new 2011 Alpacka packraft test drive

I got a new toy, a 2011 Alpacka packraft. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any running white water around here right now, but I took it out on Lake Mary for a little test drive.

My new 2011 Alpacka packraft

 There are 3 big obvious differences between this new raft and my old (2004?) model.

1. The spray skirt is fastened on top with a zipper and has a big side velcro opening. I am not entirely sold on the velcro, but the only real advantage of my old sprayskirt fastening system is that it wouldn't break when it ripped off - which it did in almost every big hole I hit. You could also completely remove it for lighter warmer flatter water. This one zips off for that though.

2. Next up is the large pointy stern on this boat. This looks a bit odd, and takes more air to fill up, but I think it provides a bit better tracking and also helps trim the boat without a pack on the front. The downside might be that it could spin a bit slower in whitewater, but that is probably way offset by the advantage of not flipping over backwards nearly as easily.

3. The inflation valve is in the back which allows for 4 lash points in the front instead of the 3 on my old boat. This should make strapping a pack on the front much easier, especially if I am rigging it so that I can wear the pack with the boat up in the air for mid-length portages.

the front of the raft with Mount Humphreys in the distance

There are a number of smaller improvements like a back-rest and having the inflation bag actually thread into the valve. The new raft also seems to have larger tube diameter all around and is slightly skinnier. I can still sit cross legged, but it is a bit tighter, and the sleeping pad is a little harder to wedge into the floor.

It seems like a vast improvement over my already awesome older boat and I look forward to paddling the new boat in whitewater and doing some longer trips in it. (and for now I still have my old boat too, so if anyone wants to try out a packraft trip with me, lets go. (I only have one paddle though, so you need to supply that or else one of us is stuck with the hand paddles)).

bald eagle off in the distance

I also checked out the birds out there including osprey, ducks, grebe, vultures, ravens, great blue herons, and bald eagles. Another interesting sight was a tree full of APS workers learning how to trim trees.

tree full of trimmers learning the ropes