After the battle of Waterloo, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, said to Thomas Creevey “It was a near run thing. The nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.” On a much smaller scale, and in a more maritime way, that’s what happened at my house tonight.
You’ll recall that I bravely posted a couple of months ago that I was back in action with boats. Well I was, sort of, but then two writing projects for WoodenBoat came my way, about which more soon. The second of these is finished, so now I can turn to more pressing matters, and the above-mentioned “near-run thing.”
At lunchtime today, I went to my storage locker to retrieve the Ontario Canoe Company decked sailing canoe. Yes, I probably should have put a plank on top of the roof racks and under the keel, but I wasn’t going that far and I slowed down over the railroad tracks(!).
I had measured the window into my new basement shop several times, and I knew it was going to be close, but I hoped we would end up just on the good side of “close.”
In we go:
I learned a couple of useful things today:
- Future projects should be LESS than 14′ long and LESS than 31″ wide!
- Make sure that the canoe doesn’t get any bigger during the restoration!
Time to start scraping green paint.
Playing With Boats 
I might have stripped the paint outside before squeezing the boat into the cellar way…. Caustic Lye ( quick lime) if used with caution strips paint exceptionally well.
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They really are beautiful lines. A canoe to cherish. And, when the job is done, careful how you take the canoe out of the window. It would be sad to see scratched varnish
Definitely going to be a multi-person job to get her out again. I think I’ll do the final finishing AFTER she comes out of the basement. At the rate my projects proceed, I’ll have some time to think about it before I have to do it. . .
What is the production year(years) of this decked canoe….great lines
The Ontario Canoe Company didn’t produce a lot of catalogs relative to other Peterborough-area builders, so it’s hard to tell exactly, but I would think into the early years of the 20th century at least. The earliest catalog I’ve seen is post-1885 and pre-1890, and it illustrates “my” canoe. It’s got the prettiest coaming I’ve ever seen on a canoe.
You are fortunate to have above ground windows ….in my house it would have to fit inside a bottle….nice looking canoe …should be a real gem when done …by the way a friend of my sons asked me for details on the recanavassing of a chestnut 1917 …i had had my notes from several years ago ….but of course could not find them …i hope it is all right with you that i gave him your 3 part series on the canoe recanvassing from a few years back …it was as good a pictoral lesson as anything i could imagine …he was deathly afraid to do it as it was his granddad’s who had been given the canoes as a 12 year old in 1917 /sent him my clothespins along with it ….will send pics when he has finished …David
Hi, David: Not a problem at all, so glad the information was useful. Re-canvassing always looks more complicated than it is, so I’m glad he went ahead and did it.