Howdy. I was hoping to get some input on a fair price for a pristine 2008 Old Town Penobscot 16 in Royalex? The canoe has only had one owner, has been on the water for less than 20 hours, and has always been stored indoors. The owner is also offering two Bending Branches Loon with Rockguard paddles.
I know it’s a bit of a crazy used market, so I don’t mind overpaying a bit for a good boat. I just don’t want to over-overpay.
If you’ve read this far, I’ll throw this in: I can also buy a 2002 Wenonah Adirondack (also Royalex) in good condition for a comparable price. Which would you prefer? We usually paddle lakes and go fishing, but we sometimes canoe camp and want to plan some river trips.
Those are good canoe and would probably work well for what you want. I would try to get it for half the price of a new one which is $1300. If it’s in really good shape it might be worth it even to save a couple hundred, but if they really want a lot you might as well get a new one. That boat is Royalex so it will be a little lighter than a polyethylene, which might make it worth more to you.
I haven’t paddled the wenonah you’re talking about, or the OT. I have paddled an OT Penobscot 15 in Royalex though, and I like that canoe. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a 15 as a Solo, and would assume that the 16 would preform similar.
I would probably offer $500 and try to get it for $750 or under but that’s just me. If it’s in good shape then I wouldn’t be heart broken paying a bit more as long as it’s the boat I really want.
I just sold our royalex OT Penobscot 16 which was in excellent shape for $600. - (thinning down our fleet)
Someone above mentioned buying a new one, but you can’t because they don’t make them any more.
When I bought the Penobscot it was a toss up between it and the Royalex Adirondack. We were able to try the Adirondack for several days and liked the Penobscot much better.
We absolutely loved the Penobscot, but we have two tandem Wenonah Jensen 17’s and two Wenonah solo Royalex canoes and just didn’t use the Penobscot any more.
Good luck, but don’t overpay
$800 is fair in great condition for an RX Penobscot. Really great do-all boats. Buy it this year at $800 or try to talk people down from $1200 in a year. That’s the way the market is going right now.
I was just talking about this with my wife today. If I could comfortably spend $3,000 on a brand new canoe, I would. But I can’t. So what should I do in today’s market?
I could buy an old fiberglass boat. I’ve done that before. But given the weight, similar prices, and wear-and-tear that come with age, I would have been better off buying a new 3-layer Old Town. So I’m not huge on doing that again.
My only other real option is to “overpay” for a gently used Royalex boat, save substantially on weight, and be confident that I will have a good boat for years to come. It makes sense, but the price tag still feels like too much. Maybe I just haven’t gotten used to the new used market trends and need to bite the bullet.
We thought about just going a year without a canoe, but quickly cringed at that thought. So I think Tundra is right: it’s $800 this year, or $1,200 next year and a year of missed paddling.
Yeah, if you get it, and use it for years, even at 1k it’s cheap imo. If you’re going to chuck in on the side of the house or hang it in garage and use it once a decade, not so much.
If I had to guess, we’ve gotten on the water about 15 times/year since we got our first canoe two years ago - mostly local lakes, ponds, and rivers with a couple trips to the Adirondakcs mixed in. So I’m confident the boat will pay for itself fairly quickly.
$800 would be a very fair price for a Penobscot in excellent condition. A new T-formex tandem is $2k+ and Royalex is lighter and arguably more desirable. Penobscots are nice canoes.
I would personally choose the Penobscot over an Adirondack.
The 2 paddles are only a bonus for the buyer if they are the correct size for the buyer, or if they aren’t the correct size you can flip them and get a few bucks of your money back.
If the boat is in primo condition I’d offer 750 dollars. 800 would be my best offer.
BOB
P.S. Nobody “needs” a 3,000 dollar canoe. Quite a few people lust after them, and some even own them, but “need them”…I think not.
Since a couple people have followed up: I ended up paying $900 for the canoe, paddles that work for us, and a couple Thule straps.
My wife and I love the boat. After taking it out on a couple small, local lakes, we did a 3 day trip on the Oswegatchie river in the Adirondacks. We are both super happy with the purchase. It strikes a really nice balance between the Sawyer and Merrimack canoes we’ve owned in the past.
