Info on Old Town Canoe

Griggy

New Member
Serial number 14898920? Last reg was 1985 shows it's 1930. Has been stored in a barn.
Any info will be helpful.
 
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Griggy,

Old Town number 178989 was a 16-foot canoe built in 1967, not a 20-footer as indicated in your number. Perhaps you could post some pictures that would help us identify your canoe. Photos of the decks, the inside stems, the serial number, the seats, gunwales, and the stems and lines of the canoe would be very helpful.

Norm
 
Hope this helps identify the canoe...Thanks
 

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Griggy,

I'm sorry. I looked up the wrong number, substituting a 7 for the 4. Hmmm...? Anyhow, looking up 148989 didn't help. That was a 15-foot canoe built in 1947 and shipped to Oneida Lake, N.Y. I also tried 48989, just in case the 1 was a phantom, but that canoe was 17-foot OTCA built in 1918. Could you measure the canoe from the longest point stem to stern and give us that number? Was it really 20 feet long?

Neither build record indicated half ribs, which your boat clearly has.

It appears to be an Old Town from the serial number and the diamond-head bolts. Others with more knowledge of these canoes might venture an opinion about the canoe. It's undergone some modifications, especially at the stern, and it appears to have been fiberglassed and probably a keel was removed. One interior stem seems much longer than normal.

Norm
 
Hi Norm:
Measured the canoe....exactly 20'. As I don't know much about canoes, only how to paddle one, I'm lost. The guy that owned it has passed away and his son didn't know anything about it.
Where are you in MA.? I have a daughter in Dedham.
Thanks for your help,
Cheryl
 
Cheryl,

I'm in the western part of Massachusetts, in Greenfield.

We'll get your canoe identified. It shouldn't be this difficult. You might take a little cleaning fluid or a light scrub pad to the serial number, just to confirm all the digits underneath the grunge of time. The 1 at the start may turn out to be something else, and toward the end of the stem in your photograph I think I see the number 7. ??? It might be very difficult to get a look at the stem in the back of the canoe because of the deck-seat-motor mount deal back there. But the same number should be stamped in that stem, and it might be revealing.

The canoe looks to be in great shape for its age. I hope we can eventually tell you exactly how old it is, and some clue as to its travels.

The WCHA Assembly is this week at Paul Smiths in upstate New York. Many of the real experts at identification will be there. I'll try to ask if any of them has been reading this thread and may have some ideas.

Norm
 
Cheryl,

OK, I think I found it. After studying the photo of the serial number some more, I looked for #148983. That canoe is a 20-foot CS (or common sense) grade Guide model that was built in 1947 and shipped in 1948 to Caribou, Maine. It had half ribs and no keel, as does your boat, but it was originally equipped with sponsons (which are frequently removed in later years). Its original color was guide special green.

Where had the canoe gone before you received it? Do you know how it had been used with the motor mount?

The scan of this record is attached below-- click on it to get a larger image. 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 and anyone else reading this will join or renew membership in the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/join.php to renew.

Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Norm
 

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