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Ultra-light cat/rafting

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rafting
21K views 52 replies 31 participants last post by  dgoods 
#1 ·
I cant be the only one wanting to lighten their boat. Coolers are useless, partner stoves are junk. Poop tubes, and freezedried meals is where this sport should be heading!

In all seriousness I am curious if anyone is out there running minimalist style. I suppose this may be more geared towards people with small cats but I want to hear your ideas! How you rig, what you cook, and what you carry (or lack there of). Is anyone out there packing 5 day trips into a 60L drybag?
 
Discussion starter · #22 ·
I like ultra-light for a couple of reasons. Lighter keeps the performance up epically on a cat. Les gear the lower profile your rig will have when you flip + you can keep your tunnel wide open Take out: My local river the Tuolumne has a bitch of a take out, after that carry you wish you would have learned how to roll a kayak. I am a reformed commercial guide so I was use to taking A LOT of gear. Less is better you won’t lose so much. Think like a backpacker: Tarp instead of tent, water filter and small bottles, whiskey instead of beer. We use wag bags for waste. Lots of places to reduce the load.
I wish I would have gotten single chamber tubes on my cat. Could have shaved allot of weight off with that.

I am curious some of the ways people rig their cats with gear but keep the "tunnel" part of a cat open. I was wondering if anyone has tried to fit their gear into zippered bags on each tube or do you just strap your drybags straight to the tube? It seems like the hardest part of doing lightweight trips is finding others who are game to cut some of the comforts out of a trip.
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
Most rafters are like elk here and go RV style all the time. I think there is a time and place for that but there is also a time for backpacker style boating to get you to the more remote and difficult places. I have a great story about people trying to RV style boat on a remote multi-day river and it was a disaster for them and a lot of work for us trying to rescue their asses days on end. anyways pearen, dgosn, raftus, gumbydamnit, st2eelpot, faucet butt, and utrafter lets do that trip next spring 100+ miles plus portages, class iv and v and whiskey.
What is this trip you've got scheming up? I'll bring the whiskey.

We really don't leave any comforts at home. It's about leaving what you don't need at home and packing well. There a lot of rivers with poor access that a smaller boat and light weight gear are the best way to go. I think people get out more with smaller boats where it's not a big hassle to get on a river.
Absolutely. It is great that people love talking about their dutch ovens and how much more beer they carry but quite frankly I didn't start this thread to hear about it. Getting out on the river is what it is all about and cutting the amount of gear you have to rig, pack, unpack, purchase, and haul to and from the river makes getting out there that much easier. I know for me, getting home and cleaning out huge dryboxes, kitchen boxes, and 2,000 pounds worth of gear is the worst part of a trip. Being able to carry your stuff without having to sink your trailer, or spend 2+ hours on the boat ramp is key in my mind.

Some people have chimed in about how gear weight remains unchanged for a large group as it does a small group what do y'all think is a good size for a lightweight trip? I think that 3 - 5 boats in a group for a fast and light approach gives you enough people to deal with potential accidents, carrying capacity, while not being excessively large which could lead to group conflict.
 
Discussion starter · #43 ·
I think I would describe the SOTAR design as a 'two chamber annular construction'...

FWIW...I run a single chamber 12' x 22". To me the decision comes down to simple stats. The thing you are trying to protect against with a dual chamber design is a rapid deflation event. A puncture in the neighborhood of 12" or longer. Anything less than that will deflate slow enough to get off the river.

I have run ~20,000 river miles and had 2 rapid deflation events. This works out nicely to a 1% chance of occurrence on a 100 mile river trip (actually seems a bit high, chances probably do go up for heavy loads, Saturn rafts, more Class IV, more technical runs, etc...). Anyway, most boaters probably will experience one to a few of these over a lifetime of avid boating...

After this it becomes a personal risk/reward calculation. Has anyone experienced this type of event on a single chamber cat or know of anyone? How did it end up? I always figure I have better than 50/50 odds of making it to shore by the time the deflated tube sinks. Staying with the one tube until safety boat can go downstream with you and pull you into eddy or shore picks up the rest. Seems like there is another <1% chance that you will have to abandon ship, swim, and the boat will flush with all your gear necessitating a hike out. Still not that bad of a worst case...

Has anyone thought about what they would do when the oar on the sunken side is useless?

  • Grab the flipline from the deflated tube and try to counter balance off the good one similar to a mid-current reflip?
  • Grab the oar off the deflated tube and put across the front of two tubes on buddy's boat (T-rescue style), thus suspending the sunken tube by the oar tether?
Total thread hijack at this point....at least nobody is rationalizing why they love to bring the kitchen sink.
Are you talking about short term to get it to shore? What about getting someone to get to shore within throw-bag distance of you and using some sort of hasty set anchor system penduluming in to shore?

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