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1,308 Posts
Yeah it's hard to describe.
My booth was across from theirs at the Portland Sportsman"s show. I had to watch the videos and hear the pitch over and over for days!
I was fortunate to get one of these to try out and purchase at the "kick starter" program they used to kick it off. I'm not paid by them, and I actually bought this so I'm not marketing it for them. However I have used it now a little bit and thought I would share both our feelings on this. My wife and I have used it a fair amount and she is not an expert canoeist or Kayaker by any stretch!
First, everything on the youtube videos, and their website is factual and not embellished. This does what they say it will. I assembled this the first time in 20-30 minutes by myself. I am 5'10" 170 lbs and 58 years old. I loaded it into the back of my pickup by myself. You do not have to be a 25 year old big athletic guy to handle it.
The aluminum rack is a work of art. The seats and fittings fit together perfectly and the anchor system is ingenious! The supplied oars made by Cataract are high end nice oars. I wish they had a slide lock to keep them from sliding out of the oar locks when you let go of them!
The boat rows with exceptional ease, it's nothing at all like rowing a rubber raft. We have spent as much as 5 hours on this boat and covered more then two miles in breezy conditions just casually rowing it and fishing. Adding my minnKota will be a huge improvement and really get up up stream far!
If you were able to use it as a drift boat with a vehicle at each end it would float the river perfectly! I added some scotty rod holders which was a great way to get the rods out of the boat and open up the space.
We can row to shore and get out and pull it up easily, as well as launch from anyplace without a boat launch. The rubber is as tough as any white water rafting material made, It takes about 25-27 pumps from the air pump per chamber, 5 chambers. The pump that comes with it pumps on both up and down stroke.
The stability is such that I can stand and fish or we can change positions front to back easily by just standing up and walking around each other. This is nothing at all like the stability of a canoe. It has a 650lb capacity. That seems high to me, but not sure what to compare it to. The swivel seats on the aluminum "white water" raft type frame provide fantastic level of comfort. The carry rack is mandatory for us. It will hold all the gear and an ice chest. It's stable enough that I can stand on the carry rack and cast from it. Although I have not tried this in the boat alone, only with my wife in front casting as well.
We could easily carry enough camping gear on this boat to stay along the shore someplace over night if we wanted to. Obviously a puncture is the weak link in any inflatable. This would really require a serious sharp thing to puncture this boat. It's as tough as any white water raft or zodiac type boat.
If you have any questions, I'll gladly give you the real scoop without any embellishment or hype. We have decided that we like it a lot. My wife as I said was not a canoe or a Kayak person, This boat has won her over 100% for stability and "feel". She even rows for a while each time out. Oh, we have also used individual canoe paddles which worked really great too. So much so that we just stick them in the bottom of the boat now to change up from the rowing oars now and then.
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As you can see, she is not in panic mode in this boat, she is relaxed and happy in this "narrow" raft design.
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A weekend on the columbia near the john day river with Mt. Hood
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My booth was across from theirs at the Portland Sportsman"s show. I had to watch the videos and hear the pitch over and over for days!
I was fortunate to get one of these to try out and purchase at the "kick starter" program they used to kick it off. I'm not paid by them, and I actually bought this so I'm not marketing it for them. However I have used it now a little bit and thought I would share both our feelings on this. My wife and I have used it a fair amount and she is not an expert canoeist or Kayaker by any stretch!
First, everything on the youtube videos, and their website is factual and not embellished. This does what they say it will. I assembled this the first time in 20-30 minutes by myself. I am 5'10" 170 lbs and 58 years old. I loaded it into the back of my pickup by myself. You do not have to be a 25 year old big athletic guy to handle it.
The aluminum rack is a work of art. The seats and fittings fit together perfectly and the anchor system is ingenious! The supplied oars made by Cataract are high end nice oars. I wish they had a slide lock to keep them from sliding out of the oar locks when you let go of them!
The boat rows with exceptional ease, it's nothing at all like rowing a rubber raft. We have spent as much as 5 hours on this boat and covered more then two miles in breezy conditions just casually rowing it and fishing. Adding my minnKota will be a huge improvement and really get up up stream far!
If you were able to use it as a drift boat with a vehicle at each end it would float the river perfectly! I added some scotty rod holders which was a great way to get the rods out of the boat and open up the space.
We can row to shore and get out and pull it up easily, as well as launch from anyplace without a boat launch. The rubber is as tough as any white water rafting material made, It takes about 25-27 pumps from the air pump per chamber, 5 chambers. The pump that comes with it pumps on both up and down stroke.
The stability is such that I can stand and fish or we can change positions front to back easily by just standing up and walking around each other. This is nothing at all like the stability of a canoe. It has a 650lb capacity. That seems high to me, but not sure what to compare it to. The swivel seats on the aluminum "white water" raft type frame provide fantastic level of comfort. The carry rack is mandatory for us. It will hold all the gear and an ice chest. It's stable enough that I can stand on the carry rack and cast from it. Although I have not tried this in the boat alone, only with my wife in front casting as well.
We could easily carry enough camping gear on this boat to stay along the shore someplace over night if we wanted to. Obviously a puncture is the weak link in any inflatable. This would really require a serious sharp thing to puncture this boat. It's as tough as any white water raft or zodiac type boat.
If you have any questions, I'll gladly give you the real scoop without any embellishment or hype. We have decided that we like it a lot. My wife as I said was not a canoe or a Kayak person, This boat has won her over 100% for stability and "feel". She even rows for a while each time out. Oh, we have also used individual canoe paddles which worked really great too. So much so that we just stick them in the bottom of the boat now to change up from the rowing oars now and then.
As you can see, she is not in panic mode in this boat, she is relaxed and happy in this "narrow" raft design.
A weekend on the columbia near the john day river with Mt. Hood
