I just picked up a Dagger Solitaire today. It’s in fair to middling shape, sun faded, with a couple minor kinks in the gunwales and two patches (windstorm damage). I talked the seller down to $425, which was more than I wanted to spend, but canoe prices are high these days and I wanted the boat. I’ve never had a solo canoe and from what I read online, this one is gonna be pretty sweet
The online stuff I saw said the boat was Royalex and weighs about 50 pounds. It’s pretty light and I can put it on top of the car by myself easily enough, so that weight seems about right. But the sticker says “R-Light plastic” rather than Royalex. Was this another name for the same thing? A different animal altogether?
Sounds like it’s Royalite. Pblanc will have the specs better than me I’m sure, but I had both types of Royalex, and the Royalite, though lighter, seemed just as tough and more impervious to abrasion. Just did a quick search, but disagree with others opinions. In my opinion, having had numerous royalex boats, and only one in Royalite, a Swift Dumoine, I came up with my response. Royalite seems to have a harder slicker surface. My Dumoine was my main canoe poling boat, slid over miles of granite, got away from me one day and swamped, then launched itself skyward like Saturn V…anyways, as time progressed, I had broken thwarts, cracked gunwales, yet the hull never needed anything more than some touch up paint.I sold that boat recently, absolutely no wood left, and g-flex patched gunwales, but a hull that can be back to new condition with a little tlc. Personally, I think ya’ done good.
It is Royalite R-84 which Dagger chose to call "R-Light. Like Royalex it is a thermoformable plastic alloy with a three layer core of ABS, with an inner core that expands when heated, sandwiched between two solid outer layers.
The difference between Royalex and Royalite is that Royalex had inner and outer layers of vinyl bonded to the ABS to protect it from UV degradation. Royalite substitutes some type of weatherable plastic instead of vinyl that serves the same purpose.
Royalite canoes were about 10% lighter than the otherwise identical Royalex models. I have heard some claim that Royalite was as durable as Royalex and others that say it is less so. I have never owned an R-84 boat but I have seen a bunch of them and my very general impression is that they seem to hold up about as well as Royalex boats of similar weight and thickness of sheet. Since the Sojourn is probably a boat you will use primarily on flat water it should do just fine.
I do know that the typical vinyl cements that were used to bond in vinyl D ring patches and other outfitting did not yield a very durable bond when used on Royalite. If you are going to bond anything to the hull I would suggest using G Flex epoxy.
