So, my buddy’s looking at a late 90’s era Dagger ww kayak that needs a new seat and doesn’t have foot pegs. Hull is sound, but the outfitting is kinda messed up. How would you go about replacing that? Can you even still get what you’d need?
skip factory, go custom
– Last Updated: Jul-05-16 1:22 PM EST –
I would skip trying to find factory parts and go custom. The state of the art back then wasn't all that good.
There were articles in California Kayaker Magazine on how to customize the footbeds and seats in kayaks. Can be read online at http://www.calkayakermag.com/magazine.html - issues 4 and 5.
Of course, it wasn't just the seats and foot beds that aren't as good then as now, but the boat itself. For the money you'd put in to get that boat going again, you likely could buy a decent much newer white water boat...
keep looking
Putting in a set of foot pegs is easy and not too expensive, but if the whole seat is missing that is something else.
Sure a new seat pad can be fashioned from minicell foam, but the original seat also had side walls that extended up to the deck at the margins of the cockpit, and without that support the hull bottom in the center of the boat is going to be very floppy.
The chances of finding a new replacement seat are pretty slim. You might be able to tear a seat out of a junk kayak hull, but whitewater kayaks of that vintage are not all that hard to find and can usually be found fairly cheaply.
old kayak
Try paddling it first, most of those old WW kayaks are down river race boats, fine if that’s what you’re using it for but they won’t go in a straight line on flat water at all. Not worth playing with most of the time. Cheaper to buy a used kayak than putting money into a boat you’ll hate.
Bill H.