Looking at a Sojourn for sale. What years were they made? The boat has very little use but has been stored outside some. Should there be issues with the plastic and is this a decent flat/slow water boat.
very decent flatwater touring
design, IMO
for a Royalex canoe
Fast, light an’ straight trackin’…
great flatwater canoo - dem’s wuz made fro’ Royalite (R-87). One of de big mistakes ah’ done made wuz ta sell me Sojourn.
FE
Sojourn
– Last Updated: May-29-09 12:13 PM EST –
Fairly light weight, beautiful lines, fairly hard tracker & fast. Fun boat on the straight-a-ways. Not much fun in a boulder garden.
Not so much fun on the twists & turns if you are a novice paddler. Novice paddlers typically find it to be"tippy"; more than one decent paddler got into mine & immediately got back out.
It does not have a lot of initial stability, but it's secondary firms up quite nicely when you get used to it. Not much affected by wind. Have heard some reports of weak/cracked bows as a result of head ons collisions. Personally have had no problems, but I don't make it a habit to do head on collisions. It has little rocker, and it is my personal opinion that class 2 is it's maximum limit. Dropping small ledges, or going through wave trains will result in "bailing time".
Bought mine new; it is a dark blue color with gold lettering, and wood trim. Probably not too many of them are still on the water; I don't think that many were made in the first place. Have never seen another one except mine on any river. I need to paddle mine more often than I do. Not a boat I'd use for multi overnight river trips, with a heavy load of gear, but lots of fun on a day trip, or an overnighter when you have a light load.
BOB
Sojourn
Was a Steve Scarborough design, and despite his success with rec, touring and WW kayaks, Steve remains a solo canoeist; in short, he cares.
Sojourn should be thought of as a basic, entry to intermediate tripper, competing with Wenonah’s Voyageur and Wilderness as well as Bell’s Merlin II, Hemlock’s Peregrine and Swift’s Osprey in composite. very neat boat!
It came out in mid 90s and sold well until the powers that were at W#aterMark discontinued Dagger canoes.
Still have one in stock I’d let go…
cheap. Never seen H2o but somewhat weathered from resting upside down in the old barn it sat in for years. Blue hull, vinyl trim.
As I recall, though, the Sojourn was
smaller than most of your examples. It would take great discipline in gear selection to use it as a tripper. I considered it too small for me, even as a day tripper.
Sojourn
Thanks for the replies. I know very little about this boat. I think it is the lighter royalite layup. I like the weight but wonder if this plastic holds up well over the years?
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Size
At 14 3/4’ long, 29 inches wide and 12.5 in deep, Dagger’s Sojourn comes in about the same size as Bob Brown’s NRC Slipper, 3 in shorter and an inch wider than Hemlocks STR and 6" waterline length shorter and a half inch wider than Hemlock’s Peregrine.
It’s 3" longer, than WildFire and actually more than 6" at waterline than Wenonah’s Argosy and Vag, all of which are just an inch wider.
All in all, seems to be pretty good company to run with. Now we do have the issue in that many solo paddlers apparently watch lots of TV, have taken McDuck to heart, and have supersized themselves. Thus the RockStar, Wilderness and more to come, but Sojourn fits average sized paddlers with tripping gear pretty well. It’s just that we have more big folks now.
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Yes the RockStar
has left the building
Found this list on Craigslist. Kinked gunnel from being blown across the yard. Seller claims it’s cosmetic, and the bow patch is watertight. Thoughts?
Any info on how royalite holds up after years of what looks like outside storage?
They say every scratch tells a story, so this boat must have some interesting stories to tell. At least the kink in the gunwale is in the back. The patch in the front looks thick enough to be water tight. 
You don’t see solo canoes for sale very often, and I’m a strong advocate of buying used, but that boat would have to be pretty cheap for me to take it away.
p.s - old Royalex generally holds up fine. Pretty typical to see spots where the vinyl is worn off down to the ABS layer (whiter color) - at some point you may need to do something about that. Cracks down into the foam core are a bigger problem.
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And PT Barnum said “There is one born every minute…” Instead of paying someone to haul it away, the “seller” is looking for some one to pay him for the privilege of hauling it away.
sing
I wouldn’t be considering a canoe with such damage but I’m looking for a solo and have a limited budget. Sounds like this might still be a pass based on the responses thus far.
I’ll offer my $0.02 about this boat. But take it with a grain of salt, since I’m the seller 
I bought this boat last year, paddled it around some, and decided it just doesn’t turn fast enough for me. I have other solos I prefer. So I’m selling it, but not to save myself the trouble of taking it to the dump. It’s a very seaworthy boat, and really fun to paddle, especially if you want a dedicated flatwater solo. The damage is indeed cosmetic.
Given what I see used Royalex boats going for on Craigslist these days, I thought the price was reasonable. But I’m flexible, especially for paddling.com member.
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I also have a boat with a kink in the gunnel (wrapped around a rock) and it doesn’t effect paddling. That is one big ugly patch, but it would be less noticeable when the boat is in the water.
Like I said, if I needed a solo and the price was right I would buy it.
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Thanks for the info, @CedarPost . When you say it doesn’t turn fast enough for you, what type of paddling are you doing? Swiftwater river/open lake/ twisty swamp?
@Tsuga88 I guess what I meant was I don’t need a dedicated flatwater boat. The lakes around me are small, and I have a couple other solos that can also handle the little creeks and rivers that I paddle, as well as the afternoon flatwater excursions.
The sojourn is fun and fast but I don’t need to own three solos