Researching my Sawyer Canoe

I have owned this Sawyer canoe since 1985 and I was recently asked what I knew about it, e.g. Model and I had no clue. I started searching on the web to see if I could find out more about it but have had no luck. Here is what I do know; Length 17’, Composition Fiberglass, Color Red, Capacity 4 persons or 716 lbs, Equipped with White Tractor seats with drain holes, Canoe Type Double Ender. I do remember we were told by the salesperson that the hull design made it extremely stable and hard to tip over. The label simply says Sawyer 17’ canoe, there is no other information about a model name. Wonder if anyone here would know anything or could refer me to a site that might have some more information about it. Thanks for your time

I have one Sawyer canoe
which makes me no expert at any means but perhaps you have a Cruiser?



Pics help. Does yours look like this one?



http://www.superiorcanoes.com/tandemcanoe.html



Also if you can find the hull ID number the last two digits are the year and we have some folks here who save catalogs.

Probably not a Cruiser
My old catalog gives my 17’9" Cruiser a max load of 649 - not that I would want to come close to that. Except for the length it sounds more like a Sport (16’).

The four person reference
stumps me…


boat rating plates
The capacity plates using the boating industry standards gave load capacity and equivalent persons capacity based on a nominal weight per passenger. Didn’t mean there were seats for 4 or if it would paddle well with 4. If two of the four laid flat on the floor of the canoe it might work.

The best guess for l985 at 17’ with a Sawyer label would be the X-17. One of the 3 Yost designed tandems of that era for Sawyer. Good designs, with somewhat inconsistent build quality.

More measurements would be helpful. Depth at bow, stern, and center. Width at gunwales and maximum hull width. And a photo.

Bill

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X17 perhaps
If the salesperson was highlighting stability the X17 makes sense.

I think it’s a Sawyer 17
I suspect that the canoe is a Sawyer 17, based mainly on the model listed on the canoe, plus I’m sure that Sawyer sold a canoe called a Sawyer 17, as well as a 16. So, I suspect it’s neither an X-17 or a Cruiser. Sawyer built all sorts of canoes for essentially anyone who would pay them to build canoes that would pay them. Plus they built any number of canoes for family/recreational use that weren’t marketed more toward canoe enthusiasts like the Cruiser, the 190, 222, and X-17. These recreational boats were often made in mutiple fiberglass layups, and had more of a traditional recurved bow and stern rather than the more modern.



Here in Michigan we see alot of fiberglass canoes in the used market that were made in Oscoda by Saywer, including the Coca-cola canoe.



PK

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Follow-up info
As I am not a perks member I can’t upload any photos I took but I do have some additional info on the serial number - the last set of 7 characters I can read are

076F482 - and based on one of the posts that indicates it was made in 1982. The label reads:



4 Persons or 716 Lbs

716 lbs Persons & Motors

3 HP Motor

Manufacturer Sawyer Canoe Company

Model Sawyer 17’



So based on another post it seems like it is simply known as a Sawyer 17. So the question is where can I find out any additional info like the construction, the pedigree if it has any. Thanks for the helpful comments and if anyone has any more please feel free to pass it on.

If you host photos on Flickr or Picassa,
you can put links in your pnet posts. Then we can click a link to see the picture. You don’t have to be a pnetter to do that.



I would be curious to know the beam of the canoe, that is, the width across the center thwart. I would imagine that the weight of the canoe is considerable, maybe 80 pounds, and that it is designed more for fishing and lilydipping than for the kind of speed cruising done in a Sawyer Cruiser.



I say that so you know that your Sawyer may have a name, but isn’t a “pedigree” example in the Sawyer line. Enjoy it for what it is, but don’t sink much money into restoration. Instead, get something lighter and faster.

Here is a link to some photos
The canoe is stored under my deck so I did the best I could without having to take it down. You are correct the canoe has some weight behind it. We used it for several week long canoe camping trips through the Okefenokee Swamp. Recently it has been a fishing vessel



http://www.flickr.com/photos/106497580@N03/

Photo link isn’t working, and does not
have the format I expect to see for a Flickr link. Once you get to a Flickr picture, there should be a symbol down toward the lower right with a verbal tago about sharing with others. You will get a choice between links for others linking to the picture, or HTML/BB code for actually putting pictures in text (which you can’t do on pnet). You need to copy the link to the picture and paste it in your pnet post.

Link works.
Are you able to copy and paste ?

Link works
but the pix are quite dark. If you could take it outside and put it on sawhorses right side up we might be able to see better. Also a shot from higher into the whole hull.



yep sometimes copy and paste works better than click as the entire link doesn’t “take”.

17 f.t Sawyer
I have an original Sawyer Brochure that came with my 190, they list two models in the 17’ range. The X-17 is listed at 17’with a 36" max beam. The other is the Cruiser which was 17’9" in length and had a 33" max beam.Hope that helps.

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Does anyone know where I can purchase seats for a ‘77 Sawyer Cruiser? Black vinyl covers stapled to a wood backing with two aluminum mounting brackets? Chris

You will have trouble finding original Sawyer seats, but there are plenty of thers available that will work fine.