So, I’ve gone and bought a second-hand Dagger Fiesta 9.3. This is the brown one which is made from 100% recycled plastic discarded during the manufacture of other Dagger kayaks. Sounds simple, ingenious even and reducing one’s carbon footprint has to be a good thing for us and the planet right? The questions from me are, why hasn’t this been done before and why aren’t all kayak manufacturers doing it? I’ve been recycling my household rubbish for over 10 years. At work, everyone has to place all used plastic cups into specially made bins so that they can be sent away for recycling – we’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember too. And surely, kayak manufacturers have had skips full of off cuts for years that they didn’t know what to do with. Now, I know that a few manufacturers (Venture Kayaks I think is one) now include a small amount of recycled plastic into their moulds, but to my knowledge the Dagger Fiesta is the first 100% recycled boat. There seems to be some suggestion that recycled plastic loses some of its integrity, that it simply isn’t as strong or impervious to impact, and yet, I watched a video on YouTube where some bloke from Palm was whacking the hull of a recycled Dagger Fiesta with a 2lb lump hammer! (There is a link from the Dagger website to this video) Although curiously, the same bloke suggests that he wouldn’t go on white water with the kayak because it isn’t as strong! Excuse me? Anyway, I’m no expert on plastic technology, but my point is that the recycled Fiesta looks pretty strong to me, even if it can’t be trusted on white-water. As a recreational boat for canals, lakes, slow moving rivers and inland waters it seems to fit the bill fairly well. Every kayak manufacturer should now be responsible enough to manufacture at least one 100% recycled kayak to ensure that the environment conscious kayaker (like me) is catered for and that they as manufacturers play their part too. That’s all I’m saying.
So, back to the Dagger Fiesta 9.3 – this is a boat for Dawn to use really – she loved her pootle around in the Drama Queen at Grantchester Mill pond, but the truth is that second hand Perception Kiwi’s are going for silly money at the moment - £250 doesn’t seem unusual on eBay – and this is for a boat which is, what, 10 to 20 years old? Don’t get me wrong, the Kiwi is a great starter kayak, but £250? Do me a favour.
So, it was with more than a hint of excitement that I spotted the Fiesta (an 18 month old edition) with a starting bid of £175 which included (wait for this) a Carlisle Daytripper paddle, a Palm fitted spraydeck, a XL buoyancy aid, and a brand new spare seat pad and backrest! And it was only 20 minutes from my house! The listing had only been on an hour and was due to run for a week. I emailed the guy and asked if he had a ‘Buy it Now’ price in mind. He replied and said ‘Make me an offer?’ I love it – here was a man I could do business with. I offered him £200 and the promise that I could pick it up the following day – he accepted.
Dagger Europe describes the Fiesta as ‘an ideal first kayak with simple outfitting and a stable hull shape.’ I couldn’t have put it better myself. The vital statistics of the Fiesta are not dissimilar to the Perception Kiwi (which was the main attraction for me) and so this should be a great boat for Dawn. Here are a few snaps of our Fiesta. I’ve already had her out for a weekend camping trip on the Nene in Northamptonshire (for reader review purposes only you understand :-) Dawn offered a simple and to the point, ‘Where do you think you’re going with my boat?’ and of course I explained that the world deserved to know just how a Dagger Fiesta performs on a camping trip :-) ) and the post for that will follow very shortly.
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