Vagabond

Incredibly versatile, fast, efficient boat. Put 200#s of gear in it and expedition. Put a rudder plus sail rig on it and sail it. Stand Up Paddle it! A rudder with a padded tube attached to rudder cables in front of your ankles (standing just behind thwart) is best setup for SUPing it. BTW, this is a "pre poke boat" design, poke(y) boats = short keeled and slow. This is my 4th 1970s era phoenix yak, did the Grand in the Slipper recently.

hideous, just hideous construction. Deck isn't so much formed to the hull as it is taped with a single layer of fiberglass tape along the inside. Then its trimmed along the outside to fit. Not finished at all. Big open seam all the way around, ground roughly at the ends. they cover this seam with electrical tape; which itself is ugly and fails almost immediately. There are bubbles and dry spots in the glass as well. No way this is a $2500 boat. No way. Better constructed boats out there for that money. Luckily the ugly factor translates into a reasonable used price. I paid less than 500 dollars for my 2 vagabonds.

Once you repair or get over the looks, the boat is quite usable. I find it tracks incredibly well for a decked canoe. A skeg could help it. My wife who weighs about half what I do had trouble keeping it going straight with a child in the front seat. I had a lighter child up front and weigh more and it tracked well but still easily steerable. Stern sits very low. Bow has some good wave cutting height to it, but not a heavy water boat.

Seats should be a class action suit. They are horrible. Sitting in the yard wasn't bad, but after about 5 minutes paddling, my legs were asleep. Fixed by moving my position occasionally.

Easy paddle. fairly fast. very stable compared to a classic canoe, but probably just due to the weight distribution. very little oil-canning. The "light weight paddles" they sell at Phoenix are well usable, but not something you'd want to keep if you used the boat much. Think West Marine "emergency paddle" quality. 3 way adjustable. 0~25~45ish. mine came with the foot rests... a must. Also has the buoyancy bladders to insert into the bow and stern. a nice addition for a heavier than water boat.

Overall, good boat but not at all for the money Phoenix wants for it. Its just too raw, ugly and un-finished. Not nearly as sturdy as other glass boats, though it is light. You can make hand built boats well and make them expensive or you can build ugly and sell it cheap.. you can't mix and match. The boat is about as nice as their web site. Functional and bare bones.

I've made numerous adjustments and alterations to the craft to make it work for me. First, moved the front seat back beyond center. Drilled new holes and added a support. Second, added a back rest support to make the seating more comfortable. Finally, I glued and fiberglassed a keel under the back seat to improve tracking. After these improvements, I love the boat. I'm large at 250 lbs, and not mobile with knee replacements-- tell your kids not to play football, it's overrated.

The adapted Vagabond works for me. One of a kind and ugly, but reasonably fast, easy to enter, and best- no one will steal it off the car when you stop for lunch on the way home

Kind of an odd little boat. But fun non the less. Way over-priced. But I got mine used (1st owner bought it and never put it in the water for over a decade) for a few hundred dollars.

Forget about sitting in the middle position in the boat for solo use. It makes the bow plow in the water and the boat wanders - big or small paddler. Sit in the rear position and it works out much better. Never tried it with two paddlers. Looked like it would be too crowded. But then I am 6'2" and 230 lbs, so with two smaller people it might be fine. My girlfriend uses the boat and likes it as she is a novice paddler and enjoys the stability.

Pros: Very stable, and quite quick for the effort expended. Canoe paddle or kayak paddle works well. Whatever you prefer. I tried both in the boat and to my surprise I like using the canoe paddle in it better.

Cons: Very uncomfortable seating. The seat is a nightmare, and the sides of the boat itself are too narrow. No room for your legs. Even less room in the boat for gear.

Final thought: My advice - get a canoe if you want access to gear, or a kayak if you want the efficiency.