Found this old Coleman canoe for a song, so I snatched it up. Gsulfridge has been posting near daily reports on Facebook with pics out on the water catching crappie, bluegills, bass, etc and he just was eating me up with jealousy! I have been planning on making a small skin-on-frame Wee Lassy canoe, but for the now, I just cannot wait.
I drove out to a really sketchy campground to meet an even sketchier dude to buy it. I wrote down the hull number and pretended to get a phone call from a friend and walked away a short distance. I called a contact at the local police and read off the hull number to see if it was hot. It came up clear and the last registration was in 2004 to the guy that had placed the add. Whew!
The hull number ends in the two digits "93", so according to one website that tells us that it was manufactured in 1993. Ok, so the canoe is 25 yrs old, good to know.
It's got the cheapy aluminum tubing framing and reinforcement in the keel, but nothing is bent and there appears to be no creases in the hull. A number of the bolts holding molding/etc in place have been replaced with random hardware, but not a lot is missing either! The aluminum is pretty hazy/oxidized, but a little fooling around with polishing compound will brighten all that up. Rub rails have a few rub-through spots, but once again, they are not thrashed out either.
My plan is to spend a few odd hours here and there tuning her up and using her over the summer, then put her up for sale next summer at a modest profit for my efforts. And considering I paid a light sale price for her, I am very sure I can make a couple bucks on the deal.
I know serious canoeists look down their noses at this model/mfr, but many of them also admit this thing is stable, can take a fair bit of abuse, and will last a long time. Anyone else have one of these, have experience with one, or have advice on it?
