My friend was willing to trade the sailing parts that he had bought when he first found the canoe, so most of the rig is now original. The original canoe had two sails, so I purchased several other old sailing canoes to assemble a complete sailing rig for this one. He contacted me a few years later, and after many months of negotiation we agreed on a price and the restoration began. I contacted the owner who didn’t want to sell, so I politely asked that he let me know if he ever changed his mind. There had been at least two other owners who made some sloppy repairs, but it was restorable. It was a wonderful 18-foot canoe with nice mahogany trim, air chambers along the sides for extra buoyancy (known as sponsons), and two sail rigs. I learned that it had belonged to an Otca sailing canoe that had been shipped to my grandfather at the family’s summer cottage in 1936 shortly after it was built.īenson Gray with the “photographer’s canoe” paint scheme showing red on one side and yellow on the other in Enfield, Maine. The original build records for Old Town Canoes are still available, so I looked up the serial number for this one. So I was especially excited when a friend mentioned that he had purchased the sailing rig from an old canoe that he thought might have a connection to my family. The grandson of Kennebec Boat & Canoe Company’s founder once commented that his family didn’t have any old wooden canoes, either. Our canoes were not carefully stored away as cherished family heirlooms for future generations because they were sold they were what put food on the table. It’s similar to that old line about the cobbler’s children going barefoot. I have searched every known storage area and haven’t found any yet.
OLD TOWN CANOE SERIAL NUMBER SEARCH FULL
The rumors that my family has a barn full of pristine and classic old canoes are not true. My great-grandfather was one of the founders of the Old Town Canoe Company and I grew up in a large family where nearly everyone had worked in the canoe business at some point. We could always find a canoe to use, but not to keep-they would be taken back to the factory and sold when we were done with them. When I began receiving the Wooden Canoe journal, every issue seemed to contain yet another article about the restoration of a wonderful old canoe with a long family history.īenson Gray with the restored canoe at the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association’s Assembly in Keuka, New York in 2009.
The author now owns this canoe, after tracking it down and purchasing it. Gray, with his daughter Eleanor and the family dog in a photo from the late 1930s in Enfield, Maine. IF YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CALL US AT (888) 525-2925.The author’s grandfather, Samuel B. The example above would be for a 2009 model boat, molded in January 2009. The next digit is the year the kayak was built, and the last two numbers will be the model year of the kayak.
The WEM is required as per coast guard regulations as a company identification code, and means you have bought a quality Wilderness Systems product.WEMELA29A909 THE SERIAL NUMBER BREAKS DOWN IN THIS ORDER: The serial number consists of 12 alphanumeric digits.Įx. Your serial number will always be in this area. Most, but not all boats, have a recessed area here. To locate your kayak's serial number look at the right (starboard) side on the back (stern) of the boat on the outside of the hull.