Dave Hadfield
05-31-2003, 11:53 AM
Not long ago I stopped in a little place named Powassan as I drove back from North Bay. I saw several wooden boats outside an old leaning shed and decided to investigate.
It turned out to be Geisler's Boat Works. In business since the 1920s, the sons and grandsons of the founder still build boats out of cedar, in the same collection of sheds, over much the same forms. I met one of the sons and he showed me around, very politely, while wishing to himself that this damn tourist would either order a boat or go on his way so he could get that outwale put on. This on a Saturday morning. At age 72.
The boats are right out of time. That doesn't mean crude or simplistic of course, just made of oak and cedar and planks and ribs in styles from the 1950s. Their concession to modernity is to allow the option of covering them with glass and epoxy rather than canvas -- though they'll still do that for you too.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/cedar.boats
Good prices, especially for the US dollar. You can get a wood/canvas 16ft canoe there for $1300 Canadian, which is about $900 US.
Neat, unusual place.
(edited 2 times to get the url right]
[ 05-31-2003, 11:56 AM: Message edited by: Dave Hadfield ]
It turned out to be Geisler's Boat Works. In business since the 1920s, the sons and grandsons of the founder still build boats out of cedar, in the same collection of sheds, over much the same forms. I met one of the sons and he showed me around, very politely, while wishing to himself that this damn tourist would either order a boat or go on his way so he could get that outwale put on. This on a Saturday morning. At age 72.
The boats are right out of time. That doesn't mean crude or simplistic of course, just made of oak and cedar and planks and ribs in styles from the 1950s. Their concession to modernity is to allow the option of covering them with glass and epoxy rather than canvas -- though they'll still do that for you too.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/cedar.boats
Good prices, especially for the US dollar. You can get a wood/canvas 16ft canoe there for $1300 Canadian, which is about $900 US.
Neat, unusual place.
(edited 2 times to get the url right]
[ 05-31-2003, 11:56 AM: Message edited by: Dave Hadfield ]