Weight: Valley Argonaut 2002 Fiberglass

This is a true and accurate weigh in of the 2002 Valley sectional 3-piece Argonaut (now called the Aquanuat HV). The tale of the tape is that it's 22.5 inch beam and 17 feet 7 inches long. This model is all fiberglass, and was made in 2002, when fiberglass meant tough. And heavy. It has no foot pegs, but instead has a nifty foam bulkhead footrest. It has a built-in deck pump and all the rigging. It has a Nexxus compass. It has a skeg. I used the Seca scale and found the following:

The Bow 22 lbs.

The Midsection (cockpit) 42 lbs

The Stern 20 lbs.

Total Weight: 84 lbs!

So, this boat is 6 inches longer than the Aqunaut LV, and has compass and built-in pump, and weighs about 12 lbs more. The carbon Kevlar Premium hull (not deck) layup alone of the Aquanaut LV was said to gain about 8-9 lbs of saved weight, and that would appear to be the case.

What is interesting is that the "cuts" of the two boats are very different. The 2002 Argonaut has a light and small bow and stern and the rear section division is behind the day hatch. The 2008 Aquanuat LV has the rear division in front of the day hatch, thus adding weight to the stern piece and taking weight off the already heavy center piece. I like the new styling better.

I will post on another day about the differences in the skeg designs betwen the two boats and how that comes into play with the types of sections. For now, it's safe to say that this boat is heavy, but very rugged with double bulkheads. I will paddle it proudly and know that, like the on-deck batter swinging a weighted bat, when I step into one of my single piece rotomolded kayaks it'll feel like I'm paddling a carbon Epic.