Currents
T UMBLEHOME
WHAT HAS AND HASN’T CHANGED IN 100 YEARS ON THE WATER TIME AND TIDE
In this buyer’s guide, there’s no shortage of choice. Short boats, long boats, folding and inflatable boats, standup boards for idling, surfing, racing and rapid shooting—and all made from a cornuco- pia of space-age materials and presented in every shape and color imaginable. What’s nothing short of amazing is that with the wide-ranging
preferences and predilections of the current paddlesports market- place, you can still buy a canvas-covered wooden canoe essentially unchanged in more than a century of service. Yes, you too can have a premium-grade, 16-foot Old Town OTCA for $7,599.99. Fiberglass skin is $200 extra, plus tax and shipping. Back in 1925, an OTCA sold for about $50. The exact price
depended on a variety of options, including length, color, finish, sponsons, outside stems, floor racks, canoe seats, middle thwart, long decks, half ribs and sailing accouterments.
26 PADDLING MAGAZINE Adjusting the 88-year-old price tag in today’s dollars using the
consumer price index, that boat would be $663.50. A tremendous deal and a far cry from what is now demanded for a fancy throw- back double-ender. In today’s market, it’s the labor costs that push the price through the roof. Nevertheless, the OTCA and others of its ilk have survived.
And while I find it harder to imagine a buyer in the year 2100 flipping through some e-catalogue,
telepathically delivered of
course, and picking out a standup paddleboard that’s essentially unchanged since 2014, I can envision the venerable wood and canvas canoe still quietly plying the waters. Regardless of manufacturer, length, material, weight, style, his-
tory or price, the essence of self-propelled recreation persists and is as relevant today as it was when the whole concept of leisure came along as a happy consequence of the industrial revolution. Canoes,
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