Please Help To Identify

[scratchypants]

This one has been in my possession since the late 80's. It's canvas was replaced with fibreglass sometime before I got it - luckily it has spent most of its life in the rafters of my barn.

Some details:
14 feet long
36" outside of outwales, 34 1/2" outside of ribs wide
Ribs are 2 3/8" wide, tapered down to variable widths

Debating whether I should try to strip it. Your help is appreciated.

 

[scratchypants]

Size, weight (bloody heavy at 80 lbs), dimensions, deck shape, and seats are making me think its a Nor-west. It sure would be nice to have another opinion, though.

 

[Benson Gray]

I agree that it looks Canadian. The Nor-West people at http://nor-west.ca/en/ may be able to help.

Benson

 

[scratchypants]

Thank you, Benson. Mélanie from Nor-West got back to me and confirmed that *it's one of theirs.

*Got it right this time. No edit feature on this forum. I swear I know the difference between its and it's.

 

[MGC]

Circling back to your question about stripping it....
May we assume that you meant the inside and not the outside?
The inside looks like it should be sanded and re-varnished. I would not try to strip the old varnish.
If you meant the outside, removing the glass...hmm.. that's a big job and how easy it would be to do will depend upon the material the the hull was covered with and how well it was applied. If it were mine (and I do not like glass over wood) I would leave it as is...give it a sand where it needs it and possibly repaint it. That in itself is a project.

 

[scratchypants]

Circling back to your question about stripping it....
May we assume that you meant the inside and not the outside?
The inside looks like it should be sanded and re-varnished. I would not try to strip the old varnish.
If you meant the outside, removing the glass...hmm.. that's a big job and how easy it would be to do will depend upon the material the the hull was covered with and how well it was applied. If it were mine (and I do not like glass over wood) I would leave it as is...give it a sand where it needs it and possibly repaint it. That in itself is a project.

I was talking about the outside. Without knowing what I know now (Nor-West made some heavy canoes), my next question would have been "how much weight could I expect to shave by replacing the glass with canvas?" Instead, I'm going to pass this one along (as-is) to someone who needs a solid, recreational canoe.