I have an old 15.5’ rental canoe from Shenandoah River Outfitters from the 80’s or before.
I am trying to figure out what make / model the canoe is as it need new stern & bow decks.
The only real identifier is the seats and I am hoping someone can help me identify the canoe from the picture.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
(I have already reached out to the rental company and they have not responded)
I have never seen anything like those.
I think I may have just discovered that Shenandoah River Outfitters used to build their own canoes.
This may be one of their originals and parts would have to be custom made.
Some time ago the original wood gunwales were replaced with aluminum and I may have to custom build my own out of wood.
I am going to send Shenandoah River Outfitters pictures to confirm.
If there is a hull id number (HIN) on the starboard side near the stern, look up the 1st three letters here: https://www.uscgboating.org/content/manufacturers-identification.php. Required by the Coast Guard since the early '70s.
Try sending this to the Wooden Canoe and Heritage Assn. (https://www.wcha.org/). It’s a group that restores old wooden canoes. Look on their homepage for their forum.
Looks like homebuilt seats. Someone took a standard canoe seat frame and added slats with screws. Old Chestnut seats from the early part of the 20th century were slatted but more elegantly fitted. Thompsons too.
And those do not have HIN s
I think investing these seats genealogy is futile . www.wcha.org forum may be able to help you build a new seat with a little more elegance.
Can’t identify your seats, but I think I would put my effort into replacing them with better quality seats.
On the other hand, I personally wouldn’t discard the old seats.
If they were mine, they’d likely end up on one of the walls in my “loafer’s shed”, where more than a few of my canoes are stored.
Kind of cool looking to me;I love vintage canoe “stuff”.
But be careful; loving old canoe “stuff” can become a sickness.
