Big old freighter canoe rebuild

bob welsh

bob welsh

Well-known member
Just starting the canoe I picked up last fall . Lots of issues . I prepares the planking stock and rib stock. I need to cull throu
gh the pile and cut out the knots.


 




these two pics shoe the boat with planking removed and the removal of about 13 half ribs. The half ribs are put in between the regular ribs on the bottom only for support and wear while walking or piling stuff.
 
Bob~

Great project - I look forward to seeing your usual excellent work unfold.

Do you know who made her? LOA? Beam?

All the best,

SJS
 
Steve, I got her last fall North of Grand Rapids Mn. The old timer was getting rid of his old gear. He had used it on annual hunting trips to Manitoba. It was his guides boat and one year he brought it back on top of car. I have no info on the builder, but I have tried posting pics on the net, no luck. I still had the old canvas on her and I removed it prior to the trip to Chicago. I saved the part with old painted numbers and called the MN DNR to see how it was registered. It took a couple of months but the fellow there emailed me and said it was registered as being built in 1940 with the manf. or builder being Huds. I dont know if means Hudson or Hudson Bay Company or just plain old Huds. She is 20 feetX56 inches.
 
Bob,

You may have some luck getting some information on your boat over on the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association website, www.wcha.org.

There are lots of very knowledgeable and helpful folks there that may be able to I.D. your craft and provide resoratation advice.

Good luck.

Matt
 
Bob
That's quite a project ahead of you. Great looking lines on that boat! Very similar to boats on the Mississippi when I was growing up. They were easy rowers.
wis boz
 
Last edited:
Bob-

Hard to tell from the photos--and I may have said the same thing when you first showed pictures of this boat--but those lines look more like something related to a Rangeley Boat than a freighter canoe to me. Twenty feet would be big for a Rangeley, though, and all the ones I've seen are lapstrake. Maybe a case of convergent design by boat builders in different parts of the North Woods trying to design a boat for fishing big ponds and lakes. The original Rangeley's were double ended row boats, and then the sterns were squared off as outboards became common. Over in Eastern Maine, the same needs drove development of the Grand Laker canoes.

They remain the best boat I've ever used to chase big lake brook trout with a fly rod--quiet, stable, and very seaworthy. A 16 footer will easily allow two anglers to both stand and cast, and with the oars you can sneak right up on rising fish. They row beautifully--especially the few double enders that are still around.


Yours looks like a great project.
 
John, Im guessing about 70 years old

Matt, I am a member over there and have posted pics and stumping the crowd. A guy gave me a contact at the Canadian Canoe Museum and still could not ID it for me.

Wis- You know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time !
Jeff, I agree with the similarities of the Rangeley boat in shape but not construction. It has a piece of deadwood under the transom which is unusual in aa canoe. Most Y stern canoes are planked around this wine glass looking shape where pulling boats and sailing boat have this added after planking .Freighters that I have seen come in a narrow transom ,a Y stern if you will, or a wide transom which turns the hull into more of a planing boat rather than a displacement hull.

Today I got that bottom planking tacked in and Im waiting for my tack clincher to free up some time out of her busy schedule. It a two person job in this canoe unless you have gorilla arms. I also scarphed in three broken ribs in the bottom so I could then apply the planking . My goal is to get the bottom done so I can flip her over and reinstall the half ribs and upper planking and everything else.
 


new bottom planking on and clinched



a view from underneath showing rib splice and planking. I dont normally put three splices like that together but it will be backed up by the keel and possibly a keelson even though the original didnt have one.
 




starting to refasten the hull. I made a cradle so I can flip the boat over and reach the inside and ouside easier. Its starting to tighten up already. Those planks and ribs are a bit larger than in a regular canoe so I am using a 7/8 brass tack
 
Bob - Looking good but, hey, let's pick up the pace a bit. We've got some divers to shoot. I do like the size of this craft. Perfect size for you, me, a Chessie and some blocks on a canvasback shoot. Required gear are cigars and a Fedora. Anything beyond that is optional...
 
Pat ,Everything I do on this boat is underestimated in time. Maybe im just working slower. I can vision a big pile of Cans in that boat,and you are right it will be fedora wearing time soon.

Here's pics from some recent action.

Damaged rib tips/repair






Cut a scarph joint on old rib and also on new splice. Mixed up epoxy and clamped overnight.
 
I got most of the refastening complete and she is starting to get back her shape. Im waiting on my clinching partner. I need to get this part done soon as she is leaving for college in 5 days. University of Dayton. Anyway, a prominent member of this forum asked me to show some photos on the clinching process. Here goes.


Here is a scrap of planking going through a scrap of rib stock. The tack for this canoe is 7/8 cut canoe tack in brass. Tou place the point of the tack into the planking to set it and then get a hammer to drive it just almost through the other side of the rib stock.


You can barely see the point coming through
albums/s468/dgduck1960/DFFCB309-E870-4EB9-8E90-06A05A2DFF99-720-000002469004C60E_zpse2922de6.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
At this point get your clinching iron and as that point comes through give the iron a little roll while pounding the head of the tack. When you "feel" you have enough hook in the point , put the flat side of the iron flush on the rib and drive her home. repeat two thousand times
 
Missed a photo in that sequence. here is the clinching iron backing up the hammering. You will know be sound when the tack is seated right.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top