Dragonfly SUP

[clinto]

Im picking up a Dragonfly 13'6" SUP on Monday and was wondering if anyone has paddled one of these before. I have a 12' BOTE HD and am bored with it. Dont use it much and when my daughter sits up front every ripple comes over the nose. I found an opportunity to trade for the dragonfly and am doing so on Monday. These are made very different than SUP with molded top and bottom fused together with a rub rail just like a boat. Hollow with structural ribs. Dragonfly boatworks makes flats boats and got into the SUP game several years ago. Anyway, quality isnt an issue but it does weigh 45 pounds which isnt that big of a deal to me. More important to me is how does it paddle and how bad does the nose catch wind? Appreciate any experiences.
www.dragonflypaddleboards.com/

[TallDude]

From the looks of it, I think it will paddle fine. It's not really long enough for wind to be a big issue. Plus it weighs a lot, and the wind will have even less effect. I had a similar weight (actually heavier) and shape board. It was my first race board almost 10 years ago. It was a barge, but I paddled that thing hundreds of miles. A lot of it was rough ocean, but it handled it great. It was 16' x 32" wide. Here's a picture.

[krash]

DragonFly 13.6 is a great standup fishing platform... built by boat-builders who build fishing boats mainly micro-skiff's. The board is 2 parts, deck & hull, from a 2 part mold. They use VIRT (vacuum infused) technology to build the 2 parts, then insert some foam inner structure not quite ribs and stringers like a boat to add some inner strength.
The board was an original version, the newer current ones they changed the layout of that inner foam structure and the glue used to hold it in place. The hull is not really fused together I think its sealed with some sort of calking material and the rub-rail screwed with a lot of screws, about every 6', around the perimeter. I took the board to DF and had them disassemble it, popped the deck off to do some optional maintenance and it did not seem like a big deal.

I had one for several months and used it for fishing, specifically inshore shallow water sight fishing, which is what its built for. Its a great platform for that purpose, paddles rather well and poles better. The hull design makes it very quiet on the water as far as wave slap is concerned in any chop. Water does come across the nose but not like my Riviera DW/Touring SUP, the v-entry bow is much more pronpounced than the Bote HD and will ride up and over waves without the crashing slap as the wave rolls through the hull.
I found it that I could walk pretty much around the hull and stand near the bow or stern. At the bow it will rock to one side or the other of the v but you can stand and paddle or pole with the stern high, at the stern as you get closer the stern will go below the surface as you get close with the bow high. If you have good balance you can get close to the rails to a point just before it toss's you off and rights itself.
The hull does get blown by a crosswind as much as most SOT kayaks but less than my canoe, and much less than my Rivera which just won't go into any wind.. the DragonFly if you put weight on the bow will track into the wind well.

I had the optional DF Shallow Water fin, so I can't speak for the standard surf style 9" fin... that shallow water fin is a must where I fish and it gives plenty of control for paddling or poling.. The board tends to turn downwind in any breeze and tracks well downwind, into the wind requires forward momentum but does track where you want it to go. The shallow water fin is approx. 24" x 4" and 1/4" thick. In my areas I still managed to run it aground or hit the non-visible rock, log, or other obstruction trying to get to the fish.

The weight is listed at 45# but the one I had I'd bet, (never weighed it), was over 50 with the sea-deck 3/4 pad, 5" dry hatch, and the shallow water fin... that fin itself weighed at least 3 or 4 pounds but I hear they use a different material now so it may be lighter.
If that board weighed 40 pounds or less I'd still have it but healt issues kind of limit my humping ability to about 40 pounds or less. Someday if I hit the lottery I'll have a custom light weight kevlar/carbon/glass version of the DF 13.6 built.

The gel-coat over fiberglass resin build is tuff as nails compared to any SUP built using the eps foam blank and epoxy/glass covering, (surf board style build), and is easily repaired if damaged. No matter how careful you are you will eventually have damage to the outer skin. The foam does not inhale water like the EPS foam and the DF has a drain plug like a boat so you can remove the plug and drain any water, although under normal use no water will get inside the hull.

Look up PalmBeachPete he has a you-tube channel with lots of video using his DraginFly. He started with an original and a year or so ago upgraded to a newer one with some custom options.

It is for sale again now by the next owner, he has moved up to a boat, here is the CL listing:
https://miami.craigslist.org/brw/spo/d/dragonfly-sup-136-paddleboard/6269837738.html

[krash]

Clinto, assuming you made the up-trade, after 6 months of paddling how would you rate/compare the 2 boards now, the Bote HD compared with the DragonFly 13.6 as a standup fishing platform ?

I've never paddled the Bote HD, or the Rackham which are very similar to the HD.