Old Town Double Ender

[Paul Fopeano]

I just started work on an old boat that I've known about for several years but couldn't get out of the former owners barn! It is a 16' Old Town double ender with spruces rails and seats, ash thwarts, external stems, decks and keel. It is in pretty good shape compared to my last few projects with only about 10 ribs to replace. All the rails are intact as are the stems and decks. I removed what must have been the original canvas finding it was heavier than #10 or #12 I was use to. Maybe #8? There will be a considerable amount of stripping to do but doesn't look like there is much more than the first coats of varnish left. It is a big old girl compared to the last few canoes I've manhandled and I will have to come up with a good way to work on interior without destroying my back.

The best I can come up with for the serial number is 107714 16. The former owner thought it hung in his farther's barn for 30 or 40 years in New York somewhere. He didn't think that his father was the first owner. It has hung in a barn in Southern Maine for the last 30 years.

Any information on this boat you can gather would be much appreciated!

Paul H Fopeano
Maine Made Wooden Canoe Works
South Berwick ME

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town with serial number 107714 is a 16 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, double ended boat model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, a keel, outside stems, a floor rack, and a bang plate along the full length of the keel. It was built between October, 1930 and June, 1932. The original exterior paint color was green enamel. It shipped to Lake George, New York on June 20th, 1932. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image 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. The catalogs from this era list number 6 canvas as being used on this model. More information like this is available at http://store.wcha.org/The-Complete-Old-Town-Canoe-Company-Catalog-Collection-CD-ROM.html in the catalog collection. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the restoration,

Benson

 

[smallboatshop]

42 or 48"

Hi Paul,

For a few years Old Town offered 2 widths in the double enders as you can see on the catalog page. If you look on the build record on the line that starts "via" there is the notation "42". So I believe you'll find that yours is a 42". Also the other tell is that the risers are only under the seats. The 48" usually had the risers the length of the boat. You will see in the description that OT used #6 canvas.

Dan

 

[Paul Fopeano]

Thanks for all the information Dan. It is indeed 42" and the risers are just under the seats. The 1910 catalog reprinted in 1981 describes the Double End Boat as being 38" wide and does not mention the canvas. So they must have made a few changes over the years.

My boat does have the galvanized swivel rowlocks bases although one has a broken pin and the yokes have disapeared with the oars. The search for replacement/repair has begun. There is a fine set of cupped Old Town oars on EBay right now that are too rich for my blood so I'll try to carve a set of oars based on Grant's ADK Guide Boat oars. Grants are not cupped and seem to be more appropriate for the kind of work I hope to be doing with this craft. The 1910 cataloge mentions straight blades.

Thanks again.

 

[Dave Osborn]

Brass or bronze oar locks are a cool look on old beauties like this.
An eBay search will give you options...

 

[Paul Fopeano]

Hey Dave,

I did a total rebuild of a 1929 18' HW with sponsons for a client a few years ago. It had bronze/brass swivel oarlocks. I tried to talk the owner out of putting them back on 'cause he didn't have a rownig seat and to build a new one wasn't in the budget. He wanted them back on (I guessed that he knew I wanted to keep them for myself) so they went back on! I could use them now - even though my own canoes are prety much stripped down to the least portaging weight, I did like the looks of them......

 

[Dave Osborn]

Love the look of bronze and brass!

 

[oldhaven]

Those pictures are an inspiration. I need to get going on my OT Sponson Boat.

Ron

 

[Craig Johnson]

I am at the other end of a double ender restoration. Just got it out to put on the final coat of varnish, next week final paint, then stembands and oar locks. cant wait to try it out. Here are a few pics.

 

[Paul Fopeano]

Hey Craig!

Nice job! That's a real pretty splice on the rail. That must be a AA grade with all that mahogany. Do you know what species of mahogany OT used? I've got a 16' 1922 Yankee that will be needing a complete set of gunwales when I get to her someday.

I noticed on your boat that the rowing position seats have a extra raised boards on the forward edges. Are they to accommodate a seat back of some sort? My boat does not have them. My bow and stern seat are just like yours with the extra shaped piece to receive the bottom of a slotted seat back.

Paul

 

[Greg Nolan]

My boat does have the galvanized swivel rowlocks bases although one has a broken pin and the yokes have disapeared with the oars. The search for replacement/repair has begun.

Check your private messages

Greg

 

[JClearwater]

Paul,

Attached is a picture of the seat backs on my Double End. I seem to recall posting pictures and dimensions of them in another post a while back for someone else with a DE whose seat backs had gone missing. Your boat is interesting in that the seat stringers do not run the full length of each side. Mine is 16 ft. from 1943.

Good luck with your project.

Jim