New Project

[Craig Johnson]

While up in Canada for Assembly I picked up a new project. Dick Persson identified it as a mid 30s Peterborough high end Champlain Cruiser. Other than being dinged up with a small hole and four broken ribs it is in amazing original condition. Stem tips ,inwale and outwale tips,and decks are all solid and need no repair. The canvas is original as can be seen in this photo where there are no tack holes in the stem other than the ones that line up with this canvas. It looks like the original and only coat of varnish nicely alligatored.It was such a pleasure dismantling this boat. It poured on me a couple of times on the 10 hour trip home which left the canvas and wood damp today. That seemed to keep wood and canvas from splitting and cracking. The gunwale screws were steel but every one came out easily, no hack saw blades or pliers necessary. The keel screws were brass but since they were not filled with many layers of varnish they all came out easily and the cup washers popped right out. The oak keel was solid right to the thin ends. The planking is 4" and I like this little detail on the stem end I hadn't noticed before another thing that I hadn't run into before is that the top edge of the sheer planking was only nailed sporadicly but then the canvas was attached at each rib top with one steel tack 7/8" long that went clear into the inwale , holding the canvas and sheer plank with one fastener. I guess that was a small savings. Any way more to come. It might be a while, there are 2 boats ahead in the shop right now but I just wanted a close look at my new toy.

 

[Craig Johnson]

Well, not so long after all. I forgot to mention that with the canvas off I found writing on the hull 6 different planks at both ends had what I thought might be signatures although I could not read them and they all looked like the same hand writing. Any body have any ideas and is this common?

 

[Andre Cloutier]

I did that before you picked it up to fool you. Told you it was nice.....lol

 

[millie_sass]

Unless Andre is a magician - remember that my ~1920 604 had the model number written on the outside of the ribs - and was only visible when some planks were removed. I have always thought that the building crew must have had ribs sitting around in groups, so had labeled a couple of the ribs in order to keep the set together. That's the story that I made up to account for those 604 markings. Maybe the writing on your new canoe has something to do with the exact pieces of planking - maybe the order for the next day work? Just a guess. Looks like a great project. (and wasn't it a wonderful Assembly!)

 

[Craig Johnson]

Got back to work on this project this week. Have two boats canvases and filled.My Mermaid has two more weeks to cure and the Seliga l am working on is two weeks behind that. I have been waiting for a cloudy but warm day to do the stripping which hasn’t happened yet so I refinished the original maple thwarts and made new maple seats. I just decided to make padded inserts for the seats and then they can always be drilled and caned in the future if someone desires.

Hope to get the stripping done this week so I can get the repairs done before it’s time to paint the Mermaid.

 

[Howie]

Seems to me I'm seeing 'No 1 Model' in one of the pics.

 

[Craig Johnson]

Seems to me I'm seeing 'No 1 Model' in one of the pics.

Sorry Howie. Not sure what you are referring to.

 

[JClearwater]

I can see it too. In the 4th picture of your second post it says "No 1 Model". At least that's what it looks like to me.

 

[Craig Johnson]

I see now. I thought you were referring to the most recent photos and didn’t go back to look at the others. Bit of a Rorschach test I’m afraid or maybe the power of suggestion.I guess we will ll leave it up to the next guy that re-canvases it.