55seliga
Curious about Wooden Canoes
I just got back from picking up my `55 17' Joe Seliga canoe from Alex Comb - Stewart River Boatworks. Alex did a wonderful job on the canoe and I highly recommend his work for anyone else who is looking for someone to restore a fine old canoe. Interestingly, he had an old B.N. Morris right next to it in his storage garage.
The Seliga is number 554199; originally one built for the Sommers BSA Canoe Base. The fellow who bought it from Sommers had removed the fiberglass covering and replaced the canvas, gunwales, decks, thwarts, and seats in a manner that was not up to the original standards of the canoe. Alex took the canoe down to the bare hull and replaced all those items along with either replacing ribs outright when both tips were in bad shape or cracked, or scarph jointing new rib tips where needed. Alex was able to find some really nice mahogany to use for the new outer rails and did a beautiful job replacing the inner rails with Sitka spruce. I opted to have him use black cherry for the decks, seats, and thwarts. Some of the planking had been previously replaced with mismatched flat sawn cedar that had cracked. Alex took the time to find cedar that would closely match the original material and redid that area of the hull. Note that this Seliga is one of the wide 6" planked hulls.
The hull was recanvassed, filled, and repainted in a 50:50 mix of Epifanes #72 and #65 yacht enamel. It really shines and I love the color green. Not too light or too dark, but it changes depending on the lighting.
I am attaching some photos that I took today and hopefully I will be able to bring it to one of the annual assemblies soon.
John Schnettler
The Seliga is number 554199; originally one built for the Sommers BSA Canoe Base. The fellow who bought it from Sommers had removed the fiberglass covering and replaced the canvas, gunwales, decks, thwarts, and seats in a manner that was not up to the original standards of the canoe. Alex took the canoe down to the bare hull and replaced all those items along with either replacing ribs outright when both tips were in bad shape or cracked, or scarph jointing new rib tips where needed. Alex was able to find some really nice mahogany to use for the new outer rails and did a beautiful job replacing the inner rails with Sitka spruce. I opted to have him use black cherry for the decks, seats, and thwarts. Some of the planking had been previously replaced with mismatched flat sawn cedar that had cracked. Alex took the time to find cedar that would closely match the original material and redid that area of the hull. Note that this Seliga is one of the wide 6" planked hulls.
The hull was recanvassed, filled, and repainted in a 50:50 mix of Epifanes #72 and #65 yacht enamel. It really shines and I love the color green. Not too light or too dark, but it changes depending on the lighting.
I am attaching some photos that I took today and hopefully I will be able to bring it to one of the annual assemblies soon.
John Schnettler