Please help me ID mystery canoe under restoration

[petho]

Hi all!

I would greatly appreciate any help indentifying a canoe I have under restoration.
It is 4,90m long and 90cm wide at the center rib. I counted 101 ribs. Planking/strips are mahogany and ribs are ash.

This canoe was bought in the Netherlands in quite a poor state.







I'm currently in Finland studying towards becoming a wooden boat builder. I found this quite an interesting project due to its delicate nature.
Six or so ribs will be replaced as well as some soft spots in the strips/planks, all damaged and missing parts will be replaced.

I hope someone out there can help track down some history on this thing or point me in the right direction. Any advice concerning wooden canoes and/or their restoration is much appreciated as well!

Thank you,

Peter

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Hello Peter-- Welcome to the forums. It's always interesting to see the canoes that appear other than in North America! Yours is interesting but I personally have nothing to offer you as far as its possible history goes. Someone may eventually jump in with thoughts on that. The canoe appears to be closed-gunwale, and most canoe builders I know about weren't making closed gunwale boats after the early 1920s or so, so your canoe may be quite old. I see it may originally have been set up for sailing, as it has a mast-thwart... and it has bilge keels. Does it appear never to have had canvas? Seems so from the pictures.

Please come to these forums with any restoration questions... and lots of pictures.

I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which probably has the greatest number of folks with ancestral roots in Finland of any other place in the US. My house has a wood-fired sauna out back, and I have been to the local Finnfest. And there are still people who speak Finnish within their family here and remain close to relatives in Finland. (But I, personally, am a mutt.)

Again, welcome!
Kathy

 

[MGC]

It has the appearance of a Canadian built cedar strip but the decal and decks are not familiar to my eye. Perhaps someone more familiar with that form will comment. It looks Lakefield ish but not quite right
The keels seem to be quite common in craft that are posted from Europe.
Cedar strips were regularly exported to Europe but there were also builders in the UK and France that made boats in this style.

The rails are normal for this style and still built like this.
http://wcha.org/pp-classifieds/show...2c-mint-13-27-walter-walker-cedar-strip&cat=3
It is unlikely that it was ever canvased, unless it leaked like sieve......and even then they may have simply bailed like crazy until it sealed up.

 

[Mark Adams]

Given the location, I'd bet it is from that French manufacturer, "les canots de???" I'm sure Dan will pipe up. I for the life of me can't remember the name!

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Does this link help?

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.p...d-quot-Chauvieres-quot-canoe&highlight=french