that was listed in the catalogs from 1917 to 1964. A 14 foot version of this was introduced in 1931. There was also a similar 12 foot long sport boat which was listed from 1941 to 1971.

Most of the original forms for these models were kept for many years after they stopped being listed in the catalogs. However, when any old forms were hauled to the dump the crew was always instructed to wait until they had burned past the point of being useful to anyone else. Therefore, I don't think that this boat came off an Old Town form. The Old Town dimensions from the 1958 catalog are shown below.

Benson



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Again thanks for all that info. I hope to get over there this week at some point and will try to get a more detailed look at this boat plus some more pictures. I will post what I find out from that work.
 
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