Need ID Help...

smallboatshop

Restorers
Today I looked at this canoe:

18' about 35 1/2" wide and 12" deep
Open gunwale with long decks
Tapered ribs
Massachusetts like thwarts
Short, heart shaped decks are underneath the long decks
Gunwales are rounded and nailed from the inside
Decks and deck trim pieces are also nailed

The current owner's father had begun to fiberglass the hull and had taped all the spaces between the planks apparently to minimize seepage of resin or wood filler. He didn't remove the gunwales, but ran the cloth up to about an inch below them. There appears to be wood filler applied to the hull before the fiberglass, probably to smooth the surface. This filler obscures much of the planking joints at the gores, but from what one can see, the gores are normal.

The canoe had outside stems and a keel which are now gone. I have seen a Kennebec with nailed gunwales - from the outside; but never a Kennebec with wide thwarts. Most all of the Charles River canoes that I've worked on had closed gunwales, and untapered ribs - Arnold, Nutting and Robertson so I don't know how they attached gunwales in their open gunwale models or if they hand models with tapered ribs.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Dan
 

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Sure looks like Kennebec:

- heart-shaped sub-decks
- tapered ribs
- nailed-on outwales
- outwale shape looks very Kennebec-like

Kennebec did offer wide mahogany thwarts, and offered regular short decks, 20" solid decks, and mahogany decks in 36" and 48" length. Seems that during the teens, as open gunwales became available, Kennebec started offering canoes with longer and longer decks, all the way to the K Special courting canoe. I'm at my office now, but I remember catalogs with longer-decked canoes like this one shown maybe on the central spread of the catalog. Seems like those images showed closed gunwale canoes, but much like yours otherwise.

Seems all the companies did (or at least could) dress up their canoes for the fancy pleasure market. We have an E.M. White, of all makers, that has beautiful long mahogany decks and wide mahogany thwarts!

Michael
 
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Looks a lot like my Kennebec 3A Deluxe....... Right down to the sub-decks.
Any nail holes on the bow coaming where the Kennebec tag was likely to be found?
 
A Kennebec should also have a serial number on the stem. One style of Kennebec tag is attached below.

Benson
 

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