I purchased two Dagger Venture 17 and have found them to be very stable and having more capability than my family and I have as paddlers. We're new to the sport and my children range from age 5 to 13.Before we learned of how very important water flow information is when rating a river, we paddled a local river and the Venture got us through. We later learned that it was rated a class III river, not the class II we thought it would be (10,000 cfs vs. 4000 cfs). Stability and the ability to turn characterize the Venture. We loaded both boats for a 14 day tour in Montana carrying 80 lbs. of water in each boat plus children and outfit. The total load was about 750 to 800 lbs. The Venture was stable and still able to turn.
It takes a long time to get a boat, and the factory does make many, many mistakes. But, when it is time to get on the water....the venture has been a good deal for my family of 7.