Request 106880 18

[PMK]

May I have information from the original build record on 106880 18?

Community oral history claimed this was a 1903 Old Town, but the s.n. puts it around 1930, if I read the graph correctly. Sailing rig, 18 ft. My guess is it is a Guide canoe.

This past week, prior to picking up the canoe and finding the s.n., I had fun sleuthing out it's likely age, comparing photos to info on this website and forum. I'll be sending in my membership bucks. Thanks so much.

Paul Kelly

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Hello Paul,

Congratulate yourself on excellent research! Old Town 106880 is an 18 foot GS (guide special or lowest grade) Guide model canoe that was completed June to July 1930. It has red Western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, a keel and was originally dark green. Decks/thwarts/seat frames may be any hardwood except mahogany and are commonly oak, ash, birch or maple... I tend to think oak in guide models, but it could be any of the other. It was fitted with a mast seat and step... any other sail rigging would possibly have come from the dealership. The canoe was shipped to Brunswick, ME, on August 5, 1930.

Although GS grade is the lowest, it is by no means a low-grade canoe! I added a page from the 1930 catalog (courtesy "The Complete Old Town Canoe Company Catalog Collection, 1901- 1993", available on CD from http://www.wcha.org/catalog/ and http://www.dragonflycanoe.com/cdrom.htm on the web) so you can see the difference is minimal.

Welcome to the WCHA--- we appreciate your membership for many reasons. Money helps fund projects such as this one, which permitted the scanning of thousands of records. Glad you found the website.

The topic of our Assembly next July will be Old Town... hope you can make it and bring your canoe!

Kathy

 

[PMK]

Leslie Berry's canoe

Kathy,

Thank you! It is especially gratifying to see the delivery to Dr. Gordon Berry, Brunswick, ME. The canoe, soon or late, belonged to his wife, Leslie. I knew Leslie Berry. She was an old woman when I was a child, very warm, welcoming and lively. Leslie lived in Wynburg, which was basically the Berry family's one-time farm, a small settlement in Phippsburg, Maine. The Berry farmhouse is on the Basin, a wonderful hurricane hole off the New Meadows River. Brunswick is the next-nearest town of size after Bath. I don't know if the Berry's had a house in Brunswick, or if Brunswick was simply a convenient delivery point.

The 1903 story derives, apparently, from conversation between her and a representative of the generation inbetween us, who ultimately inherited the canoe. We are checking the dates of Leslie's marriage and teaching (in the story, the canoe went to Georgia with her where she taught for a few years prior to marrying and returning, with the canoe, to Maine). But perhaps the story related to a different canoe.

The canoe is safely on sawbucks in my backyard in Massachusetts as of today. I'll build a little A frame to keep her out of the weather while studying up on any restoration she may need. I suspect recanvassing, if not required for her to be water-tight, would make her much more smooth and beautiful.

I am going down to the ACA Atlantic Division Canoe Sailing Championships on Lake Sebago in Sloatsburg, NY, later this month. I can only bring one canoe on my car and I hope to sail. I am picking up a C-Class canoe sail and spars there. So I will likely leave this home for the present. But I will take lots of pictures to show off and get advice from that quarter.

The decks look like oak to me.

Thanks again,

Paul

 

[JClearwater]

Paul,
Sloatsburg is about 30 minutes from my place. If you want to stop around an see my canoes including a couple sailing canoes you are more than welcome.

Jim C.

 

[PMK]

Invitation

That's a very nice invitation, Jim. I'll be traveling with my daughter, who starts college in the fall. Just looked up Cornwall on Google Map. We are headed down to Harrisburg, PA, afterward. Would you like to give me your contact info and I can be in touch as we work out our exact plans?

Paul