A lot of information here compiled by the late great Herm Hoops.

http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/History/Hoops/BoatHistory/04/Domar.pdf

Those boats and Mike Walker's iteration of them under the Canyon Inflatables label were absolutely great bucket boats.

 

Bucket boat...from the 80's.

 

legendary boat - they crushed it on many high water GC trips in the '80's like Avon - hard to say any modern sb boat is better (although certainly more convenient). yours looks like it has some hard miles and needs a tune up but the hypalon may still be good

 

Given my handle, I feel obligated to respond. Domar whitewater rafts were designed by the owner of O.A.R.S rafting company owner George Wendt and his guy in Flagstaff, Mike Walker. George had been paying top dollar for Avons and was looking to save expenses. They designed a boat that was almost a carbon copy of an Avon, but was contracted to a manufacturer in Italy named Domar. The Italians had been making inflatable dinghies and motorized sport rafts, but not whitewater craft. The first rafts shipped to the US about 1983. The 18-foot Zambezi became the OARS company primary Grand Canyon boat. The river rangers in the Park Service liked them so much, they ordered some for river patrols. George and Mike decided to get into retailing the rafts to the public. They got into ordering and selling 14s, 16s, and 18s to the general public. Through the 80's they were well-respected hypalon rafts. But there were constant issues with production, shipping and import problems. By the end of the eighties, they broke ties with the Domar company and began building the boats in Arizona, under the name Canyon Inflatables. During this time frame, self-baling rafts were hitting the market and bucket boats slowly went out of style. The Domar shop in Flagstaff did not have a large staff to compete with overseas factories and could not maintain a profit margin. One day a glue barrel exploded and injured several employees. The shop was closed after fulfilling the orders in the cue. I bought my 16-foot Domar from Mike Walker in 1987. I had learned to row whitewater while working as a park ranger at Grand Canyon. I got a 16 so as to be more versatile for choice of rivers. I paid for it by making a bunch of overtime fighting wildfires in the summer. My poor wife was always tasked with running the bale bucket so I decided to upgrade to self-baling about 1998. Instead of buying a new boat, I had the Domar converted.
Anyway, your boat is a blast from the past, but was considered a very fine boat to own back in its day. The picture you posted of a partially rolled-up raft does nothing to show its actual good looks and condition. If it was a privately owned boat like mine, it may be in better shape than a commercial raft. Mine was in excellent condition with no patches or excessive wear, but it still didn't get a lot of attention when I had it for sale. But you never know who is out there that remembers those Domars and still wants one in his collection.

 

We had a 14' (think if might have been called a "Blue Nile"?) in the rental fleet for a while. It did not seem to be a exact pattern off the Avon Adventurer, maybe a bit less rocker. Having spent tons of time in a friend's Adventurer bucket raft, I can state that the Domar was stiffer - perhaps due to polyester base cloth instead of nylon - lighter, and more responsive. The floor was mounted lower, closer to the bottom of the tubes, compared to the Avon bucket rafts in the mid- to late-80's, so that may have been part of the reason it seemed better handling. In addition, we had a 17'6" Caligary, also from Italy, and for its size it too handled really well.

 

I'm a good friend of Mike Walker and he may be interested in the old boat. He's not on the Buzz but I'll let him know about this conversation!

 

That would be very cool if Mike could weigh in. He could probably correct some of my memory from the 1980’s.