oar rafts

looking at buying a used oar raft. does anyone have any suggestions on rafts they like or dislike. or is anyone looking to sell theirs? thanks for the info.

Hey hombre!

Not sure what your budget is like. If you wanted an awesome performing boat that you could run as a paddle raft for fun day trips or as an oar-boat for long floats, I think you would have a hard time beating the AIRE Puma:

aire.com/aire/products/defa…

These are the highest performance rafts I have been in, but then again it has been a few years since I have been living stateside and there might be some other good stuff out there. My experience has been that late fall/winter is a nice time to get some deals on used boats. In spring and summer, you have to pay a season premium.

Cheers from Osaka,
john

What kind of boating do you want to do? Pumas are great for low volume rivers and short trips, but they suck for the Grand Canyon. My 16' Aire 156R is great for the Grand Canyon, but is a handful to push down the Arkansas at low water.

I'm partial to AIRE, but mostly because I have one. I've liked the Sotars and Maravias I've rowed, and you really can't go wrong with any name brand self bailer. The rubber itself is less important than the frame setup, so focus on that and the condition of the boat than any specific model.

mountainbuzz is a good resource for this sort of thing.

i have been guiding for several years and durability light weight and performance that you can frame up or run as a paddle boat nothing beats a 14 foot incept. They are not cheap but they are the best raft i have ever run. I have used maravia, avons, incepts, nrs, and vanguard. Like i said nothing else compares to the incept and i think 14 foot is the perfect size.

14' is really small for long trips like the Grand Canyon, Middle FOrk of the Salmon, etc. It is a good size for day trips in Colorado though. Boating is like skiing - you will eventually need a quiver of boats.

I wouldn't call myself an expert but,some years back my friend Daren scored a privet permit for the Grand and invited me to join his crew as a boatman.
The simplest thing we found was to rent these Avons from a local outfitter in Flagstaff. I rowed that boat for many days and found it to be very maneuverable,stable and durable! If I were to get the chance I would probably go that route again.

Check with your local raft store. We found a once used 16 foot Vanguard fully outfitted via a tip from the store owner. And yes mountainbuzz is a great place to look.

Maravia!!! I personally have a Maravia Spider, its a great boat that will go down most stuff, big or tiny. Its a bit like the aire puma, but there is rhino hide on the tube tops so its not slippery when wet. Simple/relatively cheap NRS modular frame...works for a paddle boat, whitewater oar rig, and is perfect for fly fishing. Sotar is also great...the only problem with these companies is that they are expensive. The upside is that the boats are pretty much indestructible.

That's why the Vanguards are so great. They are very similar to the Maravia but a little cheaper. Anyhow I love ours.

The thing I liked about the Avon was that the floor has tubes running the length of it this helps with tracking. Or maybe it was the lack of tubes in the floor that I didn't like with the Maravia.

As for length buy something that fits your local rivers. Most likely something smaller rather then bigger. If you get a chance to run the Canyon or any other really big trip, you can always rent. I got to do a 1 month trip on the Grand a couple of years ago. Some of us rented 16 footers but the 18 looked like a better set up. But what else would you do with an 18 foot boat.

WOOPS THIS ISN'T A RAFT!