Old Town 120676

mason smith

New Member
I have acquired this 11.5' Old Town Sailing Dinghy from Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks. I have the Old Town catalogs on a stick, and my search of them indicates it might be exactly my age, built in 1936. That's about the time the 11.5' dinghy was first offered with sail rig, and that year the illustration shows two side-stays. Two years later and onwards, the illustrations show four side-stays. This boat appears to have its original canvas, with the paint and filler eroded away on the bottom. I have attempted to waterproof it from the waterline down with Glu-Vit, which seems ideal for the purpose, and will try it on the water very soon. A charming boat, rugged and capacious, a proper tender for a serious yacht.
 
Congratulations, the Old Town dinghy with serial number 120676 is a nine foot long, AA (or top) grade, sailing dinghy with a metal centerboard, open mahogany gunwales, a 24 inch mahogany deck, mahogany seats, a keel, outside stems, a floor rack, a 72 square foot sail, and roped gunwales. It was built between February and June, 1937. The original exterior paint color was white with a tropical green bottom. It shipped on June 11th, 1937 to New York City. A scan showing this build record can be found below.

This build record scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will donate, join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to renew.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your dinghy. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson



120676.jpg
 
Sue Audette kindly shared George Cook's personal log book from this era and it appears that he completed this dinghy as shown below. George was one of Old Town's master builders and eventually ran the entire wood shop there. His picture from the back cover of the 1979 catalog is also shown below.

Benson


120676-GC.jpg




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That's great stuff, Benson. About the dinghy 120676 (did I get that right?) I hope I reached you with the message that the boat sailed pitifully slowly with the gunther sail that came on the spars, probably homemade, and so last weekend I put a Goodboat sail rig on it, since it happens to have an identical mast and a 72 sq ft sail. My goodness what a difference! All I need to do to make that happy for all the family is rig a tack downhaul, necessary on a standing lug. Or find or have Douglas make a proper gunther sail. If I could get him to do it.
Just finished two Old Town canoe restorations and am painting final coat on a new Goodboat custom order. Next, back to work on that rare Lapstrake 19 we have, from 1963, that was furnished with an early Mercruiser outdrive (now has a slightly more recent one). I believe Sue put a photo of it in the OT history. It was leaking a little too fast two years ago and has been in the tent waiting for me since.
 
I did get your private message and responded saying that the Alden design for this dinghy is number 540 and more information is available from the MIT museum at http://www.aldendesigns.com/ once they open again. The detail from these plans shown below may help recreate the original sail. Take care and let me know if I can do anything else to help.

Benson



OT-Alden-540-Gooseneck.jpg
 
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