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New canoe or stick with old.....

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Jul 13, 2019
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Notre Dame, Indiana
I always like to come here for the great advice from the elders....so here we are again.
Anyways.
I have a 16 foot fiberglass canoe. I absolutely love this thing. It's super stable & super fast. A little troublesome against the wind but overall a joy to paddle.
Now for the bad...... I hate how heavy it is. I always go solo ( + dog ) so it's just me loading it up top. I have a good loading technique, but it has a lot of rocker & sometimes gives me a hard time.
Now for the question: I found a MR Destiny nearby. It is 17 foot & while they called it "fiberglass" in the ad from what I researched it is probably Kevlar Lite.
I couldn't find many reviews on it only specs. Shallow V, slight rocker. If the ads are right it's only 50 pounds.
Now the price the were asking was (I assume) great if is indeed Kevlar right? Will I ever find a Kevlar boat under $500?

Soooo. Do I take the risk & get it? Is canoeing a "keep buying until you find the perfect one" kind of deal?

Thanks for any advice.
 
I personally don’t see the risk. If it is in good shape, you could always sell if for probably more than you paid if you don’t like it.

You can always call MR with the hull number and find out exactly what it is. I believe they had two different Kevlar layups with this model. Sounds like a great find.

Bob
 
Mad River made five different composite layups (fiberglass, kevlar, kevlar expedition, kevlar light, etc) of the Destiny between 1996 and 2001, and a rotomolded poly version in ’07 – ’08. The lightest, the KL version, was 42 lbs, standard kevlar 59lbs and the fiberglass version was 78lbs.

If it is a kevlar model, in decent condition and one of those unicorn sub-$500 kevlar canoes it won’t last long, and in today’s market you could re-sell it for what you paid. Picking a year at random, in 1999 the standard kevlar version cost $1999 to $2199

Maybe bring a bathroom scale.

FWIW EDIT – The rotomolded “Destiny” was essentially an asymmetric Adventure 16. ‘Nuff said.
 
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So there WAS a fiberglass version? The only info I could find was a Kevlar Expedition (w/ wooden gunwales) and the Kevlar Lite (w/ aluminum) So the seller could be accurate in describing it as fiberglass. If it is indeed 78 pounds I wouldn't be breaking any new ground.
Like I said my 16 foot fiberglass is as awesome as I could imagine it.... just heavy & awkward to load w/ it's rocker.


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If it is still available certainly no risk in purchasing it. Does seem like a good deal, which is not a bad reason to buy a better boat.
Seems though, if you are mostly paddling solo (with dog) are you looking at the right boat? How loaded do you travel, for how long, what conditions? At 17'6" and a 35" beam this is a big boat for solo, good enough for long trips but a lot of hull for day excursions.
Late to reply - what happened with the boat and decision?
 
If it is still available certainly no risk in purchasing it. Does seem like a good deal, which is not a bad reason to buy a better boat.
Seems though, if you are mostly paddling solo (with dog) are you looking at the right boat? How loaded do you travel, for how long, what conditions? At 17'6" and a 35" beam this is a big boat for solo, good enough for long trips but a lot of hull for day excursions.
Late to reply - what happened with the boat and decision?
Hey Carpenter.
I let it go. I will wait for perfect to come along. I forgot to mention I do have 2 canoes. The 16 foot beast which is awesome but heavy and a 14 foot royalex Mad River which is light but slow. If I have to paddle to move it's the fiberglass. If I intend for the river to do the work it's the MR. I would like to replace the 2 with one that does both eventually. I figure winter is a great time to find a good deal.
 
Oldtyme - sounds like you might be looking for used Osprey, Shearwater or more river oriented SRT, MRC Guide/Freedom. Northwind Solo or Phoenix from Northstar might fit too, fewer likely to be found used though. There seems to be a range of older MRC boats like your Destiny - I am less familiar with those.

I have a Northwind Solo in Kevlar and a BlueHole Sunburst II in Royalex and am happy with the range of travel those offer - next steps would be a more playful, highly rockered composite boat or a narrower more tender straight-line boat Just picked up a Curtis Vagabond for $200 but need the time to replace gunnels and thwarts before putting it in the water...might work as a quick, unloaded day paddler.

Don't worry too much about finding the perfect boat, if you found a good boat for less than even $1000 these days it still seems that you would be able flip it for a similar price - little risk in trying different boats (more risk that you start to accumulate though, but lots of support in that direction from the crowd on this site). Solo boats likely harder to resell but also will lose their inflated value over time I think.
 
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