Who’s still paddling a Royalex solo boat

I have an old RX MR Explorer. One thing I like about it is there is plenty of room in the bow. The Mohawk fiberglass tandem has barely enough bow space to squeeze into.

I also have a 13 ft Mohawk solo that is quite useful. I'd say it's the boat I use most often.

I've also a 15 foot Mohawk Odessy, but I haven't put it in the water yet.

eckilson said:

I currently have 8 boats

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Erik, your photo shows question marks for the year of your Millbrook Outrage. Is there no HIN on the hull?

All I have is Royalex as well…aside from an aluminum canoe I sold about a year ago (not a Grumman).

Have an Argosy and love it. Have two Sojourns as well (need some work) which are similar boats to the Argosy. Have a Mohawk Intrepid, an OT Pack and a Mad River Freedom that I modified into a solo boat….came out great.

It’s time for a composite boat I think as I have a Mercedes Sprinter (low roof) and the Freedom that I usually prefer to paddle is pretty heavy to put on the roof with its all wood trim. That being said…I would like to start a new post requesting your advice on a composite solo boat….see you there hopefully

Chris

Glenn MacGrady said:

Erik, your photo shows question marks for the year of your Millbrook Outrage. Is there no HIN on the hull?

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There is not HIN. It's a long story, but it is not stolen - trust me. It was purchased around 2000.

TheIndian said:

Have a Mohawk Intrepid,

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I have a 1989 Mohawk Whitewater 16 - an earlier version of the Intrepid. It is an absolute battle tank, and weighs just about that much. Flat bottom, fun to paddle tandem, good for poling, but I never paddled it solo, until this weekend...



We did an overnight trip on a local river, and I had too much gear and firewood to carry in my solo boat. It paddles like a battle tank too. ;-)

Steve in Idaho said:

I seem to recall some complaints that the seat didn't always stay where you wanted it when things got rough.

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I have a Wenonah Vagabond with this adjustable seat and I hate it.. incredibly noisy when it slips and bangs around, which is most of the time, never stays where I put it, adjusts nicely between too low for comfortably sitting and the upper setting which is too low for kneeling with feet under the seat, as a bonus. Last winter I drilled a couple of holes above the front upper settings and made it a fixed seat. Ideally I'd find one of the Wenonah pedestal seats which allow for easy kneeling, but.

still have Mad River Outrage, Mohawk Probe 11, Dagger Caper, Mad River Explorer 1976 in Royalex. The Caper is a good solo ww tripping boat as well as tandem, however somehow I acquired an Empty Canoes composite made on the same hull design, which weighs 40lb versus the 70lb of the outfitted Caper.. so it's mostly a tandem boat now, my son paddles it with his friends who are novices on ww. Class II and below tripping I'll paddle the MRE solo, just much pleasanter for cruising on the flatwater bits. My Outrage doesn't get much exercise these days as I seldom paddle tough ww anymore, think about selling it but who would want it ? The Probe is my wife's boat, we paddle a bit of class II-III together each summer just for old times' sake. Probe over on R, me sitting up on the Caper to L as my knees can't take the long paddle days anymore..

DougK said:

I have a Wenonah Vagabond with this adjustable seat and I hate it.. incredibly noisy when it slips and bangs around, which is most of the time, never stays where I put it

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DougK said:

My Outrage doesn't get much exercise these days as I seldom paddle tough ww anymore, think about selling it but who would want it ?

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Hi Doug,

I've got a quick question on the adjustable seat. Does yours have the cord and cord lock to hold the seat in place? I have not tried it on rough water yet, but mine seems to do OK in both the sitting and kneeling positions, In my Argosy I can get my size 12 feet (in NRS River Boots) under it just fine at the kneeling height.

You might be surprised at the response to an ad for the Outrage if you post it on Craigslist or such. At least in the South-East the "Classic" whitewater canoes have a pretty good following. When I picked my Millbrook Outrage this year, I put up my Old Town H2Pro up for sale and it didn't take long at all for another paddler to give it a new home.

mine does have the cord and cord lock, but it does not work to keep the seat in position - I think what happens is when the boat is on the car roofracks, the cord is not strong enough to retain position against the bumps and bangs of going down the road..
I'm in CO, not a lot of ww canoeists here and I know all of them - worse than that, they all know my old Outrage ;-)

Just saw yesterday that Wenonah is going to "re-introduce" some of their popular royalex canoes from the past with t Formx.

BWCA66 said:

Just saw yesterday that Wenonah is going to "re-introduce" some of their popular royalex canoes from the past with t Formx.

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Any idea which models??

Picked up a Royalex Wildfire (Yellowstone Solo) to save the Gelcoat on my Wildfire. Great boat but I don’t like the differential rocker; lengthened the thwarts a bit to lift the ends which helped. (Esquif Echo is a great boat, doesn’t heel as smoothly but tail doesn’t hang up like a skegged stern. Paddled before, don’t have one)
Got lucky to find a new to me Dragonfly. After talking to the original owner, learning what this boat had been thru and doing some research; it’s Carbon/Kevlar, Gelcoat layup is way more durable than I thought. Also, much more abrasion resistant than Royalex and easy to touch up the Gelcoat when needed. Had some serious impacts, bangs and bumps with no worries of damaging the cloth. Haven’t taken it on any CIII’s yet but been down some pretty bony streams. Haven’t paddled my RX Wildfire in more than a year.
My WW boat is a Bell Ocoee (newer to WW). If I get the opportunity/time to run more WW I’ll likely add a composite boat.
Maybe I’m just getting older and don’t want to carry a plastic boat…