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Dagger Sojourn for sale near me

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Howdy
Craigslist Phoenix shows a Dagger Sojourn for sale. I have communicated via text with the seller, very briefly. He says it's very near new and wants $650 for it. I have always wanted a Royalex solo canoe so I'm interested but there is a couple of problems. One is I don't like the dark purple color. Two is there is no testing it out first. Three, I think $650 for a 20 year old used canoe is a bit much. And Four, when I asked for more pictures and info the guy balked. He says the ad info and pictures are sufficient. And Five, it's over an hour drive one way to see this canoe.
Does anyone think a Dagger Sojourn is a good enough canoe for me to want to work my way through all this aggravation?
 
I shared that boat on North American Canoe Trader (FB) when I saw it, surprised there are no takers after almost a week. I would have grabbed it if I was within a couple of hours, as I've always wanted to try one. $650 is a bargain for an Rx solo in that condition when you consider OT Packs are selling for up to $1200 around the northeast US.
 
Had one many years ago, only reason I let it go was I came across a Bell Merlin at a great price. Very nice flat water touring boat. Dry, handles waves and big swells with confidence. It was a bit twitchy getting in and out but that’s not uncommon with narrow solos. The purple is “eggplant” actually quite distinguished. Bet the guy has had a lot of tire kickers and folk asking about using it tandem.
 
Hi Larry

$650 is still pretty reasonable for a Royalex boat in well kept condition especially as that's about 1/3 or less of the cost of a new canoe of similar weight..... and more likely 1/4 to 1/5 the price of a new one as there aren't a lot of lightweight solo boats around..

And an hour to look at a potential new-to-you canoe is really just around the corner. I suspect that the vast majority of us have longer than that to go to get to a reasonably well stocked canoe dealer, if such a thing exists even yet after the COVID driven sales spike. And a lot of us drive further than that to reach a decent put-in site. I've planned 1300 mile round trips around picking up a desirable boat (or 2....OK maybe three trips like that) and I know that I'm not even close to the long distance record for a pickup.

I just looked at the ad for that canoe and it sure seems to be worth the asking price. I'd want to see if I could talk it down some but if I needed or really wanted something similar I would feel like I had paid too much in today's market.

And I think the seller was being reasonable in saying the pictures should be enough. If the bottom was going to be damaged the most likely place would be at the stems and the one shown is pretty clean. If it fits your budget and proposed usage it would be worth at least going and looking at it.

If you decide to go look at it please let us know how it turns out.


Lance
 
Arizona is a terrible place to sell a quality canoe, but a wonderful place to buy one.
 
That boat is in fabulous condition, practically new, stored indoors.

I'm not so familiar with prices for flatwater boats but $600 (the current price I see) seems like a bargain. It might be R-lite not full Royalex but given it's likely use that doesn't matter and is why it's a sub 50lb boat.

My only concern would be deforming of the hull if it's been hanging in a hot garage for 20 years. You wouldn't be able to see that in a picture.
 
Arizona is a bad place to sell a good canoe.
My son works at REI and he said no one ever asks for a canoe any more. They do want paddle boards. That's the fad now. In fact, paddle boards to do yoga on. Yoga on a paddle board??

I can believe that as there's a nice Mad River canoe in Prescott at a very low (by our North Carolina standards) price.

Lance
Lance,
I bought my Mad River Malecite in Kevlar for $450 in Tucson. Super condition, needed nothing.
Arizona is a buyers market. But heaven help you if you want to sell.
 
The hour drive wouldn’t faze me a bit. I’m in a bit of a dead zone for nice canoes, consequently I’ll drive for one. Only you can determine if you want the boat. I dig purple. Price seems reasonable for something you’d really enjoy.
 
I had a dagger sojourn for a bit. It was fast and quite light for a royalex boat. It’s a hard tracker and I spend as much time on twisty rivers as possible, so I upgraded to a royalex Yellowstone solo, which is nearly as fast and much more maneuverable. Is it the perfect boat for you? Who knows until you spend a bunch of hours over several different outings. If you think you won’t like it that is a big expectation to overcome. Anyway on to your points. Hope these are some helpful comments.

1)That color, in person, will be much more navy than purple.

2) Have you paddled solo boats before? That one is a bit tender when empty. The foot pegs will help if sitting. It will take some time to get used to any boat, especially that one if it’s your first solo.

3) that is a fair price, in my opinion. The one I bought had cold cracks (missed them when I bought it) and I still sold it for about that. For better or worse, prices are crazy these days. That one is not. Dagger had nice royalex in 1999. Stored inside properly, it should be fine (unless it is hogged).

4) people can be weird on CL, disinterested in tire kickers etc.

5) that’s not far to drive for a used solo, IMO. My median distance to purchase is probably more like 3 hours one way, and I’ve done considerably more.
 
OK, I bought the Dagger Sojourn yesterday.
It was not as new and nice as the seller said, so after some intense negotiations, I bought it for $400.
First two pics are washed and second two pics are 303 Protectant treated.
Seems like the seat is extra wide.
One of the foot rests is broken and won't lock into position.
And it's a weird color, but if it's fast, I won't care.
I want to thank everyone for all the great advice. Thank you Kona for relating your own experience with one of these.
 

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The foot brace repair should be pretty straight-forward. Post your outfitting and trip report!
 
Nice! I remember paddling mine on an overnight trip in the English Lake District. We discovered that the heritage steam ferry would create a wake that travelled down the lake to become a large 3ft plus swell by the time it hit the opposite shore. We paddled further out from the shore to escape the swell but were hit by wind gusts so strong we were blown backwards for several yards at each gust. The only choice was to let it go, using the paddle as a rudder at the bow to keep the canoe straight. Stayed upright though!
Enjoy your new canoe.
 
Thank you everyone for kind words of encouragement!
I took the little canoe to the park this morning for a test drive. It is pretty much as everyone said. Tender getting in, but once in and centered, you're good to go. And it does go pretty well, too. My beavertail paddle helps it scoot right along. And I am super rusty, sad to say.
I circled the lake practicing my paddle strokes and four or five shore fishermen waved and said hello as I went by. They have a legend that there is one 50 pound catfish in the lake and he lives in the dead center, too far from the shore to cast your bait. Those guys envy a boatman.
They have a pretty strong algae bloom going on in that small lake and me and the canoe both need a good scrubbing now. But we had fun.
 

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Continuing the thread with a different craiglist boat in much worse condition. Kinked gunnel (from getting blown across the yard according to the seller) and a ugly but supposedly watertight bow patch job. The boat is 5 hrs away, but I have been searching for a solo on a limited budget, so I'm willing to overlook truly cosmetic issues. Is this an ugly duckling, or a true lemon?
 

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