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Help IDing my new (to me) Great Canadian Canoe
- Thread starter Brews
- Start date
Congratulations, the general information at https://www.usps.org/national/safety/HIN/HIN.pdf may help you interpret the HIN. It shipped in July, 1979. The detailed information at https://uscgboating.org/content/manufacturers-identification-detail.php?id=4544 confirms that it was sold by Great Canadian Canoe although G & R Industries is using the GRV prefix now. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question,
Benson
Benson
Thanks. I thought that 79 might have been the date. But the 13 digits was giving me trouble. Couldnt figure out what was the extraneous digit. Figure it was the d
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Woo-hoo! Looks like Benson's got ya covered on the ID but I'm impressed that you don't seem to be wasting any time rippin' right into that restoration. I've always admired a fearless approach.
Lol! Thanks. I had to get that vinyl off asap. The underside was super damp. Found lots of rot.
The D is part of the serial number, not part of the three letter manufacturer code. The extraneous letter is the last A. HINs have 12 alphanumerics and yours is: GRVD4204M79L
Put that HIN into the following decoder, which I like and which gives you lots of info about the manufacturer:
Thanks. Ive been looking for a decent website. Tried the uscg and a boat dealer or two. One just wantex to sell me a title search basically.
I am really surprised that no one has mentioned the vinyl skin. I always assumed that these “strip” canoes went straight from canvas to fiberglass.
I'm only familiar with the vinyl skin from another Canadian canoe company, Tremblay. Could be the same company as yours, just rebranded, I'm not sure. I think there was a lot of interplay between the Quebec canoe companies of the time. The vinyl skin was an "improvement" that was used on wood canoes for a fairly short period of time. Benson might know more of the history, but I believe it was thought to be a less time consuming way to manufacture wood/fabric canoes.
I have direct experience with it, as our school canoe club used to buy Tremblay canoes on a regular basis. The bare hulls looked very similar to yours, in that almost any grade of cedar was slapped on, and the exterior often seemed like it hadn't even been sanded. They were rough but sturdy canoes, and very cheap. I think it the 70's we were paying less than 200 bucks per canoe.
The vinyl covering was known as verolite. Our canoes received rough use, and the verolite did not last long. It was inferior to canvas in the sense that it sliced easily, well easier than canvas. All of ours ended up being recanvassed, except for one I kept for myself. I probably should have kept the verolite on it, could have been a museum piece by now, lol.
In regards to the question in other thread about where to start, if you could post some more detailed pictures, it could help spark conversation. For instance, order of procedure could depend on where the bulk of damage is, if the rib tips are rotten too, things like that.
I have direct experience with it, as our school canoe club used to buy Tremblay canoes on a regular basis. The bare hulls looked very similar to yours, in that almost any grade of cedar was slapped on, and the exterior often seemed like it hadn't even been sanded. They were rough but sturdy canoes, and very cheap. I think it the 70's we were paying less than 200 bucks per canoe.
The vinyl covering was known as verolite. Our canoes received rough use, and the verolite did not last long. It was inferior to canvas in the sense that it sliced easily, well easier than canvas. All of ours ended up being recanvassed, except for one I kept for myself. I probably should have kept the verolite on it, could have been a museum piece by now, lol.
In regards to the question in other thread about where to start, if you could post some more detailed pictures, it could help spark conversation. For instance, order of procedure could depend on where the bulk of damage is, if the rib tips are rotten too, things like that.
Wow! That explains a lot. It also explains the hull’s condition, I’ll post more detailed photos about that later, Thanks for sharing your experience. I was calling the skin “Naugahyde” lol.
The bottom of the page below has a description of Verolite from the 1980 Tremblay catalog. The issues with degrading in sunlight are similar to plastic canoes. Their red canoes frequently become a very distinct shade of pink.
Benson
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I understand the degradation. The material along gunwales was very weak and tore easily. I saved a swatch for reference.
