1972 Old Town Chipewyan 18'

[Robin]

I picked up this Oltonar Royalex Old Town canoe today. I thought I was done fixing up Royalex canoes but I just couldn't pass up the deal. Light fadding, very little if any wear on the bottom or stems. 36" wide, bare hull weighs 50 lbs and the new 3 piece ash gunnels/inwales, seats and thwarts weigh 17 lbs., not bad, but I bet this canoe will oil can. I figure it will weigh 70 lbs with screws bolts and varnish added in.
Anybody have an idea of how to find out the correct seat and thwart placement and did this canoe come with decks?
Thanks

 

[Chip]

I had a 16' Chipewyan, and it had decks, so I'm guessing OT put decks on the 17', too. I have no idea on seat and thwart placement. OT used to be pretty helpful if you called them. I guess they are managed by big-corp now, and you know how they like to cut costs. So, not sure if you call them today that they will be helpful. Maybe McCrea can dig up an old OT catalog, which might be helpful.

 

[Iskweo]

What The Hell???? There is a program for people like us. Hi, I'm Robin, and I buy old canoes. If only you were closer, we could sneak off to go look at boats...lol.
Sighhhhhh. We have years of boats to repair at our pace. Which is why I dont mind parting with the Pete if you are interested.We will take some pics for you. There are probable some on here already. Somewhere.

Christy

 

[Robin]

I had a 16' Chipewyan, and it had decks, Maybe McCrea can dig up an old OT catalog, which might be helpful.

Thanks Chip I appreciate the help. The guy gave me two mismatched seats, one cane and another webbed so I'm not sure if they are even the correct width, which would give me a good start if they where. He also gave me only 2 thwarts and I would think an 18'er would have 3.

Hi Christy, HaHa, this was one of those "can't pass it up" deals, I paid for the new 3 piece ash gunnels/inwales still wrapped from Old Town, but the hull was free just 3 hours of driving. I pulled a Mihun and brought my drill, screws and 1x2's to make tempo gunnels to add some stability. It worked well.

 

[Fitz]

Hi Robin:

Benson can likely dig up some info on that canoe over at the WCHA. There should be a build record for it too.

Nice find.

Fitz

 

[cflcanoe]

Will have to remember the temporary gunwale trick. Is the inside discolored or stained on the sides near the gunwales? My last project boat is discolored were the seat hangers were.

Iskweo there is no program for people like us. We are canoe rescuers. A nobel calling. There should be a national organization with a toll free number and a web site so people could find one of us to rescue there unwanted canoe. A fee would be required for adoption to cover expense and maybe time (all most never will get the cost of my time back if I were to sell one). Now that I think about it this is a bad idea. They would probably have some silly rule about having more than 10 personal canoes.

 

[Guest]

I had a 16' Chipewyan, and it had decks, so I'm guessing OT put decks on the 17', too. I have no idea on seat and thwart placement. OT used to be pretty helpful if you called them. I guess they are managed by big-corp now, and you know how they like to cut costs. So, not sure if you call them today that they will be helpful. Maybe McCrea can dig up an old OT catalog, which might be helpful.

I do not have an OT catalog old enough to include the “Chipewyan” line. Every Chipewyan I have ever seen came with white plastic gunwales, some with white plastic seats. Those white plastic gunwales lacked some UV inhibitor, and every Chipewyan I worked on had brittle (at best) gunwales.

That canoe is old enough that a scan of the build record should be around, and they should be able to provide a scan of the ancient catalog page as well.

FWIW at least some of the Chipewyan line were rebadged. The 16 footer became the Camper, and I think some 14 fot 10 inch version may have become the Pathfinder. Some 18 foot Royalex Old Town of slightly later vintage is probably the identical seat & thwart placement descendant of the Chipewyan 18.

What would that canoe be? Late 70’s/early ‘80’s eighteen foot RX Old Town?

 

[Robin]

I think it's a 74, the plate is gone (I found 2 rivets and some discoloration where the plate had been). I did find a few #s stamped haphazardly on the side with 74 in there. PO said he bought it in 74 and that it was an Oltanar Roylex. Sure looks like it and at 50 lbs for a bare hull I would agree.

Good News update:
Someone who has one contacted me via email after he read about it here and gave me all the measurements. One of the seats is cane and one original webbing so I will flip the cane and web it to make a matching set. They match his seat widths (which are molded). My thwarts match also and there are only 2 for an 18' canoe. I was surprised about that. This is a really stroke of good luck getting the #'s and my stuff matches.

Thanks Fitz, I'm good now.

CFL canoe-I looked for any tell tale signs for where the seats might have been. If the canoe came with wood gunnels I think Old Town varnished them before install. On a Mad River you can always see where the PO oiled around the hangers and got some on the hull.
When I took that flimsy old Morris out to Mihun I had it inside a bigger canoe so it rode well to western Ontario, but Karin knew better and made a tempory gunnel system right there in Memaquays driveway while we all stood around and watched. It worked well good idea. I think it took 2 beers each to finish.

 

[Guest]

Robin, every Chipewyan I have ever seen had those UV degradable white plastic gunwales. Not to say OT might not have made some with wood. Did it have any trace of gunwales remaining when you bought it? Or multiple sheerline holes, indicating that it had been regunwaled at some point?

I’d still like to know what an 18 foot Chipewyan became if it carried on with a new moniker. The Tripper is only 17 foot 2 inches. I don’t recall an 18 foot RX Old Town of that era, but I don’t recall much of the 70’s.

It would be interesting to get a build sheet and find out whom/what vendor it was originally sold. The OT Sockeye Bill J asked about in the Kamerad thread was originally sold to the Farm Implement Company in Houlton ME.

New technigues in blueberry harvesting? Manure spreaders and tandem European-style touring canoes all in one stop?

There were lots of Ma & Pa vendors back in the day, to say nothing of individual purchaser names on build sheets. That is some awesome history on a vintage canoe, even if it is early plastic.

BTW, the Chipewyans I rebuilt are still going strong. The white plastic gunwales may have been crap, but that was some serious Royalex back in the day.

 

[Robin]

I'm almost finished, just need to work on the gunnel tips with a belt sander, a few more coats of varnish and some very small decks made out of plywood or something laying around the shop.

I really like this canoe for a few reasons. Only two thwarts for an 18' canoe, I haven't seen that too often. It's nice that there's no thwart behind the bow seat, makes it easy to paddle solo, and pole(easy to sit down real quick without that thwart in the way). I like the weight for such a big royalex canoe, under *80lbs. (EDIT 70lbs dead on) I also like the high ends.

I used factory replacement Old Town gunnels which are fine, I'm just not used to the scarf system they use and I do alot better with straight cuts rather than the curved scarf OT uses. Also, it's tough getting rounded gunnels clamped some times, just me I guess, not used to it.
Also, my gunnels are from 10' planks which would have made for only one scarf, OT sends 3 piece gunnels which require 2 scarfs per gunnel.





Nice profile I like those high ends,

 

[Iskweo]

That is a nice job Robin.

 

[memaquay]

Looks great!

 

[Robin]

Thanks

 

[latremorej]

Nice Robin! You mentioned paddling it solo, will this one be added to your personal fleet?

 

[Robin]

It's for sale but I haven't posted it here yet, $700

 

[Guest]

It's for sale but I haven't posted it here yet, $700

That is a steal for an 18 foot 70lb Royalex canoe.

That early Uniroyal RX was superior to the latter day SparTech and PolyOne products.

I still wonder if that 18 footer became some rebadged mid-70’s RX Old Town model after they dropped the Chipewyan monikers. “Chipewyan” is not intuitive to spell, or even type.

 

[Danny]

That is a steal for an 18 foot 70lb Royalex canoe.

That early Uniroyal RX was superior to the latter day SparTech and PolyOne products.

I still wonder if that 18 footer became some rebadged mid-70’s RX Old Town model after they dropped the Chipewyan monikers. “Chipewyan” is not intuitive to spell, or even type.

The Chipewyan 18 transformed into the Voyager around 1980, Old Town added another inch of depth to the center of the Voyager all the other dimensions are the same.