Hello Jim-- Sorry for the delay in getting this information to you--- most of our volunteers who look up build records are at our annual assembly... and my computer was down for a while. But here you are:
Old Town 198674 is an 18 foot guide model canoe completed December of 1973 to February 1974. It has a keel and was originally dark green. It was shipped to the Huff 'N' Puff Sport Center in Mankato, MN, on March 27, 1974.
The scan of this record is attached below-- click on it to get a larger image. This scan and several hundred thousand others 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 anyone reading this will join or renew membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See
http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://www.wcha.org/join.php to renew.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description don't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
I believe there was a period of time when aluminum stem bands were used... you might try using the "search" function above and typing in "aluminum stem bands", or wait until someone else jumps in with an answer to that and your staining question.
Kathy