Chestnut Mermaid - thwart brace?

[D_Sabine]

I recently bought a 12’ Chestnut Mermaid. The original owner purchased it at Chestnut’s going-out-of-business sale. It was used lightly and stored indoors for 10-15 years before it was left leaning upright against the garage wall one rainy night. Despite being brought in and dried right away the next morning, the canvas rotted off below the gunwales on one side over the next few months. The owner decided to refinish it, and stripped the outwales, keel, and canvas, but ended up storing it until now. (storing = hanging by one inwale from 2 spikes driven in the garage wall, but it held its shape quite well).

It is in great shape – no broken or rotted wood with the exception of the ends of both outwales, and the original varnish is still bright. I am puzzled though, by the remains of what appears to have been a brace between the centre thwart and the bottom. There is an unvarnished outline of a piece of wood spanning 5 ribs under the thwart, and two countersunk screwholes in the thwart above (photo attached). The owner did not have these pieces (he did have everything else he removed), and could not even remember the brace being there. He is certain he didn’t install it himself, and the unvarnished wood beneath it supports that. Has anyone seen one of these before? Was it standard on the Mermaid? If anyone has one, I would greatly appreciate photos or measurements of these pieces, so I can rebuild it.

Thanks, Dwayne

 

[Dan Miller]

It doesn't show the whole thing, but you can see in the attached scan from the 1977 Chestnut catalog that there is a brace between bottom and thwart. Nothing fancy...

Cheers,
Dan

 

[dboles]

Wondering

If it is what my friend and I call an OID- oilcan inhibiting device,pretty much a standard addition to any ABS canoe.
Dan'l

 

[D_Sabine]

OID - I guess the last time I did see one of these, it was a plastic canoe with an aluminum pipe running down the bottom....

Thanks for the catalog page Dan. I would still be very interested in part dimensions (and wood type) for the brace if anyone happens to have one of these models.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

I suspect it's the same wood as the thwart above it and it looks like a pretty similar profile. Too bad they didn't use a finer d.p.i. for the catalog printing.

 

[yankee2]

I think that the reason this canoe has this "OID" must be because it is unusually broad and flat. This hull must otherwise be subject to oilcanning, something we don't see much of in wood canoes. It was either that, or a heavier boat. This, it seems, is what it took to make this boat both extremely stable and also 52 lbs. light. To me it seems like a reasonable solution, i.e. another Chestnut innovation. These are boats one might let children use, and I understand, are fun to paddle.