hello the great canoe wizards of this forum. I have been to the boundary waters 10+ times, im looking to finally stop renting and pull the trigger on a boat. The problem is im a broke college kid. Im looking for either royalex or tuf weave. I found this sundowner on the interwebs for 350$. Its a little beat up but im just wondering what everyone thinks of the damage? If its too far gone and not worth repairing? Thanks in advance!!

Link to Photos: http://www.hps.com/~tpg/canoe/

It needs Kevlar skid plates and minor patching with a resin, but still has several BWCA trips left in it. You will probably spend $80-$100 in skid plate materials and resin, but for a total of $450, this will pay for itself in two trips vs. renting. I started out this way and have slowly traded up to Kevlar and Royalex. The question I always ask is can I sell this for what I have in it when the next great buy comes along? If so, buy it. I would buy this at $350 as my first boat.

A few little dings to patch and some skid plates to throw on. There is a fair amount of spiderwebbing in the gel coat, but I wouldn't get too uptight about that. The biggest thing I see is that the rails still look straight and uniform which is good. Do a site search for "skid plates". That boat is going to weigh about 64 pounds but should give you a lot of good trips.

Is this the Sundowner 17 or 18? Same name but completely different boats. Keep that in mind when doing your research.

Alan

I have a Sundowner 18 Kevlar/gelcoat and love it. I have never tripped with it so I don't know how it would behave with a load. I had a few cracks in it and repaired them pretty easily.
There are two lengths on the Sundowner, 17 and 18, most reviews I read on the 17 with a load are negative, most reviews on the 18 are positive.
Does the boat float and no leaks? If it is an 18, if it has no leaks and it is repairable, go for it. Looking at the pictures, they got their use out of it, try to get them down to $300.

I've got two 17' Sundowners in Royalex and both have been very stable fully loaded on several BWCA trips, even with three in the boat. A 17'Sundowner is not as fast as an 18.5' Kevlar MNII, but it will work fine in the BWCA.

That looks like the 18' Sundowner. I have one in Kevlar and it's great for trips in places like the Quetico/Superior country. Looks like it just needs some skid plates and a little TLC with a white gelcoat kit from Wenonah. Skid plates for sure, the rest of the repair could be a long-term project. Just look up Gelcoat repair and there are lots of videos and descriptions of what to do.

This boat will hold a ton of gear and you'll still have plenty of freeboard. It's a real straight tracker with almost no rocker, so don't plan on any quick turns. For $350 you'll have a nice boat that will last a long time and be worth every penny if you ever decide to sell it.

your grandchildren will be paddling that canoe, it's a tuffweave, gelcoat is cosmetic, the more busted off the better, IMO, it will weigh less

rather than try to repair it, put an orbital to it and smooth it out, rather than 64 pounds it might weigh 61, I believe there is about 6-7 pounds of gelcoat on that canoe

I still wish I had listened to the Ketters and gotten my tuffweave in "skin coat" no gelcoat, oh well, live and learn