Merlin Series
TWO sizes - The Lance 11' and the Excalibur 10'
Construction and design
The Merlin series is designed as a solid playboat that can handle anything steep creeks, high and low water volume. It is one of our lightest boats.
The boat is designed with one continuous tube per side, with bow and stern baffles, making two hull tubes with a pointy bow and stern. The continuous weld cuts manufacturing time and waste, which equals a less expensive boat.
The floor is designed with a pointed bow/stern on the floor mattress to help reduce drag. The floor drain holes are massive, resulting in a boat draining super quickly and being hard to swamp for a long time.
The thwarts come with a 3-strap attachment system designed to, you guessed it, reduce weight.
The material is a lighter-weight fabric, 35oz compared to the classic 40oz SOTAR fabric, again designed to save weight and bulk on the boat. Rather than the classically ultra-slick UV coating and additional seat chafers welded on, it has seat chafers made from a thin layer of liquid Lex to help you stay in place.
How is it in the water?
First, you can shoulder this boat like a kayak and carry it to the water. Next, the low weight means crazy fast acceleration, so you can quickly get the boat up to top speed. The final point of weight is that it is super nimble and turns relatively fast. This will allow you to make quick last-minute moves.
The next significant factor in the water is the hull shape. The raft's shape allows you to pierce waves and drops when you hit them instead of the boat stopping and shuddering.
The tube size feels pretty big for a playboat, but the added buoyancy tubes and the thicker inflatable floor make it sit higher in the water. Generally, the deeper the raft sits in the water, the slower it will go, but the Merlin Series tube size adds to its buoyancy, making it a major plus.
The larger drain holes also make it quick for this boat to displace splashed water, causing the raft to surf more like a kayak.
How tough is it?
A lighter-weight material will take less rubbing to penetrate it. However, its lower mass and sitting higher in the water make it hit rocks with less force, and you will run over rocks less.
RAFTING MAGAZINE REVIEW (for the full review, Click Here)
Trevor Croft, Rafting Magazine, "SOTAR has kindly asked me to try to break this boat, so for you guys, I did. I’ve hucked this off of huge waterfalls, thrown it off cliffs, ran rivers with terrible cutty volcanic rock, and dragged it on long portages, all in the name of science. I did rip this boat dragging it on a portage, but another thicker-skinned rubber boat also got ripped in the same spot, so take that for what it is. I have put some deep scratches in the boat, but they are still airtight and haven’t penetrated the fabric mesh underneath, even after a year of hammering this thing." (Full review)