Hi there, D17! Welcome to the Dirigo 17 Owners' Club--so far it's just you and me. What year is your boat? You can tell by looking at the code etched onto the boat's stern (mine is on the starboard side). I don't know exactly when Speer and Chase sold the business to Mike Wigglesworth, so, unless your boat has an early date, it might have been made either in Blue Hill, Maine or in the midwest US. I've found virtually nothing on the internet when I punch in Dirigo 17, so what I've mentioned in my previous post will likely be all there is to know unless someone else out there can contribute further info.

I can tell you that, without a skeg, I found the boat absolutely would not glide forward in a straight line with the rudder up--the kayak would do a graceful 180 and swap bow for stern. As I didn't want to paddle any kayak that depended on having the rudder deployed at all times, I added a skeg to the stern. And as the bow does not have a good grip on the water and can be easily blown off when paddling an angle into a headwind, I also later added the bow skeg. Some may say, with defects like those, why keep such a boat? I did replace the Dirigo as my primary kayak with my CLC Patuxent 17, but have retained the Dirigo as my cold-water, winter, drysuit-season craft, due to its extraordinary stability. I paddle solo most of the time, winter included, and prefer the Dirigo so as to increase my margin of safety on ultra-cold water. And I make sure to stay well within my personal safety envelope. No heroics for me on the water, especially in winter.