penn yan canoe

ric newman

New Member
I just purchased a Penn Yan canoe ser. #MC55969. Can anyone please give me some information on this canoe. I wish to title it correct because they dont have it registered right here in az. thank you Ric Newman
 
Your canoe is a Penn Yan Kingfisher model motor canoe (MC in the serial number stands for Motor Canoe). It was most likely built in 1955.
 
Penn Pan Serial Numbers

In an attempt to add information to Penn Yan Serial numbers can we do a survey of Penn Yan owners here? I have a Kingfisher Serial Number MCH 23.
We all know the MC stands for Motor Canoe. My square back has half ribs in between the full ribs. Perhaps the "H" stands for "half-rib?" Perhaps "heavy water" as Old Town used? Will the owners of half-rib canoes report on their serial numbers and see if this jives? Does anyone have the "H" third letter Ser # and have no half-ribs?
Tim in Tennessee.
 
Treewater said:
In an attempt to add information to Penn Yan Serial numbers can we do a survey of Penn Yan owners here? I have a Kingfisher Serial Number MCH 23.
We all know the MC stands for Motor Canoe. My square back has half ribs in between the full ribs. Perhaps the "H" stands for "half-rib?" Perhaps "heavy water" as Old Town used? Will the owners of half-rib canoes report on their serial numbers and see if this jives? Does anyone have the "H" third letter Ser # and have no half-ribs?
Tim in Tennessee.
tim; the canoe i have also has the half ribs and there is no h in it's ser. #. i also need to no where i can get parts for my canoe, ant ideas? thanks ric.
 
Penn Yan Serial #'s

Okay, so a 1955 Pen Yan MC has half ribs but no "H" in the serial number. What else can you tell us. Does it have a sail and rudder brackets? Parts? What parts in particular?
Tim
 
The "H" is probably really an "M", which would stand for Mahogany trim. The alternative was "S", for spruce. They dropped the third letter in 1948.
 
Penn Yan Serial #'s

Thank you for the interest. The Penn Yan motor canoe I have definintely has an "H" as the third letter in the serial #. The "M" is quite crisp and the "H" is quite crisp. I rubbed a lead pencil over them this morning but it really was not necessary. By all accounts this was a wartime special order dating from about 1943. So the mystery remains, what did the "H" stand for?
Tim
 
No clue why yours has an "H", maybe someone else was using the "M" stamp that day? As you can see from the attached 1943 catalog page, the two models of Kingfisher that were offered were MCM and MCS. Half ribs are standard in this model, and pretty religiously, for canoes and small boats, the third letter refers to the trim wood. Of course, there are always exceptions - 1939 saw the MCL ("L"ightly-built) model.
 

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