Rapidfire Posted by: waterspyder on Jan-03-13 8:04 AM (EST)
Coldfeet might join in on this but he weighs roughly the same as you and when we paddle/camp he uses his Rapidfire. His concept of traveling light is restricting his gear to weighing somewhere around the 50 to 60 pound range. I’ll let him expound on our paddle where we decided to bring in a load of fire wood adding another 50 pounds or so of weight during a five mile lake crossing. Bottom line is I’ve seen him in the Rapidfire loaded with 300+ pounds and while it slowed him down the boat was fine. I paddle my RF with a normal camping load of 25-30 pounds so the boat is hauling a little less than 200 pounds. At that weight I can keep up a normal cruising pace with most paddlers in 16 ft. kayaks. So I wouldn’t rule a Rapidfire out in your search. They’re not cheap and it’s doubtful you’ll be able to find one used but if you’re looking for a high quality pack boat you won’t go wrong with one.