Old Town 16' wood and canvas canoe serial #148050

[Shirley Doell]

Hi WCHA,
I have an old canoe that my parents bought before I was born. I'm getting ready to restore it, and am interested in what the serial number (148050 16) can tell me about it and also if there are resources available for advice on DIY restoration. Thanks very much, -Shirley

 

[pklonowski]

There are three books, all available at the WCHA Store, that provide guidance on how these canoes were built, and how to restore them.

This is the newest one:
http://store.wcha.org/This-Old-Canoe-by-Mike-Elliott.html

This one's considered the Bible of wood/canvas canoe repair:
http://store.wcha.org/The-Wood-and-Canvas-Canoe.html

Another pretty well-respected book is Jerry Stelmok's "Building the Maine Guide Canoe," which isn't in the WCHA store at the moment... possibly on order, or out of print, but possibly available at your library, eBay, etc.

Someone will be along with the build sheet for the canoe, but it's late 1940s vintage.

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 148050 is a 16 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Yankee model with white Maine cedar planking, open pine gunwales, half ribs, a keel, and outside stems. It was built between March and May, 1947. The original exterior paint color was dark red. It was shipped on June 2nd, 1947 to Boston, Mass. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link behind the thumbnail image attached below.

This scan and several hundred thousand more were 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 canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have other questions.

Benson

 

[Shirley Doell]

Thanks so much; you folks are the Best! -Shirley