Merlin Series - Rafting Magazine REVIEW
By Trevor Croft
To start off, I absolutely love this boat. The SOTAR is 11' the largest of the Merlin Series boats and an absolute blast of a play boat. As with all rafts its not for every situation and definitely has its place in your fleet. Overall, it is a superb play boat with a lot of features to love chiefly among them is its ability to cut through waves with ease and its overall weight. This boat really pushes what you can do with a play boat and feels like a boat of a much larger class.
I’ve been able to use prototypes throughout the development cycle so let’s dive into what this boat can do. Buckle up because this is gonna be a longer review, but if you’re gonna drop the money on a boat I figured I should arm you with as many facts as I can.
Let’s first take a look at what the Lance is: it is designed as a solid play boat that can handle anything steep low volume creeks can throw at it. It is one of the lightest boats out there weighing in below most kayaks.
The boat is designed with one continuous tube per side with bow and stern baffles making 2 hull tubes with a pointy bow and stern similar to an old school Aire Puma. 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 that drains super quickly and can be hard to swamp for very long.
The thwarts have offset valves so you can run a waterfall strap down the middle of the thwart without blocking the valve or a smaller thwart bag off to one side and still have access to the valve. The thwarts also 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 41oz 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. Finally, several of the metal grommets have been replaced with plastic ones to reduce the overall weight of the boat even further.
How is it in the water?
Alright that was a lot of gear nerding on the design, but if you’re gonna spend $3800 on a boat I figured that you might wanna nerd out on specs. Let’s get down to what you really came here for and how does this boat run on the water.
Let’s talk about weight since that is the major player here. This boat is light, like scary light so light that if you back load the boat in high winds you can flip. Here’s what this means for you when you get to the water. First, I can shoulder this boat like a kayak and carry it down to the water, even my smallest team girls can carry this boat by themselves. You don’t have to have a messed up back from carrying your raft with this one, and if you have small kids then you can hand them some gear and possibly carry it yourself down to the water.
Next, the low weight means crazy fast acceleration so you can get the boat up to top speed very quickly. It is especially helpful with paddlers who can’t generate as much force on the paddle stroke. Lower mass means it takes less force to get it going to top speed. This is a double-edged sword though because the lower mass of the boat also means you have reduced momentum so if you are hitting big waves, you’re gonna hit them with less force.
That leads to the final point of weight that it is super nimble and turns relatively fast this will allow you to make quick last-minute moves to avoiding the things that will end up crushing you because you don’t have the mass to push through them.
The next big factor on the water is the hull shape. This thing is a hot knife through butter with the pointed nose slicing through larger features with ease. In fact, it feels like a boat of a larger class simply because it can take on larger features without stopping. The hull shape allows you to pierce waves and drops when you hit them instead of the boat stopping and shuddering as the flat surfaces of the boats and water slam into each other.
Tube size is also another important factor since the tubes feel pretty big for a play boat. The added buoyancy of the thicker floor mattress and the tubes make it sit higher in the water. Boats go slower because of more drag and that drag is caused by “wedded surface”, or the amount of surface area of the boat in contact with the water. The deeper she sits in the water the slower it will go, so added buoyance is always a plus.
The larger drain holes also make this boat really quick to displace water inside of it. Personally, I have only experienced 1 or 2 occasions in the last year where I feel like the boat gets swamped and is hard to maneuver. This also means it has a different way of surfing. Many boats fill up with water and swamp into a surf, but this boat surfs more like a kayak easily planning over the water and the goal is not to let the bow drop in so if you’re used to how a more classic raft design surfs, there is a learning curve to get a fun surf in this raft.
How tough is it?
If you’re gonna be dropping $3800 on this boat you wanna get your money’s worth and not get a boat that is gonna fall apart. So, do you have to make a sacrifice here? Well not really. Certainly, a lighter weight material is going to take less rubbing to penetrate it, so that is certainly a factor. The interesting part of that equation is that the lower mass and it sitting higher in the water makes it hit rocks with less enough force and you are running over rocks less.
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 of cliffs, run rivers with terrible cutty volcanic rock, and drug 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 certainly 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.
The d-rings have stayed intact even after wrapping it and cranking on it, the thwart straps are solid, and the grommets are fully intact. Ultimately, I have to conclude that the reduction in thickness of material is, in my opinion, not likely to hinder long term durability, especially with more careful boaters than myself. With all that being said you may notice a difference 10 years down the line, but by then you may want a new boat anyway.
Important Considerations
One thing I will say about the lightness of the boat is that shipping is way better. When I ripped my floor mattress and needed to return it for repairs, I just unlaced it and it cost me $24 to ship the floor to SOTAR for repairs. Any other boat would have been a fortune, but you can just break her down and ship it off for a relatively good price. I would also point out that there is a lot of value in plastic boats especially in the ease of field repair. Slap a Tear Aid patch on it and keep going then break the boat down and send it in for repairs.
This is not a multi tool. Although this boat can punch well above her weight, it is still a play boat at the end of the day. I know several people who row them, but it is not designed for heavy gear loads and multi day expeditions. You are getting a boat that is super fun on day trips or an overnight. If you want a more general-purpose boat, get a bigger one with more space.
Somewhat in line with the previous point, this is a dedicated r2 boat. I have r3 and r4ed this boat. I have even had 6 in there in a pinch, but there is just not a lot of space and air volume in this boat so too much weight and it quickly gets overwhelmed. Even with 4 smaller girls in the boat the floor will start to fill up and the boat will get sluggish. Is it still fun? Hell yeah, but it is just not designed for heavy loads.
It can be super flippy if you don’t distribute weight well. This boat is so light I can grab it from the water through the floor webbing and pull it over on top of me. I have also flipped it r1ing in high winds. With that being said it is like any play boat and super narrow so if you low side you’re gonna flip it like any other play boat. Additionally, you need to make sure you don’t have 2 people getting in on one side or it will flip on you. Even moving over to try to pull your buddy in can result in a flip if you’re not careful, so make sure you practice swimmer recoveries in flat calm pools.
If you paddle regularly with several paddlers of different sizes like I do then I would certainly take the lance so I can move the thwarts for different body sizes.
This boat is not a do anything boat, so don’t go into it expecting that it is. It is a dedicated play boat so keep that in mind when you’re looking at this for your next boat choice.
Comparisons
Several people have asked me to do some comparisons to tother play boats on the market so I figured I would drop some thoughts on it here to the two main competitors.
Hyside Mini Max: The lance has a similar hull profile to the minimax, albeit pointier and more slicey than the minimax. The weight of the lance is better, but the designs are similar. The lance has a little better rocker, but the Mini Max feels a little more stable in some ways. Repairs in the field are easier on the lance than the Mini Max since you’re not glueing anything. The Lance is about $400 more, but one of the biggest advantages the lance has it that you get movable thwarts for different sized paddlers.
AIRE Cub: The cub is more stable than the lance. Weight is pretty comparable when the Cub’s floor is dry, but the Cub has a lot more mass when the floor is filled with water. The Lance is way more welcome on a portage though due to the weight. The cub hits waves harder but the lace slices through them better. They are fundamentally different hull designs so they’re gonna move very differently through the water. I feel like the cub surfs differently so the comparison is just that it is different. The cub will slip over very shallow things a little better. The Lance also wins on the price point though.
Is it worth it?
With the Lance you are getting a solid play boat with great performance characteristics and one of the lightest rafts on the market. Durability is good and the boat is a joy to paddle. Would I buy one? Any day of the week, you should have one of these in your fleet. Again, small kids, totally worth it. Aggressive play boating, absolutely worth it!
At the time of writing the Lance has a great middle of the road price point compared with its nearest competitors:
Aire Cub is 4567 with 2 thwarts
The Lance is 3800 with 2 thwarts stock
The Mini Max runs 3414 with 2 thwarts stock
Overall, I would give this boat a 10/10 would buy and the overall package here is easily one of the best in terms of value for money. I know some people have major preferences for certain boats just like we do for cars, but I don’t think anyone would be disappointed by getting into this boat if you are looking for a play boat.