Old Town Sport Boat questions

[whalen]

1. Is it Sportboat or Sport Boat?

2. Aside from on the stem, it there another serial number somewhere?

3. The one we've acquired had sponsons (it still has a single remaining one...). I think that was atypical -- do we know how many had 'em, how many didn't?

4. Without finding a serial number, is there a way of narrowing down the pedigree in some other ways?

5. What years were they built? Can I see a typical catalog page for one?

whalen

 

[Benson Gray]

1. The name depends on the age. It was listed in the catalogs as Sportboat from 1941 to 1959 and as Sport Boat from 1960 to 1971.

2. The serial numbers can also occasionally be found on the edge of the center transom brace or on the edge of the transom itself. Some examples of this are shown below.

3. The information at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ mentions that 58% of all Old Town canoes and boats shipped without any options. The page at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/options.jpg shows that 15% of the ones with options included sponsons. None of the 122 sport boats in the database subset are shown as having sponsons. How long is your boat? The sport boat was only available in the 12 foot length but the similar square stern sponson model came in 14 and 16 foot lengths.

4. Cane seats were shown in the catalogs prior to 1948 and deck decals with a red bar started to appear after 1954. The width at the stern changed from 38 inches to 43 inches between the 1950 and 1951 catalogs. Other manufacturers made similar boats so please post some pictures for the rest of us to see what it looks like.

5. These were listed in the catalogs from 1941 to 1971 as mentioned previously. The first and last catalog pages are attached below. The full set is available from http://store.wcha.org/The-Complete-Old-Town-Canoe-Company-Catalog-Collection-CD-ROM.html in the WCHA store.

Let me know if this doesn't answer your questions or if you need anything else. Thanks,

Benson