Reflection Canoe Light And Versatile
Product: Dagger Reflection Canoe
Description: A 16-foot, 4-inch canoe suitable for light whitewater, touring, family camping, fishing and general use. Made from Dagger’s proprietary R-Lite material, the Reflection is lightweight yet rugged enough to easily handle Class II whitewater. The model tested featured aluminum gunwales with cane seats and solid wood thwarts.
Pro: Here’s a very versatile boat well-suited to family camping, afternoon fishing, long flat-water paddles and moderate whitewater. The moderate arch hull and maximum beam of 35 inches provide good initial stability and excellent secondary stability, while the fairly narrow bow and V stern mean fine entry, excellent tracking and easy straight-line paddling. The Reflection’s still responsive enough, however, to maneuver quickly in whitewater and made light work of the Class II whitewater we encountered.
Con: We found precious little to criticize in these well-built and well-designed boats, although our gut feeling was that the R-lite wouldn’t stand up to the heavy abuse of big whitewater. In all fairness, however, the Reflection is not intended for that sort of use, and we bounced off our fair share of rocks with no sign of wear or tear.
Comments: One of the outstanding features of the Reflection is its ability to be paddled solo or tandem. Our tandem testers found the boat comfortable and stable with two adults and camping gear, and our solo paddler was nothing less than delighted with the boat’s solo performance he loaded the boat with camping gear and paddled reverse from the bow paddler’s seat. (The Reflection is also available with an optional center seat.) Tumblehome design in the boat’s central section (a flaring inward) aided our solo paddler as well, and everyone appreciated our boats’ light weight: 63 pounds with aluminum trim, 60 with wood.
Suggested retail: $975 in aluminum trim, $1,150 in wood trim.
Company: For more information or a retailer near you, contact Dagger Canoe at 423.882.0404 or visit Dagger’s Web Page: http:\www.dagger.com/dagger.html.