Launch Day: In the water again, at last.

[Bill P]

Well, it's taken a little bit longer than I thought it would, but I've enjoyed every minute of it.

It is of course a Peterborough Wide Board Rib and Batten, #64.

Special thanks to the WCHA forum for sustaining me through the process.

Regards,

Bill Purcell

 

[Andre Cloutier]

wow

that looks fantastic, great job!

 

[Dick Persson]

Hello Bill,

She looks great, well done! I assume this must be the former "whitewing"?

Cheers
Dick

 

[jchu]

Nice job Bill, and a beautiful canoe. That gets me looking forward to my Peterborough launch this May.

Is that a good place for me to put a decal?

 

[Bill P]

Thanks Andre! Paddles nicely too!

Yes Dick, indeed it is. Thanks for the kind comments, coming from such a guru as yourself I appreciate it. I elected to forgo the canvas when I discovered what the original boat actually was. I've had my moments of shed daydreams, wondering what to do, but I held to your original advice from 2 years ago. Thank you.

JCHU: I got a Canadian friend over to ceremoniously apply the decal! I'm not sure if thats the exact right spot, but it looks OK.

I've got some photos of the boat on the Yarra in about the 1940's if anyone's interested?

 

[Andre Cloutier]

interested?

of course!
I havent seen any threads before this, do you have the history of the boat or how it ended up down under?

 

[MikeCav]

Bill,
Rule #1 - It always takes longer!
Rule #2 - It's always worth the wait.

Great job.

 

[Michael Grace]

Hi Bill,

Wonderful canoe and a beautiful restoration job. "Good on ya!"

And that looks like a great place to paddle. I've spent some time in NSW, on the coast around Kioloa and in the forests of Murramarang and Monga National Parks. Fantastic places, full of life! I've never gotten quite over your way, even though I live in Melbourne (but that would be the half-a-world-away-from-you Melbourne... in Florida).

Dan, Benson, or other catalog collectors- if you're still reading this, do you have and pre-1909 Peterborough catalogs? Bill's nice work has me thinking about a Pete rib and batten canoe that I have. It is a model 79, and I wonder if anyone knows better than "1909-1921" when this canoe was offered. It is listed and priced in the 1909 and 1914 catalogs, but appears to have been special order only by 1921. Any idea when model 79 was first and last offered as a production model? Maybe Bill would like to know the same for model 64.

Michael

 

[Benson Gray]

Dan, Benson, or other catalog collectors- if you're still reading this, do you have and pre-1909 Peterborough catalogs?

I'm sorry to report that the first three Peterborough catalogs on the Canadian CD are from 1909, 1914, and 1921 so that may not give you much to work from. Maybe someone else can offer more.

Benson

 

[Dan Miller]

Hi Michael,

I don't have anything earlier in my files here at home. I can check the museum archives when I go up there next, probably Monday. You might also try Roger MacGregor.

Dan

 

[Bill P]

G'day everyone,

Here are some photos of the two boats I have, taken in the 1940's on the Yarra. Seems that canvassing of them was the thing to do.

Andre, I'm not sure how these boats got here. Maybe it was a Commonwealth trade thing. (I can't begin to imagine what we've got that you needed in return.) There was some local manufacturing of wood canoes (110) between 1939 & 1951.

Michael G, I have a brother in law at Mollymook, about 10km north of Kioloa. Unfortunately, it's 2 or 3 days travel from here so I don't get to see him or that country as much as I'd like to..

Dan & Benson, It would be nice if there was more published information on Wide Boards. Ted Moores has some very nice full page WB pics in his Canoecraft book. Seems like there's a fair bit of literature on Birchbarks and Wood/canvas, but not a lot on WBs. I think WBs are a bit like the Model T of the canoe industry, and perhaps deserve a little more consideration?

Cheers,

Bill Purcell

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Well Bill, I can think of a few things like Hardy's, Wolf Blass, Lindemanns - but I guess your canoe would predate them considerably!

 

[Benson Gray]

Dan & Benson, It would be nice if there was more published information on Wide Boards. Ted Moores has some very nice full page WB pics in his Canoecraft book.

This sounds like a great article for Wooden Canoe if you want to pull it together. Copyright restrictions often prevent us from simply putting information from most modern books and other materials up on this web site. I don't think that anyone has intended to deliberately ignore wide board canoes but there is just not a lot of information about them available.

Benson

 

[Dan Miller]

Dan & Benson, It would be nice if there was more published information on Wide Boards. Ted Moores has some very nice full page WB pics in his Canoecraft book. Seems like there's a fair bit of literature on Birchbarks and Wood/canvas, but not a lot on WBs. I think WBs are a bit like the Model T of the canoe industry, and perhaps deserve a little more consideration?

There is "The Invention of the Board Canoe"; a 24-page booklet available from the Canadian Canoe Museum, but that is about it. I suspect the lack of literature about wide-board canoes has to do with the fact that few of these type of canoe survive relative to other construciton methods (not in small part because most of them were built with basswood planking). Building wood/canvas, strippers, and even lapstrake and birchbark canoes is much more accessible to amateurs, hence the focus on those types in the currrent crop of books. The bark canoe literature also has the cultural background that goes along with that type.

Not that wide-board and cedar strip canoes don't deserve the press; that is something Dick and I plan to address in our book...

Cheers,
Dan

 

[Dick Persson]

The Peterborough Canoe Co models 79 and 64 were offered by the company from the start in 1892/1893 and disappeared from their stock lineup after 1923.

Peterborough Canoe Co continued to build almost exactly the same canoes and used the same model numbers as its predecessor the Ontario Canoe Co.

More to follow in book form down the road.

Cheers,
Dick

 

[crosscuts]

Rib and Batten WideBoards

There seems to be a growing interest in Rib and Batten WideBoards. Curse those WWI left-over floating mines.

R.C.

 

[jchu]

That thing looks like it was on fire RC, is it yours? Hope the other end is intact for replication.

 

[Bill P]

Good Grief, RC, I've never seen anyone try to compost a whole canoe before.

Andre, I am so sorry. I didn't realise we were dumping that stuff over there. FYI, we also make some good wines.

Benson, I'm happy to oblige. Could you outline the requirements to me offline please?

Dan. Thanks for that. Maybe WCHA could sell Canadian Canoe Museum merchandise? Seems to me CCM is not really set up for on line ordering, whereas my experience with the WHCA Online Store was slick.

Dick & Dan. A Book! A Book! C'mon guys, how many more sleeps?

Cheers Bill Purcell

 

[crosscuts]

Canadian Wide Board

Three generations did what was necessary to keep this Canadian Wide Board on the water in Oregon. Note where 2" plumbers tape was placed over every seam then painted over. Planks were patched with easily available red cedar.

The stern was badly damaged, covered with tar then sheathed in thin copper. The wood was so badly rotted and tar soaked that it was necessary to replace 20"-24" of planking and the inside and outside stems.

It is back on the water and a joy to paddle.

R.C.

 

[Denis M. Kallery]

Wow! GOOD JOB!