Unknown Charles River area canoe?

H.E. Pennypacker

LOVES Wooden Canoes
Picked up a canoe and wonder if anyone has any ideas about the maker. Looks like it's from the Charles River area. It's 17' long with circular bow and stern stem profile. It is closed gunwale with caps on top, outside and inside of the rail. All mahogany trim, with 32" decks and nicely-shaped thwarts (5.25" wide rear thwart; 3.5" bow thwart). Stems looks like Charles River area builder - inside stem ends are chamfered on each side; outside stem has "chubby", not trapezoidal, cross-section. The one odd thing I get from all the posts here is that this canoe has very nicely-tapered ribs. They're not un-tapered like on so many canoes from that area. No serial number found yet. It has had some work - rail caps spliced at ends, and seat and thwart bolts aren't original.

Thanks for any insight.
 

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My guess would be a Kingsbury based on the bevel at the end of the stem, and probably a late one from the tapered ribs. See http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?10940 for details and http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?10686 for pictures. Nice one,

Benson


Thank you, Benson. One thing I failed to mention is that it has a lot of tumblehome. I'll post more pics, but the beam measures:

28.5" inside the inwales,
33 max beam inside inside to the ribs (not to planking)
31.5” outside the gunwale caps

Also, the ribs are strongly tapered, very elegant-looking. They remind me of Morris ribs. They're 2.25" wide at center, tapering to about 1" wide where they meet the gunwale.
 
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