OT 16'er

[Dave Osborn]

I've just acquired a 16' HW 1940 with sponsons. I don't recall seeing sponsons on any canoes less than 17'ers. Is it me, or are 16'ers with sponsons not that common??

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Hi Dave--Just found this post and noticed there wasn't a reply! Denis and I stopped at a fellow's house today to look at the canoes he's working on, and one is a 16 foot sponson OT. I think there was one on craigslist or maybe it was eBay too... anyway, I recalled this question and decided to see what the consensus was. So... my guess is that the 16ers with sponsons are less common, just as you were thinking, Dave. The canoe we saw today came from a Bible camp, and there was also an 18er with sponsons from the same era... and it was quite heavily used, whereas the little one is in dandy shape. It's from 1937.

The canoe I used in a video-- demonstrating where to find the s/n and going blah-blah-blah about various important aspects of a canoe-- is a 16 foot sponson canoe from 1946.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYwVSJhejFA

We have an early E.M. White 16 footer with really big sponsons. Fiberglass, too. Nice and heavy.

Kathy

 

[Dan Lindberg]

Dave,

I can't tell you how common 16 ft OT are with sponsons, but here is a pic of one.

It was on the back of a Wooden Canoe a few years ago, it's Bob Bassett's.

Dan

next to our '58 Seliga

 

[Benson Gray]

I've just acquired a 16' HW 1940 with sponsons. I don't recall seeing sponsons on any canoes less than 17'ers. Is it me, or are 16'ers with sponsons not that common??

I just looked through the Old Town database sample and found that 30% of the canoes built with sponsons were 16 foot long. This percentage is only slightly less than the percentages for 17 and 18 foot canoes as shown in the pie chart below. This is a bit less than the overall breakdown by length shown at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/lengths.jpg so longer canoes are more likely to have sponsons.

Benson

 

[Dave Osborn]

Kudos to Benson!! Thanks for the data breakdown!! Great info! Hopefully we'll see more things like it as time goes on!!
Dave