Great Canadian Canoe Co.

[JClearwater]

Locally for sale is a 15' Great Canadian canoe in canvas. It dates for 1987 and has been always stored inside and rarely used. It has half ribs. The price is fair. I don't need it and may pass on it, but it raised a question in my mind as to the history of the company, quality etc etc. Any thoughts out there?

As an aside:
The restoration is finished on our 1953 F350 Ford long bed pickup which has been in the family since it was new. I have to make a rack for the back to carry two canoes so we can go to the car shows with more than the truck. I'll post pictures eventually.

Old canoes, old cars, old guns, cold beer. Life is good.

Jim C.

 

[SPLIT]

Youth customer.?

J.C. : New member her that use to live in Beacon , NY near the sloop club when 1st married. Does your nickname have anything to do with the river sailing yacht .?
.Enjoy your truck sounds nifty . Many ,Many classic show truck here in East Tenn. I had gotten a 59 Willys Flat fender truck in Fla , converted to nice 283" chevy V-8. ,but one of the 2005 hurricanes crushed the top before restoration & ended up giving away before our move.
. DO not know the canoe company, but the offer sound about right for a Youth customer.? We sort of travel thru your county in the summer as our grandchildren llive in Maine. She is now 9 & I want to get her into canoeing this summer. They are both into scouts & this item sounds a match for that type of club.
.. Recently read about a outboard guy who sells some of his trade in stuff for cost if one can prove it is going to a son or girl of members, calls it a Youth ad.
. Anyway would like to see a pic of your area, was going to send you a pvt msg. Read a nice blog of pro photographer & retired kayak guy out of Troy who does the annual Great River Paddle in a kayak group . Looked nice.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

The company is still in business, which surprised me, considering how small canoe companies tend to come and go.

http://www.greatcanadian.com/canoes_index.html

I remember seeing their w/c canoes at shows back 30+ years ago. At the time, I believe all they were building were wood/canvas canoes and maybe snowshoes. My impression was that the workmanship and finishing were a little rough, compared to Old Towns, but they were selling at a lower price. I never tried one in the water.

 

[Bob Holtzman]

Note that "Great Canadian" is located in Massachusetts. IMO, their wood canoes are clunky and inelegant. Their recreational and sporting canoes in fiberglass are chopper-gun monstrosities. They seem to be popular among the bass-fishin' crowd for their low cost and wide distribution within certain regions, but I've never known anyone who really loves canoes to give them any credence.

 

[JClearwater]

Whoa!

Let's be careful with how hard we throw stones, we may end up breaking our own windows. In my opinion all our restored canoes look a whole lot better in terms of quality of finish, attention to detail etc. than they ever did when they left the factory - than goes for almost every builder, Old Town and Morris included. Great Canadian fills a niche. Every canoe need not be a masterpiece any more than every car need be a Rolls Royce. The whole idea behind receational canoes in the first place is to get people out of the house and on the water having fun. You can have just as much fun in a $600 canoe as in a $3500 canoe.

My 2 cents,
Jim

 

[Bob Holtzman]

Jim,
So noted. My comments were perhaps too harsh.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

My comments were perhaps too harsh.

Nah, not really. They do fill a void though, not like I'd take any of my nicer stuff on a long trip to beat up on. For 600 I'd take one...