Networking and the 2011 Assembly

I made a forum post the other day on WCHA.org asking if there were any boat builders/restorers near Saratoga/Albany area. Within an hour, I was given the name Mike Cavanaugh (and the post mentioned he would work for beer … my kind of currency). So I reached out to Mike, and we talked for a while on the phone. He is a really nice guy with a ton of knowledge. He gave me some advice over the phone, like strip the boat before I remove all of the fiberglass residue from the gaps in the planking (so the stripper does not run right through), and the most profound advice was to stop thinking so damn much. I have been obsessing about the boat, what to remove, what can be kept, etc, etc. He basically said there is no right and wrong, only preference, and to stop worrying about it. He also mentioned that he would stop by to check out the boat on Sunday, July 17th, after the Assembly. What a guy. What is the Assembly you ask? The yearly WCHA Assembly is a gathering of all people who love wooden boats and canoes, restoring them, paddling them, or just being around them. It is usually held at a college, and it needs to be near water. There are daily paddling expeditions, workshops, kid's crafts, speakers, and a marketplace. Sounds like an interesting time, and also the perfect place for me to gain some knowledge, and finally relax about the whole thing.

This year the Assembly will be held from July 13-17th at Paul Smith's College in Lake Placid … my back yard practically. So I think I am going to go … at least for a day. Mike Cavanaugh mentioned to meet up with him at the Assembly and he would be with Dan Miller as well as a bunch of other "well-known" wcha members, including the great(?) grandson of George Alexander Gray, the founder of Old Town Canoes. I think he will be an absolute wealth of information regarding old Rosie. I will be heading up Friday afternoon for the day, and if it is great, Sarah and I and the girls will return on Saturday for the day. There are supposedly a lot of things for the kids to do. We will see.

I also started to make some equipment connections. I called Old Town to ask them about parts for their vintage boats, and they gave me a phone number. I called that number and got info, a connection, and two other phone numbers. I called those numbers and got more advice and made more connections. I now have a potential source for the old oarlocks and also paddles. The oarlocks are tricky because they were very common before WWII and there were many sizes and getting a set of four to match is hard. The oarlocks come in two pieces, the plate and the horns. I have two plates (three but one is broken), and no horns. So I need to source these parts, but if I cannot find old ones, I know I can get new ones from one of my connections (see all photos below). These oarlocks will be roughly a quarter of the renovation cost is my guess.

Old oarlock:

New version of the oarlock:

I was poking around on the website of one of the connections I made, and noticed that he had restored a 1930 9ft OT dinghy. There were pictures of the dinghy before the renovation as well as a picture from the OT Catalog from 1930. This page in the catalog shows the styles and the cost. In 1930 Rosie would have cost $125 (a lot of money back then). Here is the link to the site with the 9ft dinghy before renovation: http://www.rossbros.com/sport.htm.