I have been wondering about the benefits of a double packraft for quite a while. I mean for the concept of packrafting a double has its advantages in weight per user ratio, hasn’t it? Moreover, the use of single bladed canoe style paddles offers addional weight saving potantial. Apart from the weight performance, I think a double is easier to handle: less fragile to flip, front/back balance improved, easier steering (if not new oppotunaties).
I could not find a discussion about that anywhere. Am I the only one who is desperatly looking for a double packraft?
I probably am one of the best people to answer your question. I happened to be on the forums tonight. I am the designer of the boats. The reason I don’t do a boat for two people has to do with the fabrics. This fabric is incredible stuff but because it is very light weight it does have an amount of “stretch” to it. You can never get light weight fabrics to be rock hard with 5 psi of inflation behind them like you can the 30-40oz. fabrics. And how that affects the rafts is this…when there is just one person in the raft that person becomes the frame. When you put two people in a raft with the light wt. fabrics you end up with the raft trying to fold in the middle because you have two heavy weights at each end. You no longer have that single frame of the one person. A similar thing happens when you put a short person, say someone under 5’8" tall in a llama and then put a 50lb. pack on the bow. The boat will tend to snake because that persons legs don’t fill the boat to make a frame and that fifty pound pack is acting like a second person in the boat. I hope this makes some sense. As soon as you put two people in a boat you need much heavier fabrics to be able to make the boat stiff enough to not turn into a snake in the water. Then with that much weight the boat is no longer a packraft.
Thanks for the explanation Sheri, sounds very reasonable and does make sense to me now. I am no longer wondering, having sleepless nights
Looks like I can go for classic Packraft now! I happen to be in New York/Boston in Febuary. Any chance I can get one there? I did not find a dealer, but you may have connections (?) Btw, I do have connections to an alternative dealer in Germany (http://www.faltbootshop.de only in German unfortunately). Germany is still a packraft free space (not even well known in the paddling community). If you ever want get a step into it, then give me a hint.
Can’t you just buy one directly from Sheri, as we do here in Australia - there are no dealers here. Her service is fantastic - mine have arrived within a week or so, and the postage from the US is good value.
As an aside, have just come back from a trip to NZ, and we rafted a fairly low volume river, with lots of scraping on rocks etc, and despite this the rafts show almost no wear. In fact they show NO significant wear. They are extremely tough, great value, and a huge amount of fun to use. There is nothing else on the market anything like them. Just buy one (or be like me and buy 2, so you can raft with a friend!).
