Once in awhile you get to work on your own canoe, and now's a time for me. This is the first and only canoe that I have ever bought. Its an old Peterborough Minetta.

Now I have a Peterborough Canoe collection! My first wood & canvas canoe was a Peterborough Otonobee that was given to me as a project. A couple of years ago I was give a real wreck of a Peterborough Dart. I am determined to get these three canoes full restored and into service, and I'll blog about those projects in their turn.

The Minetta is in the same design family as the Champlain, Mermaid, and Otonobee. Peterborough referred to this group of canoes as their "Pleasure" canoes. The Mermaid is the 14', the Minetta is the 15', the Champlain is the 16'. The Otonobee is also 16', be has finer ends, a higher sheer, a more rounded stem, and is trimmed in Mahagony.
This particular canoe is in very good shape as it was stored indoors for many years. Its varnish has darkened over time and I am trying to decide whether to leave it or strip and revarnish. It doesn't need to be stripped the way that some canoes do, but I'm thinking that I'd like to get it back to a very clean state.
Serial numbers clearly stamped on the inner stem make a good ID so much easier!

Even the seat cane is good!