Day 73 - Dagger 'Euro X 16.8'

It seems like many kayak manufacturers have decided that ruddered plastic sea kayaks need to be super stable and have couch-like comfortable seat systems. Those two things often don't allow good body contact, posture, or movement thus limiting how far a person can expand their paddling skills. The Dagger Euro X 16.8 is a ruddered plastic boat that goes the other way as far as performance and dares to challenge people a bit rewarding them for their efforts.

I'm not much for doing out and back trips where you cover the same water twice but that's pretty much the kind of route I paddled tonight. The wind was up a bit all day and folks coming back into the store were reporting rough water outside the harbor. I figured I'd go have a look so I paddled the Euro X out the channel and straight off shore for a half hour. Then I took a little break and came right back. The Euro handled pretty well as I paddled out into the wind riding smoothly over the choppy waves. When I turned around and surfed my way back I did have to work a bit with stern draws to stay on track but that's to be expected in following seas. On the flat sections the Euro glided nicely and when I laid it way over on edge the boat turned easily.

The Euro X is (or should I say was) one of Dagger's last runs at a full touring kayak. When Confluence, wisely, reorganized their brand structure to place Dagger as their "moving water" line they phased sea kayaks out of the Dagger line. Unlike the super stable and ultra comfortable Tsunamis from Wilderness (Confluence's touring brand), this boat is a much more serious touring kayak complete with a recessed compass mount on the deck. The Euro has a relatively low primary stability, excellent secondary, loads of storage space, and moves pretty fast. The cockpit outfitting is more performance oriented than you see in many ruddered boats as well with a simple back band that supports you but doesn't encourage bad posture or impede torso rotation altogether. As far as I know Confluence isn't distributing the Euro X through any of its brands. It'd be nice to see them bring out some kind of touring kayak that turns it up a notch or two for folks that are up to it.

Euro X 16.8 Review

Manufacturer = Confluence
Brand = Dagger
Model = Euro X 16.8
Material = Plastic
Type = Sea Kayak
Length = 16'-10"
Width = 23.2"
Weight = 65 lbs.

Location = Mission Bay offshore run
Time = 7:00 PM
Distance = Aprox 5 miles
Duration = 1:00
Avg. Speed = Aprox 5 mph
Conditions = Brisk wind partly cloudy 2-3' wind waves