The Old Town canoe with serial number 158214 is shown as 12 feet long, AA(top) grade, sportboat model, fitted with half ribs and a keel. Though not specified on the build record, AA grade Old Towns usually, but not always, had mahogany decks, seats, thwarts, and gunwales. Th canoe was built in 1952, being finished on August 14, 1952. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It would have been built with a canvas covering -- if it is now fiberglassed, that was not done at the factory. It was shipped to Keene, New Hampshire on September 2, 1952. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link behind the thumbnail image attached below.
This scan and several hundred thousand others 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/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe.
Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
As to restoring the canoe, in addition to asking questions here, there are three good sources of information about canoe restoration which you would do well to get, or at least look at -- "The Wood and Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide to its History, Construction, Restoration, and Maintenance" by Rollin Thurlow and Jerry Stelmok, and/or "Building the Maine Guide Canoe" by Jerry Stelmok, and "The Old Town Canoe Company" by Susan Audette and David Baker.
The first is often called the "bible" of canoe repair, restoration, and maintenance; the second is an excellent study of the wooden/canvas canoe and its construction, and the third is a great history of the company and its canoes. These are available from the WCHA store, are often on eBay, or from Amazon. “The Wood and Canvas Canoe” is currently out of print, and so can be hard to get. I am told that Jerry Stelmok has some copies for sale: Island Falls Canoe Company, Atkinson, ME. Email:
Islfalls@IslandFallsCanoe.com Your library may have it, and if not, should be able to get it through the interlibrary loan service.
The WCHA online store also has a collection of magazine article reprints on rebuilding/restoring canoes -- “Rebuilding the Wood & Canvas Canoe” -- for $3 --
http://store.wcha.org/Rebuilding-the-Wood-and-Canvas-Canoe.html This is well worth $3 -- the information is not as detailed as in the books above, but is accurate and can be a good starting point.
If the wood of the canoe is in good shape, the canoe may need nothing, or nothing more than a fresh coat of paint and/or varnish. Some of the material above will help you decide if more is needed. If you post some pictures here, you will certainly get some opinions from people who have lots of knowledge and experience maintaining and restoring this kind of canoe. (In any event, we like seeing pictures of canoes here, especially somewhat unusual canoes like your sport boat.)
Good luck with it.
Greg
