The "Schooner"

Rick Fehr

Curious about Wooden Canoes
Can we find out what's up with Old Town # 159257 18. The fellow who last worked on it thought it predates 1953. Thank you very much.

Rick
San Francisco Area
 

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Hi Rick--

Old Town 159257 is an 18 foot AA grade (first-class, mahogany trimmed) HW model, built between January and May of 1953. It has half ribs, sponsons and a keel with full-length bang plate, and bilge keels. No mention is made on the build record of a sailing rig. The canoe was painted with design number 4 and shipped to Larson Boat and Pattern Works of Spokane, WA, on May 15, 1953.

Bilge keels are placed on either side of the central keel and serve to protect the bottom of the canoe. They're more often seen on livery and camp canoes. The full-length bang plate also helps protect the boat's underside from youthful enthusiasms... and sponsons make the canoe harder ("impossible") to tip over. Half-ribs negate the need for a floor rack and are a nice detail. Number four design is snazzy and a real attention-getter. The HW model is suited to lakes and larger rivers.

A copy of the scan of this build record is attached below. These scans 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 join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/join.html to join.

Kathy
 

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