I just stumbled upon some good, basic info on boat design. I know there are lots of places to find this info, but this might be worth a look. It's an old Mad River brochure, so bear in mind that it might at some point sing in praise of the V-bottom (if so, just ignore that part and pay attention to what it says about hull shape in general). YES. I just looked, and they DO claim that the V is the best design. The fact is, if you take that pointy end off the bottom of the V and add a bit of curvature to the hull on each side of the V (resulting in a shallow arch), you still have a general hull shape that does what they show in their illustrations. It's not unusual for a boat maker to overstate the value of some attribute that they like.
3rd Although in a perfect world you could always try before you buy, I’ve bought 5 boats sight unseen and havent been disappointed yet. not that it cant go wrong, but if you do your research, you’ll probably end up ok.
For what it’s worth If it were me, and I lived much closer than 900 miles away, I would jump on that Odyssey in a New York minute. However, I would ask for more pictures especially of the bottom at bow and stern and below the waterline to examine any damage.
As to size, I would not worry about it too much. I have friends your size and smaller who paddle the Mad River Guide/Freedom with no problem. The specs on the Guide/Freedom solo are similar to the Odyssey with the Guide/Freedom solo apparently having more volume.
Besides with the extinction of Royalex, and a similarly priced replacement material not apparent on the horizon, I would only expect used Royalex canoes in good condition to bring higher prices in the future.
So if you do find the Odyssey too large you will at least have a good canoe to paddle and learn from while you search for a more ideal canoe. Besides which if you do decide to sell the Odyssey I believe you would at least make your money back if not a profit, and will have had a boat to paddle and learn from in the process.
PS: Unless there is something drastically wrong with the Odyssey listed on PNet I would not expect it to be around for long if it is not gone already.
Other good resources for classified ads? I obviously keep an eye on Craigslist, but I’d like to put a WTB thread out there on a site with a classifieds type of section that gets a good amount of traffic, if anyone has any suggestions.
Emailed the guy with the Odyssey a couple of days ago to see if he’d hold it if I payed in advance. No response. Assuming it’s gone.
I understand the RX Yellowstone Solos are rare to come by, yes? Any ideas as to the last season these were made?
I guess I’ll start calling Mid-Western dealers to see what kind of remaining RX boats are available. Hope they’re not price gouging, what with RX’s demise and all.
I’m forced to buy boats untried, because they are never outfitted adequately for my large frame. Fortunately, I have usually been a good judge of hull shape and boat reputation, so that I have made only a couple of bad decisions out of over a dozen purchases. Some of my selections have turned out to have been about as good as was possible in the wide universe of available boats, given what I needed.
Demo, demo, demo is excellent advice, when boats are available to demo and when one can fit properly in them without extensive outfitting. But buying sight unseen can work very well too, for some of us. Call Millbrook.
Interesting discussion, in the Chinese sense; but it's natural for folks to suggest the hull they own and like, even if inappropriate for the OP. I have a multiple page comparison sheet on solo canoes past and present, that I will forward to OP if emailed. Of note, putting numbers on rocker is a drafting convention, with no two designers in agreement, so that data is questionable for finite comparison.
As the second best indicator of tracking or course keeping, the OP might select a relatively narrow solo tripper that fits his body size with a waterline length to width ration above 6.5 or so.
I'm 5'9", 170lbs and find the RockStar to be Huge, but then again I've owned half a hundred solo canoes and have become quite nerdy about what I like, so maybe not a good source of advice anyway.
I also do not understand the urge of some to buy at below a fair price. I find it unseemly for paddlers to try cheating each other. If the asking price is fair why? A decade ago John Winters was manning the Swift booth at a show and quoted the prospect the event's sale price. The guy promptly asked if John could do any better. John promptly raised the price a hundred bucks. The poor guy sputtered that that wasn't better, to which John replies "it was better for him"!
Didn’t mean to give the impression that I’m one for low-balling, if I somehow did. I’ll happily grant a keen sense of thrift, though, not to mention relative pauperhood at the moment.
Was hoping you’d make an appearance in this thread, CEWilson. Emailing you at once for a copy of that spreadsheet.
... by others regarding how certain models in the list of all the canoe suggestions would never be available within your stated price range. That had nothing to do with a desire to engage in price gouging, and everything to do with recognizing what you are able to afford right now. But one time he chastised a bunch of folks here for recommending several common car models to carry boats instead of a particular brand of German luxury car too.
As to it being natural to recommend what we have, in my case, it had more to do with the fact that most of the solo canoes that are smaller than average are also among that list of models that are unobtainable even at twice your stated budget. Once again, this is a case of recognizing that price matters for some people.
Why train him to have an on-side? When paddling a boat that has to be heeled to reach the water, you have to have an on-side.
I split time between sides as evenly as I can, but that all started because I have shoulder and neck issues and make an overt effort to apply balanced effort.
I don’t understand the need for a solo paddler to have an on side.
I have a pretty droll sense of humor; was probably toting my boats on a Honda Ridgeline while pretending to recommend a luxury ride. I do remain discomfited because top carriers seem unavailable for the Ferrari 488 and the Porsche 918. Bummer!
I had a friend back in East central Illinois who badly frightened in a Curtis LadyBug, bought a used OT CJ Solo. Within a year, he upgraded his stick skills and ordered a Kev LBug, worth ~$2K back then. Then he died of cancer in a matter of weeks, leaving a wife and pre-school daughter. An acquaintance bought the BugBoat from her for $300. He knew what the canoe was worth, she didn't, and he took advantage of a gal in desperate straits. She could have used the $1.5K the thing was worth, so I've always been a little leery of folks who want to offer less than a fair price.
A couple decades later when I was a Placid, a guy called in to reserve a demo advertised at $1.7K on our web site, so I made plans to meet him at the ShipShop on a Sunday. I'd waited a couple hours and was leaving when he arrived and counted out 12 100's on the desk, implied that was his offer on the boat. I handed him his cash, moved him through the door, locked it and drove home. That twit still owes me 2.5 hours of life but his round trip from Albany probably took 5. So it goes, but too bad. One or the other of us might have done something significant in the seven hours lost because he was not honest regarding his intentions. Indy was winning when I got home.