Old Town Guide Canoe

HammondG

New Member
I'm trying to determine what year my Old Town wooden Guide Canoe was built. I talked to a gentleman in NY who said the serial number doesn't make sense because the last serial number recorded in his database was around 200,000, dated 1975. I bought the canoe from Sportsman's Warehouse, Fairbanks, Alaska two or three years ago.

I talked to the store manager recently and he told me the store opened in 2005, so I expect the canoe was manufactured sometime around that date.
The number has a pre-fix of 16, the serial number is: 786940.

This boat has a clear hull finish (no canvas). It has the Old Town name in gold decals on the sides and a red name-plate decal on the bow.
I would appreciate any information as to the year this boat was manufactured and whether this boat was made under contract by another company.

Thanks, Gary
 
The scanned records go to just over 250,000 and the paper records stop around 500,000 as shown at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/oldtown_chart.html so they will not help you. Your canoe should have a hull identification number on the starboard stern similar to the one shown below. The information at http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/hin.htm will help you decode a date from this. My records show that number 786865 shipped in 2002 so yours probably was shortly after that. I believe that the Old Town canoes built at the Island Falls Canoe Company started with a serial number in the 787000 range.

Benson
 

Attachments

  • XTC339497.jpg
    XTC339497.jpg
    285.3 KB · Views: 356
  • 2002-786865.jpg
    2002-786865.jpg
    36.2 KB · Views: 335
Old Town Guide Serial Number

The scanned records go to just over 250,000 and the paper records stop around 500,000 as shown at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/oldtown_chart.html so they will not help you. Your canoe should have a hull identification number on the starboard stern similar to the one shown below. The information at http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/hin.htm will help you decode a date from this. My records show that number 786865 shipped in 2002 so yours probably was shortly after that. I believe that the Old Town canoes built at the Island Falls Canoe Company started with a serial number in the 787000 range.

Benson

Thanks for the reply to my inquiry! I looked for the HIN tag last night and there is none. The only number on the boat is the serial number which is deeply stamped into the front and rear stems. A manufacture date of approximately 2002 is more information than I had up to this point. Do you have any information as to who made the Guide model prior to Island Falls Canoe?

Thanks, Gary
 
Do you have any information as to who made the Guide model prior to Island Falls Canoe?

I believe that your canoe and others with serial numbers below 787000 were built at the original Old Town Canoe Company factory in Old Town, Maine. Island Falls Canoe is the only contractor who has built wooden Old Town canoes and boats outside of the factory in recent history to my knowledge. There is some evidence that B. N. Morris built some all-wood racing canoes for Old Town at his house in Veazie during the late 1920s and some four foot long model canoes appear to have been built outside of the factory by employees. These are the only other examples of wooden canoe contracting that Old Town has done as far as I know.

Benson
 
Last edited:
Old Town Guide Serial Number

I believe that your canoe and others with serial numbers below 787000 were built at the original Old Town Canoe Company factory in Old Town, Maine. Island Falls Canoe is the only contractor who has built wooden Old Town canoes and boats outside of the factory in recent history to my knowledge. There is some evidence that B. N. Morris built some all-wood racing canoes for Old Town at his house in Veazie during the late 1920s and some four foot long model canoes appear to have been built outside of the factory by employees. These are the only other examples of wooden canoe contracting that Old Town has done as far as I know.

Benson

Benson, thank you so much for the information. Maybe there was a paper sticker containing the HIN#. I really don't remember, but I'm sure I would have removed it. In any event, the boat was on an Old Town rack which was suspended from the ceiling when I purchased it. So I could only look up into the inside of the hull.

When I picked the boat up, I noticed some cracks in the fiberglass (on the outside of the hull). I left the boat in an un-heated storage container over the winter and the original cracks turned into a spider-web of cracks. I've owned it for a couple of years, but the boat has never been in the water.

I've discussed possible repairs with Jerry at Island Falls and also Al Bratton down in PA. Al told me most builders had gone to epoxy by 1987. I guess Old Town was using Polyester prior to the change over to epoxy. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks, Gary
 
I guess Old Town was using Polyester prior to the change over to epoxy. Any thoughts on that?

I don't know if Old Town ever switched from polyester to epoxy based resins. A good local fiberglass repair shop should be able to tell the difference with a scratch and sniff evaluation. Good luck,

Benson
 
Back
Top