The Old Town dinghy, a classic yacht tender, was once a staple offering in the catalog of the Old Town Canoe Company. It’s a lightweight beauty with a bright-finished interior and a painted, canvas-sheathed hull. Structurally, it looks like a canoe, but it has the shape of a versatile small boat—one that motors, sails, and rows respectably.I’ve had one of these boats in my life for about as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, my grandfather had a 9-footer in his basement. Nobody knows exactly where it came from, but he’d owned an ACF cruiser in his younger days, and I’d guess that the dinghy conveyed with that boat when purchased, but not when sold. It must have spent a decade or two in that basement, out of the elements, when my parents adopted it as a tender for our 35' Lion-class sloop. For many years, the Old Town Canoe Company of Old Town, Maine, built a line of canvas-covered cedar dinghies using the same construction as that of their legendary canoes. Today, canoe builder Jerry Stelmok, working with his colleague Jonathan Minott, continues that tradition. Shown is a newly built 10-footer.
Island Falls Canoe
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Great build! this is probably a dumb question, but how do you get into the boat. I recently built an 8′ kit and I must say getting into (sort of OK) but getting out of it is a real challenge. Likes to tip, floats up rapidly showing me a little. Any suggestion would be welcomed.
Eric Rinehart
I have a small dinghy and usually beach it and step out carefully from the bow with one foot in the very center of the boat and one on the sand. It rolls less because you are in the narrowest part of the boat. On a dock, facing the boat, I put both hands on the dock and then sit with my butt in between them. There is no way to do it and retain your dignity.
Keep your weight low, hold on to the gunwales. It’s an art!
Glad to see this article, as I am in the middle of stripping an Old Town 9′ dinghy for my 1927 cruiser RIPTIDE. Any suggestions on how to cleanly strip the decades-old varnish without having to scrape it off would be most gratefully appreciated. The canoe-like frames make getting in between them really a challenge.
Hi Peter,
I am also restoring an Old Town 9′ dinghy, and have found that a 50/50 mix of lacquer thinner and denatured alcohol works well in getting the finish off. It still requires a lot of work, but it does work.