Need some advice about this canoe. The seller said it was custom ordered from Old Town but isn’t sure what model it is. He said his grandfather bought it for him back in 2008. It’s killing me not to be able to do any research on this.
Only details he told me is that it’s about 40" wide, which looks right. It’s a nice looking canoe, and it will probably be a stable platform for fishing, although the seats look mighty uncomfortable, I just want to find some more info about it before I go see it in person. Anyone have any input/advice?? Thank you!
Whatever person here can tell you what model canoe that is can also tell you about the seats, but here goes. You can buy replacement seats online at Ed’s Canoe (find it with Google). The webbing on the original seats must have worn out, but there’s no need to sit on plywood. If you buy the boat, order new seats from Ed’s and be done with that problem. If you are lucky enough to have an actual paddling shop near you, you can get seats there.
It looks like the only thing that might be “custom” (if indeed this is the case) is the addition of aluminum hanger rails for the center seat, and the absence of thwarts.
Guessing but it has the lines of an OT Predator… That was usually made in camo only so the “custom” is the pinky red. Go see and note if the interior is fine pebbly looking. That would be in line with Poly Link 3. If it were used hard for fishing it may well have suffered seat damage first without anything on the hull.
This is the 2008 OT catalog… I realize it could be an earlier hull but have a look
https://www.oldtowncanoe.com/sites/oldtowncanoe_site/files/old_town_2008_product_guide_0.pdf
Thanks guys! It does look a lot like the Predator c133. And he did say it was 13 ft so that would make sense.
Just realize that a short and beamy canoe like that is not going to be very efficient. You probably won’t want to paddle it very long distances and you won’t go very fast. It will also be very heavy, even heavier than stock until you ditch those seats, so don’t plan on carrying it very far. All of that might be fine for your intended use. I’m sure it would be stable, as canoes go.
Personally, I would ditch that center “seat” pretty quickly. It may have been added as an afterthought after the canoe was purchased. If you go to look at it and find two holes in the gunwales amidships where a yoke would have been, you will know it likely was. That canoe is really way too wide to paddle comfortably from a position close to center unless you have arms like an orangutan. I would replace the bow and stern seats and install a proper yoke at center. If you really need to paddle it solo, I would install a kneeling thwart or a small foam pedestal a comfortable distance behind the center yoke. The gunwale width at that location would be better suited for paddling.