Penn Yan Possibly

[Ryan Scott]

Hello WCHA, some years ago I inquired about this canoe. I recently completed the shipping from NJ to CA and will begin restoring this canoe to its former glory. Here is what I know or have been told about it before. My Grandfather, Roland Hill was a water safety instructor for the American Red Cross and used this canoe in his instruction when needed. To my knowledge it never had seats, he was from the old school kneeling generation. When I posted before I was told it may be a Penn Yan, which regionally fits with my Grandfathers travels into the Finger Lake region for business or really pleasure I suppose.
The stern stem has the serial number FX49138. Canoe is 14' L

 

[Benson Gray]

IU'm not aware of any known Penn Yan serial number records available so there may not be much more that anyone here can tell you. The serial number format matches the Penn Yan style as described at http://dragonflycanoe.com/id/pennyan.html for their Carry Canoe model from the 1940s. The page describing this model from the 1940 catalog is shown below. Your pictures seem to show that it might have gained a bit of extra rocker in the hull over the years. Good luck with the restoration,

Benson

 

[Gil Cramer]

Penn Yan is quite likely. If so, the screws have Reed and Prince heads , which appear to be a Phillips heads, but have a sharper angle. Frearson bits are available and are very close to the original Reed and Prince heads . The 49 in the serial number probably indicates the year of manufacture. The carry canoe is a very nice lightweight canoe.

 

[Ryan Scott]

Thanks for the info. Does anyone have a picture of the 'Prince and Reed' screws? When you say a 'sharper' angle, do you mean that the angles at the cross are more and less than 90*, phillips being 90*.

Is there a way to move this thread to the Canvas Canoe forum or should I just begin a new one there?

 

[Greg Nolan]

for Reed and Prince screws and differences from Phillips, see http://www.instructables.com/id/When-a-Phillips-is-not-a-Phillips/step9/Reed-amp-Prince-or-Frearson/