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Marine transom sportboats (Zodiac style) for diving, recreation, and
yacht tender / dinghy use, and cataraft fly fishing inflatables from Maxxon
Inflatables are found in this section. Cat tubes can be purchased separately,
as can rowing frames for the tubes. Maxxon's sportboats feature firm drop-stitch
inflatable floors for the ultimate in portability.
In several places on our website, you will note that we recommend against
buying inflatables that are assembled from pvc fabric with glue rather
than being welded. Maxxon's boats and cat tubes are exactly that - glued
pvc - but unlike every other Chinese, Korean, and African glued pvc import
boat, Maxxon's have a ten year warranty, not two, three or five years
as all competing brands have. The glue used by Maxxon has a much higher
heat resistance than what's used with many other imports. This helps though
it does not solve all of the problems. PVC coated material uses a softening
chemical since pvc is rigid in it's "natural" state. This chemical
is constantly evaporating, or "outgassing", from the material
(rubber coated fabrics don't need softeners since rubber is, of course,
naturally flexible). A great deal of the softener has to be lost before
most modern pvc fabrics will start to feel stiff, but a much smaller amount
outgassing can attack the glue, and therein lies the problem. The boats
on this page may or may not last much over ten years, but Maxxon
has been around a long time and at least with their warranty you can be
assured of a decade's use anyway. And frankly at the very reasonable cost
of a Maxxon cat or sportboat, even if you only get ten years out of one
you will probably have extracted your investment and then some. One last
point of note is that Maxxon is currently building 1,500 sportboats per
year for Yamaha, so if a company this huge invests in that many boats,
they can't be too bad, eh?
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Maxxon Sportboats
 Usually when people want to get a "Zodiac" type sportboat that
they don't have to haul on a trailer, they look to the slat-board floor
dinghys & transom inflatables. This variety of sportboat does roll
up, but unless you remove all the narrow floor boards each time, it won't
be as compact as Maxxon's unique drop-stitch floor boats. Drop stitch
material is best known in the inflatable industry for being used in Maravia's
great handling self bailing whitewater rafts and less recently in some
of the Sotar rafts. Drop-stitch is an inflatable material that uses about
60 equal length threads per square inch, that weave through the interior
of the top and bottom scrim that forms the base fabric of drop stitch.
The outside of the drop-stitch layers can be coated top & bottom with
rubber, urethane, pvc, or any other flexible coating that might match
the boat manufacturer's use. When the edges are sealed with an air valve
installed, and you inflate a drop stitch pad, you get an ironing board
flat surface that will be either 2.6, 3.9, or 5.7 inches thick depending
on which drop-stitch material was used. And you get a fairly firm floor
even at a low pressure of 1 to 1.5 p.s.i., making it highly desirable
for use in sportboats.
Maxxon's sportboats also features the requisite inflatable keel of course,
and three main air chambers even in their small sizes, plus the floor
& keel. These models will all plane at low speeds even with modest
engines. There are seven sizes and each have stainless steel D-rings,
a seat or seats (not shown in the photo), grab lines, nice folding oar
stems, light duty laquered oars, waterproofed & capped motor transoms
with aluminum clamp plates, and three or more handles. All models look
essentially the same, so the bigger boats are scaled up from the CS231
in the photo. You may also notice that the various sizes of these Maxxon's
weigh more than equal length Zodiac / West Marine models, but the light
weight of these two and a few other brands comes at the price of decreased
puncture resistance. Maxxon sportboats are very, very beefy. One thing
that we noticed, though it's a nit picky detail, is that the two little
oar shaft holders (for retaining the oars against the hull when they aren't
in use) are very hard to get the oars into.
The two to three person CS231 ($999, shown in photo above, though
looking wrinkly since we didn't have it inflated firm) is 7'9" by
4'4" with 13" tubes. It weighs 58 pounds and can handle up to
a 5 h.p. motor. The CS271 ($1,099) is 8'9" by 5' with 16"
tubes, and is rated for a 10 h.p. motor. A CS271 will comfortably hold
three adults and is 77 pounds.
The next size up, and probably the most popular, is the four person  CS301
($1,299), which measures 9'9" X 5' with 16" tubes & weighs
in at 90 pounds. It will take a big 15 h.p. motor, though engines as small
as 2 h.p. will still move it around at seven to eight knots. The CS331
($1,449) is good for five passengers, weighs 99 pounds, and measures 10'9"
X 5', with 16" tubes. It is also rated for 15 h.p. like the 301.
The 11'9" X 5'6" CS361 ($1,599) has 17" tubes, and
will hold five to six adults. It's weight is 132 pounds - not light for
a boat under 12' but very few dinghys this size have the rip strength
of a Maxxon. The horsepower rating on the CS361 jumps up to 25 h.p.
The CS361 above, and the CS391 & CS421 models below, are made with extra beefy river raft material, and the CS391 and CS421 are too heavy for UPS and must be shipped by motor freight. We cannot give exact quotes on shipping for these two models, but they are sent freight collect so you pay the driver only the actual amount with no fear of mark-ups.
Maxxon's CS391 ($1,749) is 12'9" long, 5'7" wide, has 17" tubes, and is 143 pounds. It will carry six to seven adults and can accept up to a 25 horse engine like the 361. The largest inflatable floor sportboat in Maxxon's line is the CS421 ($1,899), which is 13'9" by 6'11" wide, with big 18" tubes and an eight to nine person capacity. The CS421 takes up to a 30 horsepower motor, weighs 150 pounds, and has four main air chambers plus the keel & drop-stitch floor. Other competing boats of this size and horsepower capacity run to well over $4000, so the big Maxxon's represent a very good value.
Maxxon Fishing Cats
We have the larger sizes of cat tubes over twelve feet on our regular Whitewater
Cataraft page, but those larger tubes are not intended for use with the
small fishing frames shown here. Also note that what is shown on our regular
Cataraft page is pricing for tubes only, and the three sizes shown
below are with the frames and some basic oars.
You can special order a "PB8" model with 8' tubes from us,
but material is thinner on this smallest size of Maxxon tubes, and the
draft of this rig with most adults over 150 or 175 pounds is so deep that
it would only be appropriate for lakes. The price on a PB8 would be $879,
just $20 less than the nine footer. The aluminum frames for all three
models below are the same as what's in the photo, and these frames are
four-piece (plus seat & deck) take-apart units.
Maxxon's frames are Chinese knock-off's of the US-made Outcast units,
marketed by AIRE. Unfortunately, these Maxxon frames do not always go
together as smoothly as their American counterparts. Specifically, there
are pairs of male and female cross-members formed from square aluminum
tubing in concentric sizes. We've had some frames where a lot of pulling
and pushing (simultaneously) of these joints was required to get the frame
together, and sometimes a bit of coersion with a hammer was needed. Maxxon
claims this is not typical, but we want you to know it's a possibility
before you order. If you plan on taking your frame apart every time you
fish, maybe it would be better to spring for an Outcast. We don't carry
them but there are plenty of dealers in the lower 48 and Alaska.
The Maxxon PB9 ($899, shown in photo) can handle one adult of
essentially any weight. It's pontoons are 16" by 9', and both this
and the 8' size mentioned above are single chamber tubes. 
The PB10 ($949, 10' X 18" tubes; like the blue tube in the
photo below) can handle plenty of gear for overnighters, or even multi-day
trips, if you cut out a secondary wood deck for the rear. This deck would
need some slots along it's left and right edges to run cam straps through
& down to the D-rings. The PB10 is also a one-person model, though
it has the payload capacity for two - just no second seat. PB10 tubes
have two chambers per.
The PB12 comes in two variations - the standard PB12 ($999; uses
the grey tube in photo below) with one rowing module, and the PB12-2
($1,299) with two rowing frames & four oars (and sixteen straps).
The PB12 tubes are big - 20-1/2" - so there is a lot of floatation
with this model, especially since the Maxxon tubes all have a longer waterline
(the length of the tube actually floating in the water) than equivalent
sized Outcast & AIRE cat tubes.  PB12
tubes also have two chambers for each.
All three models above come with a swivel seat, 7' oars (a tad short
for the PB12), a standing/casting deck which only provides it's best stability
with the two bigger models, a small rear metal cooler deck, a pretty good
carry bag, a simple patch kit, eight tie-down straps, chrome oar locks,
oar stoppers (which are hard to get on, but tend not to stay in place
once they are on unless you secure them with a hose clamp), a very
basic anchor cleet, and a low grade footpump which will break and
is absolutely NOT guaranteed. Better pumps are available on our
pump page. Those of you who try to make the best of it with this included
foot bellows will find yourself unable to inflate your cat at some point
due to pump failure or breakage. The best plan is to keep it as a back-up
pump. More info on these and other sizes of cat tubes can be found on
our regular "Cataraft" page.
The Rowing Frame Module with oarlocks (but no oars) is available
separately for $379. Carlisle's 7' Lifeguard oars can go in the oarlocks,
but the fit is tight and you can only wrap a small layer of protection
around the Lifeguard shafts. Maxxon also makes the oars shown above available
by special order, but they run $110/pair and are way overpriced for what
they are. If you want to use your fish-cat in whitewater, throw away the
oars, oarlocks, and sleeves, and replace them with silicon bronze oarlocks
($35 per pair), Lifeguard or HD Outfitter oars (see Oars & Paddles
page for most of the pricing), and regular heavy duty nylon Oar Sleeves
($22 per pair).
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101 Brookside Place,
