Sunday, December 23, 2018

Mystery Sailing Canoe - How her identity was solved.- Part 1

Every once in a while I get dragged into trying to identify an obscure vintage small sailboat. I find it fun in a way; a test of your knowledge of sailing history.

Back in the beginning of November I received an email from sailmaker Douglas Fowler regarding the original provenance of the design of a sailing canoe model  he just bought off Ebay. (Doug, at one point, had collected two of the most historically significant 16X30 decked canoes, Mermaid and Tomahawk.)

The original Ebay photo of the model Doug bought:


Photos of the model on Doug's loft floor.










Doug was wondering if the model was a early rendition of an International Canoe and was missing the sliding seat. This started a back and forth between several "experts" which I'll detail in Part 2 of this series.

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6 comments:

  1. DieharddinghysailorDecember 23, 2018 at 8:43 AM

    Wondering if the rig isn't the giveaway, looks like a curved 'gaff', maybe German or Dutch..?

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  2. TweezermanDecember 24, 2018 at 7:25 AM

    Mike,

    A very good guess. All will be revealed in Part II.

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  3. DieharddinghysailorDecember 27, 2018 at 9:22 PM

    I certainly wish I'd spotted the model on ebay....wonder how much it fetched....:)

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  4. TweezermanDecember 28, 2018 at 4:23 PM

    Mike,

    He said there was a bidding war with one other person. Doug didn't reveal the eventual winning bid.

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  5. bonnieDecember 31, 2018 at 3:01 PM

    Beautiful model, I'll look forward to Part 2!

    Happy New Year!

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  6. TweezermanJanuary 1, 2019 at 4:41 AM

    Bonnie,

    Happy New Year to you as well. I have been on a bit of sailing canoe kick at the moment. I have a soft spot for them even though I don't own any at the moment. I'll try to get Part II up in a week or so. BTW, what happened to the Sebago Cup? Has it gone away? I didn't see any results this year. I always thought it would be a cool event to do in my Classic Moth. How's Jim Luton doing? I knew him many years ago when he was racing his C-class canoe.

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