OT 179872 - 15

[mccloud]

This canoe is presently located in Maryland. Purchased by the father of the present owner, who remembers it being delivered, wrapped in plastic, when he was a kid. Four broken ribs, some stem tip rot, some planking & decks need replaced, but restoreable. Has a front seat with hole in frame for a sail rig. Machine woven cane. Small piece of what may be dacron with the Old Town decal on it is all that remains of the original skin- so a possible lightweight. Posted number is the best I can read from the bow stem - stern stem is unreadable. I will be a consultant to the owner, who wants to bring it back to 'original', as he does a restoration. Please post the build sheet and let me know if I've gotten it right, and I'll pass it on to the owner. Thanks. Tom McCloud

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 179872 is a 15 foot long featherweight model with Dacron in place of canvas, a keel, a mast seat, and step. This was built between January and February, 1968. It shipped on December 3rd, 1968 to State College, Pennsylvania. The original exterior paint color was dark green. A scan showing this build record can be found by following the link behind the thumbnail image attached below.



This scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. 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 donate, join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to renew.

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

Benson

 

[mccloud]

That's it, Benson. Thanks a lot. TM..

 

[mccloud]

Questions most likely only Benson can answer, but others might be interested: This canoe 179872 is the featherweight model. I'd only ever worked on one, and told the owner that I used 11/16 brass tacks with no problem, which is true. The owner, working on his own canoe, bought 11/16, then said they didn't clinch like the others in the canoe. He phoned Jerry S. who told him that OT used 1/2" tacks on the lightweights. True? Was this because of thinner ribs?

The owner was at my house this morning, looking at the way half-ribs were put in. His father had put some half-ribs in years ago, ahead of the stern seat and others to cover wear spots and damage, and the owner intends to replace the old half-ribs while the dacron is off, and do it right. Were half-ribs steamed, bent over a form and allowed to dry before installation?

This canoe left the OT factory with dacron in 1968. We have been told not to use oil based paint straight onto dacron. How did OT do it in 1968, before the days of latex paints? Perhaps some sort of protective primer followed by oil-based paint? The owner tells me that there is no obvious bleed-thru of paint onto the planking. TM..

 

[Benson Gray]

My understanding is that shorter tacks were used on the lightweight, featherweight, and trapper models due to the thinner planking and ribs. Standard half ribs usually don't have enough bend to require steaming. I don't know what types of paints Old Town used on the early featherweight models. It would probably be worth conducting some tests to see what paints work best with the Dacron that you plan to use. Please post you results here,

Benson

 

[mccloud]

We used Kilz water based primer followed by a latex paint on the demonstration canoe that we covered with dacron at Assembly 2017, and that combination works well. However, latex, water based paints, didn't exist in 1968, so curious how OT might have done it. TM...