Why SOTAR?

Wisdom in the miles

We have put many miles underneath our boats. From Tierra Del Fuego to the Yukon, from Siberia to Phantom Ranch people have sat in our rafts or catarafts and spoke Russian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Turkish, Spanish, Quebecquois, a few African tribe dialects - and coast to coast all over our great United States of America. We seek to improve our products with every mile. 

Handmade in the USA

Our boats are design and made next the Wild and Scenic Rogue River in Merlin, OR. It takes many hands to design and build our boats. Each hand adds to the boats custom details. We are a small business with fewer than 20 employees. We work hard and then we play hard on the products we love and made.

Guiding the Industry 

• SOTAR designed and built the first self-bailing floor - the performance innovation that allowed many a first descent and have become industry standard.
• SOTAR began CAD design in the building of whitewater inflatable boats.
• SOTAR  developed and perfected the lightweight heavy duty Urethane / Rezcoat boat fabric used exclusively at SOTAR for 38 years.
• SOTAR began thermo-welding seams after the formulated Urethane / Rezcoat boat fabric was perfected, allowing for welded seams which eliminated the need for glue in construction.
• SOTAR designed the first continuous curve cataraft tubes.