WHAT'S NEW

Here we have two new Boat People specialty aluminum frames, one of which is still being developed. Both will be available separately or as packages with their respective inflatable kayaks or cat tubes.

The VersaCat frame was designed around two current model Innova Safaris (which are found on our Solo River IK page) and can also be used with solo AIRE Tomcat and Lynx models. We feel a VersaCat rig is as "multi-purpose" as a boat can be and have put a lot of thought into this product. Both the VersaCat frame and the RapidCat frame are made with super strong 1-3/4", 1/8" wall aluminum square stock.

The adjustable width RapidCat frame is still in the final developement stages. It is our second exclusive new design, intended for use by class IV and class V boaters who want a stable, portable, lightweight craft that can negotiate tricky hydraulics with less chance of flipping than even very large conventional rafts. The RapidCat frame was built for use with 12' to 13' cat tubes, with diameters of 20" to 22". It can be used with slightly longer or shorter tubes, assuming the diameter remains in the range mentioned. It will not work well with 18" tubes, and this is actually deliberate and explained below. The AIRE and Maxxon tubes that the VersaCat frame utilizes are shown separately on our Cataraft page and are sold on this page as packages with the frame and/or accessories.

VersaCat & VersaCat Frame

The VersaCat frame is a four-piece unit intended to join two self-bailing Innova Safaris (found on our Solo River I.K. page), though it also works well with two Tomcat solo's, and even with Lynx I's as well. We really only designed it for the Safari's though, and where any other boat beyond the AIRE Caracal/Tomcat solos are concerned we are stating that it will NOT work. If you order it thinking that you will be able to utilize it with your existing i.k's and find out it does not mate up to them, you will need to pay UPS both ways, as well as a restocking fee of 15%. If you return one not properly repacked and the frame arrives to us damaged, the box will be refused.

We chose the Innova Safari for our project for several reasons. First is the economy and superb value that Innova inlfatables in general represent. The second was the Safari's compact rolled size and reasonable 24 pound-per-kayak weight. The third is that the Safaris are one of the fastest inflatables made. About the only other solo river inflatable that moves as fast is the AIRE Force, but it does not have the Safari's tracking fin and tends to zig zag on flat water like a hardshell whitewater i.k.

A VersaCat package includes two Safaris, the frame, and the eight straps you need to join them to the frame. Thee straps are sheathed with an extra section of tubular nylon webbing to keep them from wearing out and to prevent chafing around the bail holes. The VersaCat frame has an extra piece of tube welded across the rear bar for mounting small outboards (which is not in the photo below, though it would be hard to make it out anyway). The VersaCat package will do more than any other inflatable out there, and it does everything well.

1) It provides a stable human powered ocean craft for diving, fishing, sightseeing, surfing, and outrigger racing. Easily reboarded and nearly impossible to tip over in waves.

2) With a small outboard it gives you a small two person dinghy for flatwater of almost any variety, and if you run rivers that terminate in long tedious reservoir paddle-outs, you could pack the engine along on the river and mount it when you get to the flat section (please note that due to the low height of the mounting area in relation to the water, you will need a motor with a sliding prop shaft that can be raised up; otherwise the prop will be riding very deep in the water). It is also a perfect solution for yacht owners who want a two-person tender AND two kayaks. Again, the boats roll up small and the frame breaks down to four sticks, so it won't take up valuable space when you're not using it.

3) A VersaCat is an incredibly stable river craft due to it's 6' beam (about the same as a 12' raft) and super low center of gravity. This is in sharp contrast to what the Safari kayaks are without a frame - probably the most tippy inflatable kayak. The VersaCat emulates the virtues of the highly capable Russian style river paddle cats. It is intended to be paddled from a seated postion with single blade paddles, but you could also kneel. We have not worked out a saddle yet for this boat though.

4). Of course, with a VersaCat package, you also get two Safaris, which can be used on their own without the frame.

How it works: four straps hold each boat to the frame. The two straps near the center go around the lengthwise frame members, and through bail holes. The rearmost straps on each side come off the ends of the rear crossmember and again through a bail hole behind the seat. The front outside straps go through an extra bail hole that we punch in your boats just forward of the inflatable footrest. In the photo above, this is not the way that strap is running, because we did not have the extra bail holes punched in the pair of Safaris photographed. As is mentioned near the top of this page, our frame only works with the current model Safari - the older models do not have enough bail holes to strap the frame securely to the hulls.
With the AIRE Lynx's and Tomcats mentioned above, four of the straps connect to tie down loops inside the boat, and again, the other four go through bail holes just as with the Safari rigging. The frame itself breaks into four pieces, and is held together with four bolts & wingnuts. Assembly is about two minutes on the frame. The two longest pieces are 6'4". The frame is constructed of very beefy 1-3/4" tempered square tube stock, with coating where it will have contact with the boats (to prevent black staining from the aluminum). The frame member ends are all open so water simply drains out. Aluminum does corrode to some degree in salt water and should therefore be rinsed after ocean use. In most cases, due to the box size used for the frame, you may get nailed for a 70 pound rate by UPS. We will try to mitigate that by either shipping the two Safaris in one box, or by using a box that will fit the frame and one Safari. We never mark up UPS fees, and we alwasy try to minimize box sizes on shipments as much as possible.

VersaCat Pricing

When you buy the package, you get 5% off on each boat (and our website price on the Safari is already 6% off the list), and 10% off on the frame. If you already have one current model Safari, you can buy a "single boat" package but you receive only 5% off on the frame and no discount on the boat. The numbers are as follows:

VersaCat Package with straps: $1,607

VersaCat Package with one Safari only, including straps: $1052

VersaCat Frame only, no straps: $399.

Strap Set (reinforced) only: $34

Please note that Safari inflatable kayaks are recommended for paddlers under 220 pounds.

RapidCat and RapidCat Frame

*please note that the RapidCat frame is still being prototyped, but we are posting the info here so that you can at least read about it. As soon as the warts are worked out we will have a photo and pricing*

For a number of years, we have wanted to offer an alternative to the long unavailable Butch Polzel paddle cat frame. Butch's Oregon-made Russian-inspired "paddle saddles" were by any measure the best thing for hardcore river runners since canned beer. One of his saddles sat on each of your cat tubes, and they in turn were joined together by two simple straight pieces of metal tubing and four clevis pins. The great thing about Butch's design was that the saddle frames not only protected your legs and got your weight out over each tube where it should be, but they also put you in a comfortable forward facing paddling position not shared by whitewater rafts - unless you straddle the raft's tubes, which is a great way to crush a kneecap or shinbone. The downside was that the Polzel saddles were heavy, and very, very labor intensive to make. When Butch sold out his metal fab shop back in the early 90's, the new owners basically stated that they were not interested in building this headache inducing unit. Too many bends, way too much intricate grinding, dozens of small radius welds, three separate sizes of material, all of it coated with zinc. So, the ingenius Polzel paddle frame went by the wayside with many boaters never even noticing it's presence or loss.
Our new patented adjustable-width take-apart RapidCat Frame does not exactly mirror what Butch made back in the 90's, for better and worse.
On the positive side it is lighter and vastly more portable, and is not as tight for larger paddlers (and their long legs) as the old Polzel frame. It gets your weight lower (on the tube instead of perched on a seat several inches above the tube), and the large deck allows you to carry overnight gear more readily. It affords a more narrow profile too since Butch's footrest areas stuck out 5" on each side the the cat. On the bad side, with our RapidCat you are back to the half-sideways seating position of a raft with both legs inboard on the frame's wood deck, losing some of the power and long forward reach that Butch's design provided. Since most rafters are already used to this positon though, it shouldn't be a huge drawback. In past years, some folks have tried to emulate Butch's paddle saddles with over-the-knee straps (including plenty of our local zany Russian customers), but they ignored the safety hazards this creates in terms of both entrapment and especially the lack of outboard leg protection.

How it works: Like the VersaCat frame above, bolts and wing nuts hold the frame together. In this case there are actually a total of six including two that go through the adjustment holes in the middle of the horizontal frame cross members. Once it is together you mount the deck (the two-piece plywood deck, which comes with the Deluxe version, is actually split down the middle to keep things portable and shippable for UPS) with eight more bolts & nuts. Once the frame is assembled (about 10 to 15 minutes), your cat tubes are joined to the frame with four camlock straps on each tube, two on the outside and two on the inside. And again, The RapidCat frame is constructed from strong 1-3/4" tempered aluminum square stock. The wholesale cost for this material alone is more than double what NorthWest River Supply uses in their frames.

The RapidCat rig works best with tubes that are 12 to 13 feet. Longer more buoyant tubes (like the 14' X 22" AIRE Ocelot tubes) will tend to get surfed easily rather than punching holes, and 14 to 15 foot tubes of smaller diameter (like 20") are harder to pivot in the tight areas that advanced and expert level rivers throw at you. Very short tubes (10 or 11 feet), even if you can find them in diameters of 20 to 22 inches, will track poorly and may suffer in buoyancy, which means you might be drafting more than 8" of water. This also means that the bottom bars and frame deck will be almost in the water and this is the reason we did not design this frame around 18" diameter tubes.
None of the foregoing precludes you from using the tube brand of your choice, but 12 to 13' tubes in 20, 21, or 22" diameters are the only sizes that should be used with this frame unless you plan on buying two frames for use with longer tubes.
Although the RapidCat can straddle rocks to some degree, if the horizontal frame sections and deck are three inches above the water (about average for two adults males and a cooler), you obviously won't be able to straddle a rock sticking out of the river seven inches like the old Polzel design allowed. Still, a normal raft cannot straddle anything.
How stable is it? The answer depends on how far out on the tubes you place your butt, much like a raft, and how wide you adjust the frame to. Since footloops (two are provided) can be bolted anywhere on the deck, you can acheive a position that gets you far outboard. With 20" tubes, and with the frame at it's maximum width adjustment, the RapidCat is 7'4" wide, making it extremely stable indeed. If you are running tighter rapids, you can adjust it down to 6'8" (or less if you chop down the width of the plywood decking).
The RapidCat is not intended to live in the "ultra-narrow" niche that is occupied by boats like the Shredder or Puma. These models are great for extra tight runs, and the RapidCat is not a replacement for them. The Shredder (this is a frameless cat that is sold direct by the manufacturer, so don't look for it here on our site) wins hands down in portability, and it has a cult following on Eastern rivers. The Puma with two, or even four paddlers, draws less water than the RapidCat or Shredder, so it has it's place in the world of low-flow too.

We offer the RapidCat in two versions- the Basic RapidCat, which uses Maxxon's 12' X 20.5" tubes, and the Deluxe RapidCat utilizing AIRE's 13' Wildcat tubes. The Basic version does not come with straps or the wood deck pieces, so you have to cut your own from a good grade of (marine) plywood or other water resistant material of your choosing. One advantage of the Basic version is that Maxxon's tubes have more of their length actually in the water, and therefore they ride higher, or said another way, they draft less.
The Deluxe RapidCat comes complete with blue or yellow 13' AIRE Wildcat tubes (other colors by special order), the finished deck pieces with tie-down hardware, eight camlock straps included (4 - 2' and 4 - 4' straps), and two DIY bolt-down footloops. Both versions of the RapidCat come with nuts, bolts, and the footloops. If you need paddles, we strongly recommend going with 5'6" STM's or Guide paddles, not regular five footers.
When you are not using your RapidCat Frame with cat tubes, it still makes a dandy gear deck for paddle rafts, as well as a secondary cooler / drybox area for big catarafts and rafts.

Projected RapidCat Pricing

Deluxe RapidCat (AIRE Wildcat tubes, frame, eight straps, finished split deck with tie-downs, and two footloops, all hardware included): Expected price - $1995

Basic RapidCat (Maxxon's P12 Tubes, frame, all hardware, but no deck or straps): $1,159

RapidCat Frame only with hardware: $550

Split Finished Deck for above: $100

-detailed information on Maxxon and AIRE cat tubes is found on our Cataraft page