I am looking at purchasing a 10 year old Mariner XL - my question is: did the design change much over the years? Apparently later XLs were great and I want to know if this older one is just as good or if it was a development model. Is this a good kayak for getting offshore in Califoria?
According to Mariner
website changes were made to the basic XL design in 1992 to create the new Mariner Max. But it seems that the XL mold was kept the same. At least that is how I read it.
http://www.marinerkayaks.com/
Click on “Model History” on the navigation panel on the left side of the home page.
I am no expert on Mariners, but I do own a Mariner Elan.
Mark
Mariner Elan
Hey Mark, thought you sold your Elan and bought an Impex? Anyway, glad to hear you still have it.
I would not trade mine for anything. I am continually impressed with its seaworthiness and handling every time I go out.
A guy at the boat ramp spent quite a bit of time admiring it after my Rio Grande paddle today. No rudder??? No skeg???
No problem…
And I still must be the only non-coastal southwestern US paddler with one!
The Elan was stolen
After over 3 months of trying to find it I broke down and bought the Impex. 3 weeks later a police friend found it sitting in the parking lot of a pawn shop. They had it marked $300 but would have taken less. It had been sitting in their back room on “hold” for 90 days.
So now I have both. I put the Elan up for sale but had no offers so right now I will just keep it unless someone makes me a good offer.
Mark
Re: Elan was stolen
Oh, right – I remember you telling me about that. So I take it you paddle the Impex most of the time, becuase of the helpfulness of its skeg in the CC winds?
If I hear of anyone who might be interested, I’ll give them your email address. Now that the Broze Boys are out of business, it’s become a classic!
big boat
are you a big person? At ten years old its alread an old production model. I doubt anything would have been changed.