Dagger Suwanee / Woodsman II for river

Advice
#1

paddling tandem?



Anyone paddle the Dagger Suwanee / Woodsman II on rivers?



Anyone have specs on the Dagger Suwanee / Woodsman II?





Thanks

#2

According to the 1998 Dagger catalog
the Suwanee is:

Length: 15’

Beam: 36" overall; 35.5" waterline

Rocker: 0.5"

Depth: 13" midships

Asymmetrical

6" Freeboard capacity: 620 lbs

Weight: 61 - 64 lbs in Royalite

I’ve never paddled one, but I saw one on my dealer’s rack and seem to remember it having a very flat bottom. 620 lb 6" freeboard capacity does sound pretty small for tandem use on rivers.

#3

Had One
Those specs are probably pretty close, turns better than the small ammount of rocker might suggest. It was a perfect day tripper on Ozark streams. I used it as our “Guest boat” because it had good primary and secondary stability and was generally so good for novices to paddle. I also used it as an overnight solo tripper on the river. Two people could easily do overnighters in it as long as they weren’t both 200 pounders packing heavy. It was a nice boat, and a friend still has it and uses it to paddle the Current and the Buffalo with his son. Oh, and Dagger’s royalex and the fit and finish of the canoe was impeccable. WW

#4

I think I have an old C&K review of the
Suwannee. They really liked the boat as a pocket tandem, and said it soloed nicely even though it was rather wide for solo. I have a lot of respect for the Scarborough team as canoe designers, and while their flatwater boats were trim-sensitive, none were clunkers.

#5

I found that C&K review, in the July '98
issue. To quote Salins, “In my opinion, it is one of the best solo/tandem combination canoes available.” Let me know if there is anything else you want to know from the review. Salins commented that one, or even both, paddlers could stand securely in the boat. Sounds unlikely, but he said it.

#6

Thanks for the feedback.
There was one for sale relatively close by, but it sold a couple days ago for $400.



These seem to come available now and then at pretty low prices, so I’ll be a little more confident when another comes available within driving distance.



I’d be interested in one mainly for shallow & twisty streams of central IL. Our royalex Wenonah Solo Plus goes straight better than it turns.



g2d, please do post the body of that review, since none are available on p.net.





Thanks.

#7

It may be a little while (like a month+)
before I can either see if my scanning and reading software can handle it, or before I just hand type it.

#8

One thing I just remembered -
my dealer had several in his rental fleet for two or three years so they must have been pretty foolproof (and tough). One other thing - according to the Dagger catalogs they switched from R-Lite (Royalite?) to Royalex in 1999, so if that makes a difference you might want to check the date on the HIN. We paddled a Reflection 15 in R-Lite for a while and didn’t have any problems, but we didn’t use it much on shallow rocky streams.

#9

No hurry.
Whenever you get around to it will be fine.



Thanks.