early old town fiberglass question. sorry not wood.

[bob goeckel]

i bought this over the weekend as a knockaround. seems to have a great shape. 14'. did old town use early forms or offsets from old canoes to build these? it looks to be early 70's. it has a wood parquet floor impregnated in the bottom

 

[bluedcanoed]

That floor should be end grain balsa wood for light weight and strength.

Cheers,
Bob

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

That would be a Carleton 14 and yes, the bottom has a layer of end-grain balsa (comes as a sheet, 3/16"-1/4" thick blocks temporarily held together with a mesh-like layer on one side). It adds stiffness to the bottom layup with less weight than solid glass, but also a bit of liability in that you don't want to puncture it and get water soaking in there. The designs are similar to some of their old wooden boats, though usually a bit more flat-bottomed. By that time, I'm pretty sure they just made a normal plug and pulled a mold off of it. There isn't much to be gained by taking molds off of old boats or forms when you can start from scratch and get the new one more fair with less work.

 

[bob goeckel]

thanks! it is very flat bottomed. the core is fine no leaks. just some rail damage.

 

[Benson Gray]

did old town use early forms or offsets from old canoes to build these?

A wooden Guide's model was used as the basis for the FG and Carleton models like the yours. The serial number should be stamped in the outside of the hull just below the deck if you want to post it in the serial number forum and get a copy of the build record. Replacement rails in plastic are also available from Old Town although it is probably just as easy to put on a nice set of wooden rails. It looks like you got a good one.

Benson

 

[bob goeckel]

thanks benson!