Old Town lookup

Allie Thoms

New Member
Hi there, just bought my first wooden canoe at a yard sale and would love to learn more about it! It’s an Old Town 179768 18. Thanks in advance!! :)
 

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Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 179768 is an 18 foot long Otca model equipped with a keel, mast seat, mast step for a 55 square foot sail, and a rudder. It was built between January and February 1968. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped to Norwich, Connecticut on July 2nd, 1969. The canoe was returned to Old Town for repairs and new canvas on September 6th, 1974. It returned to Norwich, Connecticut on August 1st, 1975. Scans showing both sides of this build record can be found below.

These scans 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/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will donate or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See https://www.woodencanoe.org/about to learn more about the WCHA and https://www.woodencanoe.org/shop to donate or join.

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

Benson


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Hi Benson, thanks for your reply! Here is another picture. It doesn’t seem to have a keel, a mast seat, mast step, or somewhere you could put a rudder. Could they have stripped the sailing components when they repaired it in 1975? Also do they sometimes take the paint off when they have it in for repairs since it was originally green?

We noticed a circle on the floor where the mast step could have been (pictured)
 

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It appears that the original keel, mast seat, mast step, rudder fittings, and canvas have been removed and replaced. The original mast step was probably rectangular as shown below. The circle could be from something else. Can you provide some pictures of the serial numbers from each end? Thanks,

Benson


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