Old canoe found in barn

Rich Jones

Curious about Wooden Canoes
Hello, this is my first time on this forum. Should have joined years ago. The WoodenBoat Forum is my usual home. I've got a garage full of Rushton glued-lapstrake canoes I've built over the years, but now have a question about something that's out of my experience.

I met a guy today with an old canoe in his barn. He bought it back in the 1960's for $50 at a garage sale. He thinks it's an Old Town and it's been hanging in his garage for years. It was high in the rafters, surrounded by other junk and not very visible. From what I could see, it's strip-planked over closely spaced ribs. Looks to be in good shape. The problem is that someone covered it with fiberglass/polyester back before this guy bought it and now he wants to remove it. How can this be done without destroying the boat? Sometimes, that stuff peels right off, sometimes not. With such a fragile, lightly built boat, what's the best method of removal?
Anyone have any idea how old this canoe could be? I haven't seen too many strip-plank/ribbed canoes, so I'm thinking it's pretty old.
Thanks for any advice.
 
Pictures help. you can see youtube videos of 'glass removal. Use the search function here and you'll likely find a link. Yep, it's a pain sometimes.
 
The canoe could date anywhere from the 1880s (unlikely however) to present-day. It could have been built by any one of several hundred (or thousand?) professional builders or any one of several thousand individuals... so, as Dave said, pictures help... especially a picture of the deck. The underside of a canoe says very little, and when a canoe is hanging, those tend to be the pictures that are posted and all we can determine is the presence of absence of a keel, which says nothing about who built the boat and when.

Here's the fiberglass removal video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXILZU6Jm-s

And here's a serial number search video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plUn6oHDHyQ

Welcome to the forums! I hope we can figure out the canoe... these mysteries are fun.

Kathy
 
The canoe is hanging upside down, so I could see the ribs. I believe the only decks it has are breasthooks. Once it's down (whenever that is), I'll take pictures. The boat dates to at least the 1950's.
Heat gun and scraper will be the tools of the day. In a very well ventilated shop.
 
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