Looking for information on a canoe and it's value

[Truckee Donner Land Trust]

Hi,
My name is John and I work at a land trust in Truckee California. (Truckee Donner Land Trust). We recently acquired a property to protect the Donner Summit viewshed when viewed from Donner Lake. The property has a small house and included in the acqusiition of the house was a custom wooden canoe, built by the previous owner. After several years of storing the canoe and various ideas for what to do with it, we think our best bet is to sell it to someone that will appreciate how cool it is, and use those funds to pursue other conservation and land stewardship projects. We have zero idea what it is worth, where to sell it or how to sell it. Any insight, ideas, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance.
PS, not a wooden canoe owner but a Wenonah Royalex owner!

 

[Benson Gray]

Welcome, this appears to have been home made. It will have a hull identification number (HIN) on the starboard stern just below the outside rail if it was built by a commercial builder after 1972. The information at https://www.usps.org/national/safety/HIN/HIN.pdf may help if you find a HIN. The information at the first link below should help you value it. My guess is that this is not a canoe that will be in unusually high demand. A listing in the classifieds at https://www.woodencanoe.org/classifieds will usually be the fastest way to find a good new home for a canoe like this. The second link below has the instructions to create a listing. Good luck with the sale,

Benson

Thread 'How much is my old wooden canoe worth?'

Nov 14, 2004

How much is my old canoe worth?

One of the most common questions that gets sent to the WCHA webmasters is "how much is my old canoe worth?" Tim Hewitt's responses over the years have included the following comments:

Any wooden or wood/canvas canoe in usable condition is worth $1000 - $1500. A canoe that is documentable will go on the high end, one that is particularly rare will bring more, up to $3000 for a wood canvas canoe, and as high as $5000 for an all-wood canoe. These high end canoes must be in showroom condition and you must have evidence or documentation of their age and...

• Benson Gray
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• 

Ad Instructions | WoodenCanoeHeritage

Instructions on how to list your wood canoe, whether new, vintage or historic, for sale on the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association site.

www.woodencanoe.org

 

[Worth Gretter]

If the lapstrake planking is plywood then the canoe could have been built from a kit like those offered by Chesapeake Light Craft. You could take some measurements and compare them to the models available from CLC and other builders. This type of construction is called stitch-and-glue because the planks are pulled together with plastic or metal ties, then epoxied, and then the ties are cut loose.
On the other hand, if the planks are not plywood, this might be a "one-off" home build instead of a kit, especially if the planks are epoxied instead of tacked together.

 

[John Sand]

It looks like a very nice plywood lapstrake canoe, I own one too.
Wooden canoe prices seem to be down right now, though in recent years I would have been content to buy one like that for around $1000. When I price something, I compare to others available on Craigslist, FB Marketplace and those recently sold on Ebay. My policy is to price mine below the nearest comp, and ignore high priced items that have been for sale forever. Good luck to you and the next owner.

 

[Worth Gretter]

those recently sold on Ebay

Sold items are kind of hidden on eBay. When you are looking at the item you want, like canoes, in the left column at the very bottom is "more filters". At the bottom of that screen is "show only". On the next screen, choosing "sold" will get what you want.
If Craiglist has a similar feature, I don't know about it. And for FM Marketplace, I have no idea.

 

[sarahwood]

Cool canoe! The WCHA Classifieds would be perfect for finding the right buyer. Might fetch around $1000. Definitely worth getting it in front of wooden canoe enthusiasts.

 

[Dan Lindberg]

A home made stich and glue....not worth much.
As a collecter I would have no interest it it.
You might find somebody willing to buy it, if you wait long enough,
my guess...$500-$1000 if you are lucky.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Wow DL i need to start writing this stuff down

 

[MGC]

Agree that it's not worth much. Homemade kit canoes are almost always over-valued by the owners/builders/sellers. I could write a journal filled with garage sale entries of "cool" canoes that were the pride and joy of (pick a name) because they custom built it in the shed. That's not to diminish the coolness of building a boat, or the effort it took to do it, but the accomplishment does not equate to value. More often than not, these homemade hulls are hiding some beginners mistakes or paddle like a cattle barge. If I were in the market for a homemade canoe, I might be willing to offer up to $500 for one if it's perfect. I would never offer anything close to $1,000 for such a thing.
Reading this before hitting send, frankly, I would not offer anything for one of these. I would rather pick up that Royalex, or a boat I can rebuild.
If the objective is to sell it, ask $600 and take anything close to $500. If it's priced much higher, it will sit for a long time.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Hello John, depending on your organizations visibility and public persona, it could make sense to raffle it off, provided there are no liability concerns. Looks like a nice little boat. It could raise awareness as well as funds, rather than selling rather anonymously to someone if this is a priority,
best regards,

 

[MGC]

Andre hit the nail perfectly on the head. Great advice.

 

[cwf]

Cloutier? Nail on the head?

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Indeed; as M. Cyr will know....
Cloutier is a French occupational name for a nailer, from an agent derivative of clou (Latin clavus) for "nail". Most people with the surname Cloutier are descended from Zacharie Cloutier, a pioneer who settled in New France from Perche, France in 1634 and founded one of the foremost families of Quebec.

 

[ALCEDO ATTHIS]

sorry "cloutier" is the worker who do the nails in factory , just one in France Today (I gave the adress to Samb on a French forum )

Visite de l'usine de clous Rivierre à Creil

Installée à Creil depuis 1888, la Clouterie Rivierre est la dernière usine de clous forgés en activité en France A l’époque, Théodore Rivierre ne fabrique que des semences pour les cordonniers et tapissiers, mais a déjà pour objectif de dominer le marché, à l’instar de son symbole, le lion...

www.clous-rivierre.com

Zacharie Cloutier

Zacharie Cloutier (~1590 Mortagne-au-Perche - 1677 Château-Richer)

Zacharie Cloutier, l’ancêtre de tous les Cloutier d’Amérique, est le père de la plupart des canadiens français.

www.perche-quebec.com

Les cloutiers

Sommaire de l'article : - un saut dans l'histoire - la corporation des cloutiers - l'atelier du cloutier - l'apprentissage - cloutiers et marchands de fer - ceux de CHARRAS aux 18è et 19è - pourquoi tous ces cloutiers ? - témoignage

charras16.jimdofree.com

 

[MGC]

AKA , the "Burlington Basher". The honorable Monsieur's precision strikes are legendary and second to none.
He is known to work late into the night in his shop, wielding his malleolus as he meticulously fashions all form of watercraft under the watchful eye of the raven.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

No nail factories in New France, just houses to build!

 

[ALCEDO ATTHIS]

"Zacharie est, avec Jean Guyon, futur sieur du Buisson, engagé le 14 mars 1634 à Mortagne par Robert Giffard comme maître charpentier "
Carpenter
in 1966 all my family gran'pa grand'ma , father , mother , my brother and me must go in usa with the green card and refind lost polish family
father and grand father must work with an uncle on the place in an home lumber company , they where nailers , but grand' ma have an accident this year , we never go in America (the same story)
I refind family two years ago after near 60 years

 

[Michael Grace]

Hi John - I was thinking something very similar. Given that you're the Truckee Donner Land Trust, an organization that presumably engenders some appreciation for its conservation work, a raffle or sale could in the Truckee Donner Land Trust name could generate significantly more than a simple sale of a random home-built canoe to the general public. This canoe is literally part of the Trust since it came with the property. Clean it well, maybe apply a Land Trust decal to tie it visually to the organization, and either advertise it enthusiastically for sale or, if law allows, raffle it.

 

[chris pearson]

Indeed; as M. Cyr will know....
Cloutier is a French occupational name for a nailer, from an agent derivative of clou (Latin clavus) for "nail". Most people with the surname Cloutier are descended from Zacharie Cloutier, a pioneer who settled in New France from Perche, France in 1634 and founded one of the foremost families of Quebec.

I always thought it stood for Knuckle Head. Hmmmm, my mistake.

 

[ALCEDO ATTHIS]

like I said upside , cloutier is the french name for the blacksmith who do nails, it' also the name the board with drawers to put nails by size and I eard this name for the dishes at the shoe repair shoes
like clefier or cléfier from clef (or clé) ,(key) the board to put all the keys but cellier is not to put cells
any worker in France is a "er" hôtelier , berger, épicier, taillandier tonnelier others in "eur" professeur , laboureur , aviateur décorateur
for me it's easy it's my language so "er in the final part of the name is near to be a worker name
but cloutier is only a name ,not a name from a factory , just the name of the first who work inside , but his sons dont work in .... so the name but not the work at last
sorry english is not my native language