Guideboat, Adirondack
Name/Title
Guideboat, AdirondackEntry/Object ID
2007.013Description
2007.013 Boat Type: Adirondack Guideboat Builder: Myron Nickerson Model: Unknown Length: 16' 5" Beam: 37 ½" Depth: 13" Date Built: 1887-1907 This is an Adirondack Guideboat built by Myron Augustus Nickerson (1843-1926), of Canton, NY, sometime between 1887 and 1907. Nickerson was a well-known builder of Guideboats and similar small craft from the turn of the century, who at the peak of his business had eight men working for him. He learned the trade working as a craftsman in the J.H. Rushton boat shop in Canton, NY. This lineage is very clearly represented by the typical Nickerson deck, which employs thin strips of alternating woods running parallel to the sheerline, the ends of which are hidden under a deck cap. This design is unique to Nickerson, seems to have been inspired by Rushton's decks, which were often thin strips of cedar with beveled shoulders in the same arrangement. Nickerson is also noted for making canvas-covered Guideboats. This Guideboat came from Cranberry Lake, NY, in the western Adirondacks. The widest point is in the center of the boat. Both ends have 1 ½" inches of rocker beginning 30 inches from the stem feet. It is typical Guideboat construction with feather-edge plank laps. The decks, the design of which is described above, are cherry and maple, with a mahogany deck cap and coaming. The middle seat is mahogany, and the bow and stern seats are cherry. This boat clearly has a history of repair. Several cracked planks have been closed by the saw-toothed brass insert method, where a sheet of brass is cut into a saw-tooth pattern, gummed with varnish or white lead, inserted into the crack, and the saw-teeth bent over and clinched to the plank on either side of the crack to hold it together. At some point, a restorer got hold of it who sawed off the stem tips, which would have originally protruded through the deck, and covered the ends with a new deck cap. This procedure was performed by a particular marine handyman on Cranberry Lake and has been observed on other boats from that area. At some point later in its life several strips of fairly coarse-weave fiberglass were laid over opening plank seams. None of these are peeling, and the wood underneath seems sound. Currently, the boat is floatable and moderately useable; it was launched and rowed by Allan Newell and Everett Smith at the No-Octane Regatta in the summer of 2007. It does have many cracked plank laps, some of which have been repaired adequately if not artfully, most of which are covered over with varnish. Some of the old plank repairs are made obvious by different colors of wood, but the boat is pretty uniformly the color of old varnish. Along with this boat are two oars, which may or may not be original. One of them has had a crack repaired with a splice. No yoke or seat-backs are present. EVS 08Collection
BoatsAcquisition
Accession
2007.013Source or Donor
Smith, Sallie LouAcquisition Method
GiftMade/Created
Manufacturer
Nickerson, MyronNotes
Date: 1887-1907 Propulsion: OarDimensions
Width
36-1/2 inLength
192 inLocation
Shelf
Row BWall
Rack MBuilding
*Don Doebler Collections Storage FacilityDoebler Storage Facility - Rack M, middle