Looks like the 15 ft. Grumman canoe I purchased in 1964, except mine is a bit cleaner. My brothers and I used to surf with it in the Gulf and fish in it in the rivers around Sarasota. My youngest son and I used it last month on the Withlachoochee River. A great boat that will last a lifetime or more.
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My college roommate had one at his grandmother’s house on Pawly’s Island in SC.
We also tried to surf it. That didn’t work out too well.
The front seat frame looks Grumman, but the ribs and keel rivets do not. On this vintage Grummans there was a small oval brass plate with the serial number and model on the front deck. if its missing the rivet holes should be visible. As for a replacement seat any Grumman dealer can get it. Oak Orchard Canoe has them in stock normally and you can order by phone or internet. www, oakorchardcanoe.com or 585-682-4849.
@plaidpaddler said:
The front seat frame looks Grumman, but the ribs and keel rivets do not. On this vintage Grummans there was a small oval brass plate with the serial number and model on the front deck. if its missing the rivet holes should be visible. As for a replacement seat any Grumman dealer can get it. Oak Orchard Canoe has them in stock normally and you can order by phone or internet. www, oakorchardcanoe.com or 585-682-4849.
Thanks! It does look like the serial number plate is missing, I see the rivets.
The curved/angled from decks instead of straight across would lead me to believe this boat is from before the mid 1960s. I would guess a 1950s boat.
I agree the 5 ribs makes it look like an 18’ model
Contact Marathon Boat Group about replacement seat options. They still make Grumman Canoes in the same factory.
https://www.marathonboat.com/grummanboats.asp
Dude, I recently carried 32 foot ladder on top of my 15 foot Grumman on my Ford Ranger.
That canoe made a great ladder rack!
I think you are right about this not being a Grumman.
It’s a decent copy, but not a Grumman.
The iconic Ron Drummond Dana point photo. Long, long. long ago. I also know some kayak surfers who have surfed their Aluminum aircraft carriers in big surf. I’ve also helped rescue a few Zonies who thought they might like to try in La Jolla .
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I’ve owned two Grummans, both 17 standard weights - one was stolen from under the porch of a place where I lived and I replaced it with the one I now own in '78. I don’t recall how the HIN was marked on my original, but the one I still have has a stamped plate riveted onto the hull. The curve in the deck plates doesn’t look like any Grumman I recall seeing. Mine are straight across and rolled downward, presumably to make them easier to grip for carrying. That lends credence to the idea that it might be a near copy made by someone other than Grumman.
If you contact Marathon/Grumman to see about a replacement seat, you might inquire about a) the number of ribs (I think the lightweight Grummans, and maybe the heavy-duty ones also, had extra ribs to add strength to the lighter skin model) and b), Older Grummans used fewer but larger rivets on the stem and stern. It might be possible, in the absence of a stamped HIN, to at least approximately date the boat by the size and number of stem/stern rivets. Folks at the manufacturer probably get such inquiries often enough that they could help you on this.
As a kid I was a flying model airplane hobbyist as well as a paddler. This, of course, led me to a particular interest in Grumman aircraft. As Daggermat pointed out, this made them experts in building very strong reasonably light (comparable to wood/canvas) aluminum products.
They started out building truck bodies (which they still do) but then added the construction of floats for Loening Aircraft amphibious and float planes in the 1920s. If you can imagine the pounding those floats would take on landing in waves… and they had all that under their belt before they built their first actual aircraft of their own. And they’re noted for carrier aircraft - which also have to be able to take a beating both in combat rolls but routine carrier landings. Rugged is what Grumman is all about.
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We paddled Grummans for years. They were everywhere. It was the common boat in the Boundary Waters in the 1980s. I have portaged them all over the place.
They are durable boats with full ends making them relatively slow. They have minimal rocker and come with a keel. That makes them hard to turn on rivers. They stick on rocks. They are heavy. But they last a long time if not abused.
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But they do track straight on a lake.
Does it track straight? That really depends on who is paddling it. Much easier tandem than solo and now a days I might even try a kayak blade because I’ve gotten lazy
Soloing one without a load on a windy day, you’ll get kicked around. They present a lot of surface to the wind. That’s not unusual for many tandems under those conditions though. The absence of any discernible rocker probably helps the tracking as much as the presence of a keel.
That canoe is long gone, but it had great stability and tracking. I never paddled it solo but have paddled it while the front passenger just eent along for the ride. Having that ballast up front had to help. Didn’t have any problem keeping it tracking straight and don’t think I had any special skills. Also had good enough stability that we could switch front seats without feeling tippy.
It had all the vices mentioned, as well as being noisey, and cold metal, but it waa a very forgiving boat and fast at 17 ft. I think I would prefer an aluminum to fibrrglass, but that is probably more nostalgia talking than logic. I like the boat.
I believe it is a grumman: Tight spacing and flat heads of the rivets visible on the stem. What appears to be the stylized letter “G” logo on the front bulkhead. The shape of the front seat supports. And the bow and stern line attachment points that are (rightly) partway down towards the waterline, which I have never seen on a non-grumman aluminum canoe.
Nostalgic.
It’s one of the earliest Grumman canoes, made in the original Bethpage factory by Grumman Aircraft between 1944 and 1952. The “G” logo on the bulkhead is one giveaway. Another is the mildly curved ‘V’ shaped cutout on the cockpit side of the top panels above the bulkheads. On the boats produced in Marathon, the edge of that top panel is just straight across. But this thread is 6 years old and the OP hasn’t been here since, so I’m only noting this for posterity.
Here is another example of the same vintage in good condition:
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All canoes track straight when you learn how to paddle them.
Not true.
You can say the same about kayaks. Just because you can make it track straight doesn’t mean it will do so without knowing proper paddling skill. That’s like saying no boat is tippy if you know how to balance. Whatever!