We’re accustomed to hearing the lightweight and packable story attached to tents, sleeping bags and down jackets. But rafts? Those are huge; even the lightest and smallest of them should require a pickup to move. Uncharted Supply Co., a gear company that focuses on emergency preparedness, recently made its argument to the contrary — by making a packraft that deflates down to the size of a football.
Packrafts — single-person, lightweight rafts designed for expedition use — are small by definition. But the Rapid Raft hyperbolizes the idea; it weighs three pounds and shrinks down to a wad small enough to fit in a backpack. And yet when it’s inflated — through a process that takes less than a minute and is similar to that employed by those strange blow-up chairs you’ll see at beaches and festivals — it can carry up to 400 pounds across any body of water. Uncharted designed it to fill a military request for a vessel that deploys and packs quickly, and only recently adapted it for the public. Soldiers have a version that’s even smaller and lighter, but with a weight of three pounds, we’re not complaining.
The Rapid Raft is currently funding on Indiegogo — it’s already surpassed its goal — with an expected ship date of November 2019.
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