S/n 85082 18

[westbrook]

I have a wood and canvas canoe that I acquired in northern VT about 6 years ago.

The boat is 18 ft in length and has a 34 1/2 in beam. The depth is 13+ in. It has a closed gunnel. The serial # is stamped on both the fore and aft stem. It has 3 thwarts that look original. The thwarts are rounded on top, and flat on the bottom. One of the decks had been replaced with something homemade. The other deck looks like a Old Town deck. The thwarts and seat were attached to what appear to be flat head 1/4-20 bolts that were crimped on the shaft to form 2 wings to prevent the bolt from turning in the inwale. The ribs have a nominal width of 2 inches and are spaced 1 1/2 in apart. The inwale is 7/8 X 7/8 inches and are spruce. The planks appear to be western red, but wood identification is not one of my strengths.

I thought I knew what this was until I called Old Town. They found the serial # on what they said was an order card, but it did not specify a length. It was for a Guide with OPEN gunnels. It was built in 5-24 and shipped to Newport, VT in 1925. From what I understand; the Guide has a 36 in beam. The HW has a 34 1/2 inch beam.

So at this time, I am not sure what I have. So if anyone can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 85082 is an 18 foot long, GS (Guide's Special or low) grade, Guide's model canoe with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales (with a very curly first letter "S" that could be confused with an "O"), birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats, and a keel. It was built between May and October, 1924. The original exterior paint color was slate. It shipped on June 12th, 1925 to Newport, Vermont. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

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

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Most of the specifications seem close to the ones listed at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/specific.gif and the dimensions at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/dimens-2.gif for an Old Town. The difference in width could be from the previous repairs or an error when it was originally built. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Thanks,

Benson

 

[westbrook]

Benson, thanks for your input and quick response. The boat had been FG when I got it; which I removed. My recollection is; that when I removed the thwarts there was a lot of spring back in the ribs. The thwarts appear to be a set, but may not be the original. I think I will obtain a copy of the order/build sheet from Old Town. It appears to have been shipped to a camp. Weather starting to get nice here in VT. Might just take a ride up to Newport. One other thing. What is the difference between "Filled" and "2nd Filled" on the order sheet.

Thanks again, Dave

 

[Benson Gray]

What is the difference between "Filled" and "2nd Filled" on the order sheet.

The "Filled" line usually indicates when the first coat of filler was applied to the raw canvas. This was usually left to dry for an extended period and then a second coat of filler is applied at the date shown on the "2nd Filled" line. The factory is likely to send you the same build record image information attached here since we both have an identical collection of scans. It appears that the camp is gone now but the book at http://books.google.com/books?id=0K...Memphremagog, newport camp gleneagle&f=false has some details. Good luck,

Benson