Looking for info on 1960 Old Town Boat

[greghunt]

Hi folks,

I'm new to the site, just ended up here trying to find out more about a boat I'm restoring. It's ~16' Old Town Boat, the square-sterned Sport boat I believe. The serial number on the stem reads 0596 16. I'm hoping somebody out there can at least confirm if that's the right build year, and any other info would be great. I bought this boat on craigslist, and am doing a complete restoration.

Cheers,
Greg Hunt

 

[Benson Gray]

Congratulations, it looks like you have quite a fun project ahead of you. This does look like a later version of the Old Town square stern model. It was listed in the catalogs from 1917 to 1964 and grew from 40 inches to 45 inches wide over the years. The chart at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/oldtown_chart.html indicates that one from 1960 should have a serial number in the 170,000 range. I checked the records ending in 0596 from 40596 to 180596 and didn't find a match. The ones in the 10596x range didn't show an obvious square stern model match either. Can you send some pictures of the serial numbers and the area around them? Some of the tricks described at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?791 may help you uncover the hidden digits. Did you get any of the original decks, seats, rails, transom, or other parts and can you tell what wood these were made from? Other builders also made similar boats so you could have one of theirs.

Benson

 

[greghunt]

Benson, thanks for the info! I double checked the serial number and I believe that I had misread it earlier, and possibly not seen some of the digits that are heavily worn. It looks like there may be a hint of a 7 then 0595 (not 0596). Then there's a space of an inch or two and 16. So I'm wondering if it's possibly #170595. I will attach a photo that shows the visible numbers. I'll also attach some photos of the boat when I bought it, in all its rotten glory. In terms of wood type, the original deck, rails, and transom appear to be mahogany. I have replaced all of them, but am attempting to save the piece with the original Old Town Boat decal. I will be back working on the boat tomorrow, so I'm going to try to get better pictures of hopefully the full serial number.

Thanks again,
Greg

--> I'm having trouble uploading more than one photo here, but I just remembered I have more photos of the boat on my website: http://www.greghuntmade.com/#/old-town-boat-restoration/

 

[greghunt]

Here is the photo I have of the serial number, or at least the 0595 16 part. There does appear to be the lower part of the 7 at the far left of the photo, near where the wood is cracking.

-Greg

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town with serial number 170595 is a 16 foot long square stern model with a 48 inch deck, a keel, outside stems, and a floor rack. It was built between November, 1960 and June, 1961. The original exterior paint color was bright red. It shipped on June 14th, 1961 to Greenville, Maine. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

This scan was 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 boat. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the rest of the restoration.

Benson

 

[Craig Johnson]

Hi Greg
Thought you might enjoy some photos of my 1951 OT Sport Boat. It is 14' instead of 16' but otherwise the same. I see the deck on yours is plywood, must have changed between 50's and 60's. Mine is all original if you need any details or measurements. Looking forward to seeing work in progress and finished.
Craig

 

[greghunt]

Benson,

Thank you for finding the original record, great to have it!

-Greg

 

[greghunt]

Hi Craig,

Nice to see the photos. By the time it got into my hands, the boat was in pretty rough shape. So it's nice to see photos of one well preserved. The deck looks especially nice. Apparently by 1960 they had changed over to a plywood deck and also plywood seats. I'm planning on replacing it all with solid wood. I'll attach some updated photos. I just replaced the keel, transom, and inner rails. Still lots of work left!

-Greg