S/N Search 34861, 1980 Old Town Canoe

[bortzy]

I’ve been offered a canoe, which I intend to give to my college-age granddaughter. All I have to do is go pick it up, but I’d like to know some more about it before making the 100 mile drive.

So far all I know is that it’s 16 ft and from 1980. I also have a couple of pics and the S/N. 34861 M80L

I called OT, but they told me the records for that year had been lost.

I’m hoping it’s a Penobscot 16 (royalex).

Any thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated.

John

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with hull identification number XTC34861M80L and serial number 234861 is a 16 foot long, ABS Chipewyan Penobscot model with aluminum inserts in the rails that weighed 81 pounds. It was built in July, 1980. The original exterior vinyl color was green. It shipped on December 11h, 1980 to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The back side of the scan indicates that it was returned as defective on May 24th, 1982. It had some scratches but no repair work was done. It was resold and shipped to Springfield, Pennsylvania on June 14th, 1982. Scans showing both sides this build record can be found by following the links at the attached thumbnail images below.



These scans and several hundred thousand more 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/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will donate, join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to join.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. The Penobscot model was introduced in the 1981 catalog as shown at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/42326/ but it was not unusual for them to start making a new model in the pervious year. More information like this is available from http://www.wcha.org/store/complete-old-town-canoe-company-catalog-collection in the scanned catalogs. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

 

[bortzy]

Benson,
Amazing information. Thanks for responding so quickly.

One of the things I most like about the Penobscot 16 is that it only weighs 58 lbs (at least since circa 1999).

The specs in the 1981 catalog list it as 77 lbs, and the build card for this early production hull is 81 lbs

That's a bit more weight than my petite granddaughter can handle, so I'm going to keep looking for a newer (lighter) Penobscot.

Thanks again

John

 

[JClearwater]

John,

Most 16' wood/canvas canoes weigh in a lot less than 77 lbs so you could get her a wood canoe and she would look totally cool paddling it and be the envy of all her friends!

Jim