Ten Food Trapper rebuild

[Andy Hutyera]

A little over a year ago member Ken Kendall contacted me about redoing an Old Town ten foot Trapper that he had picked up. At that point I was between projects and looking for a challenge. I've built several canoes and did one fairly easy repair on my Peterbourgh low profile Champlain. Ken Brought the canoe over and it looked pretty rough. According to the build record it was built in Dec. 1943 and delivered to the YWCA in Akron Ohio. Apparently it had led a pretty hard life and been badly abused. Someone had done the usual fiberglass job on it. I started on the project just after the 2012 Assembly having picked up most of what I would need from Rollin and Scott Barkdall at the Assembly. The more I got into it the worse things looked. It definitely lived up to the challenge I was looking for. Since it had steel tacks, all of them had to be replaced in the small area where I was able to use the original planking. It's finally almost complete. I just have to install the brass stem bands and the reproduction Old Town decals.

Over the past year I have kept a photo diary of the job. Rather than post here, here's a link to my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/93034634@N03/sets/72157633246959498/

Ken has not seen the canoe yet and I'm waiting until it is all finished to contact him. The last time I spoke to him he said he wanted to put a red cross on the canoe to tie it in to the Akron YWCA. I found a nifty WWII vintage red cross decal about 4 inches by 4 inches. It has a a red cross with the sexiest pinup nurse you've ever seen in front of the red cross. I'm going to let Ken decide whether he wants it installed, but if it were my canoe it would be a no brainer.

 

[JClearwater]

Andy,
Very impressive! Beautiful job. I'm sure Ken will be thrilled to see the transformation. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Jim C.

 

[SWEETWATER]

thats a 11' 50 # or trapper, some people called them that. very nice i love mine

 

[pklonowski]

WOW! Nice work, Andy!

 

[Rob Stevens]

Wow, that is a ton of work! Reminds me of "Bits and Pieces". Not much of the original canoe left there.
Interesting rib tip scarfing technique. I might have to get one of those reciprocating/vibration saws instead of always using a dozuki or back saw -'cause the planking sometimes gets in the way of the stroke.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Very impressive work-- and what a beautiful little canoe!

 

[divedog]

Outstanding work!

 

[Andy Hutyera]

Ken, the owner, decided he wanted to put a couple of red crosses on the canoe. I found these on the internet and he liked the idea. Since the canoe was built during WW II, I thought the pinup nurse from that era was particularly appropriate. Here's a couple of photos of the finishing touch.

 

[MackyM]

Great idea!!!

 

[Dave Osborn]

50 LB'R with an outer stem!! Pretty cool )