Mistakes and Mistaken Identity

I have already made a number of mistakes. Mostly minor ones luckily. The one thing I have done correctly was join The Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (www.wcha.org). This site is a font of information pertaining to exactly what I am doing. Of course this was the second site I joined. The first was the Penn Yan Boat Owners Association. I was certain, 100%, that Rosie was a Penn Yan Dinghy. The only problem was some of the dimensions didn't add up. So I asked questions (as I am prone to do). Finally someone on the site mentioned that they thought the boat was an Old Town. Ok I thought, a Penn Yan sounded better, but I could live with an Old Town. Once I researched Old Town I realized that I truly had a gem. That is when I joined the WCHA, which has sponsored an Old Town serial number project. Volunteers have entered and scanned, by hand, hundreds of thousands of build orders for Old Town canoes and boats. They have records dating back to the very early 1900s. All I need is my serial number and I can find out exactly what my boat is made of, when it was made, when it shipped, and who it shipped to … another piece of the puzzle of the history of this little boat. So I searched desperately for a serial number. I found nothing. I finally found a post stating to look at the keelson towards the bow of the boat. There it was!! Problem was that I could only make out 3 numbers … 352 (see pic below). The serial numbers are 6 digits, and I am sure the first is 1 (based on the decade I think it was built). So I have 1**352. The volunteers on the site cannot search by incomplete numbers yet unfortunately so giving this information is not enough for them to locate the build record. I am not finished trying though. I plan on pulling the keelson out and doing a charcoal rubbing to try and glean the other numbers. Fingers crossed.

So I have networked on the WCHA site and asked many questions … some of which I wish I had asked earlier. One person I have connected with was recently the curator of the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY. His name is Dan Miller and he owns a business restoring and building wooden canoes in Cape Vincent called Dragonfly Canoe Works (http://dragonflycanoe.com). I plan on visiting him in a few weeks to pick his brain (lucky him).

When I got the boat home it was very dirty and as I mentioned, filled with spiders. So I grabbed my pressure washer and went to work … mistake #1. I don’t think I did any real damage, but I read online, after the fact, that this was a no-no for cedar boats. Oops. The upside was that the wolf spiders were now roaming the side yard as opposed to threatening me from within. They stand up on their back 6 legs, rise up the front two and attack viciously with their fangs. It is a frightening sight for even the bravest and most worthy opponent. They are best left alone, or washed away … with a very long stream of water.

So once the boat was washed I left it out to dry. While drying I prepared the saw horses to bring Rosie into my "workshop" (garage spot #2) and then I brought her in and went to work.

My first task was to remove the completely rotten gunwale. I removed, labeled and stored the oarlocks (there were 3 out of 4 and I think each one is broken), each screw and washer. I am trying to keep every piece of original hardware as I go along. My goal is to restore her to as close to original as possible. The gunwale came off in pieces. I still do not know exactly what type of wood it is, but I am thinking it may be ash. I need to get that build record. After the gunwale was off it was time to remove the canvas. We flipped her over and took a look ...