Part canoe and part rowboat, guideboats were the pickup trucks of their day, and they were worked hard. Few originals have survived, but I managed to make a trade seven years ago that landed one in my garage. My first look at it was not encouraging. It was more than 100 years old and you could see through the bottom. Fence staples and bent nails were rampant, along with a dozen broken ribs. But the lines were still there, the planks were fair and the wide hackmatack stem and stern, though battered and bruised, were intact. Eighty percent of the ribs would need to be removed and replaced, but perhaps it was possible that this shell could be brought back from the brink of extinction.
Layers of original (likely lead) paint in blue, black and green were stripped. Broken ribs were removed, copied and replaced a pair at a time. New gunwales and decks brought the boat back
