Vermont Canoe Survives

Hurricane Irene ripped through Vermont last summer and swept through the Vermont Canoe facility. The exceptional builder had the usual troubles of a labor-intensive start-up business before the storm. Now this.
Add the fact that their website now links to an international Internet information services business and it looked like they were down for the count.
Not so says owner Rob Scharges.
"Our production capabilities have been significantly scaled back because our production area was destroyed by the flood waters of Irene, but repair is as strong as ever," he said. "We are working on a plan for the future of production. Currently, though, canoes can be built on a special order basis."
Scharges still hangs around with Mad River Canoe founder and designer Jim Henry and began Vermont Canoe after Mad River was sold and moved to one of the Carolinas. Nice that the tradition of building canoes in the Mad River Valley continued.
And still continues. Vermont Canoe is doing repairs on fine canoes to fill the time until they can resume production. Repair has always been part of the business, including restoring wood and canvass canoes, but now it is the bulk of the business. They will repair any brand of canoe or kayak.
Facebook is about the only way to find Vermont Canoe on the web at this writing.
"Our website provider literally disappeared overnite last year. Closed up shop, no notice and left a bunch of us high and dry," Scharges said. "We will put a site up again, but it will be a few more months. In the meantime, we direct folks to our Facebook page."
Best of luck, Vermont Canoe. You do beautiful work.