Old Town 79081 17

openboater

Curious about Wooden Canoes
i just picked up a wood canvas Old Town canoe s/n 79081 17 . Any info from the build record would be much appreciated, thanks, Denny
 
Congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 79081 is a 17 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, HW (Heavy Water) model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats, a keel, and sponsons. It was built between June and July, 1923. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on May 26th, 1924 to Canadaigua, New York. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

79081.jpg

This scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. 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/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to renew.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. Feel free to reply if you have any other questions.

Benson
 
Benson, thank you for the information. This is the correct build record.

I purchased the canoe close to Canandaigua where it was shipped to 95 years ago, it didn’t travel far.
I Thought it odd this canoe doesn’t have outside stems, but it has the brass stem strips and keel. The build record shows that’s how it was built.
This canoe also has a complete Gunter sailing rig, probably added later.
 
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