My Inflatable Kayaks - Part 3 - Sotar II

Many people have seen Sotaks - inflatable kayaks made by Sotar - but in 1992, Sotar made a Sotar II inflatable kayak, using their new Lexatron fabric. Until other Sotar IKs, the Sotar II was boxy looking, made with multiple pieces of fabric rather than a single continuous curve, and the seat resembled a large Hershey's Kiss (or an Apollo space capsule). At the time the boat was made, IKs still didn't have thigh straps or footbraces, and the slick floor of the boat made it easy to slide out when you came to a sudden stop. I first saw the boat when I was running Burnt Ranch Gorge with some friends, and I tried it out at the end of the run. I decided that the boat was big enough for me yet easy to manuever and much lighter to carry than Old Bessie, so I bought one.

My first run with this boat was a disaster. I had the backrest set too far back, and I felt like I was going to flip. This wouldn't be so bad, except that this run wasn't an easy class II+ run where experimenting with the boat would be no problem - this run had 2 class V rapids on it. I quickly moved the backrest, and I amazingly made it through the first class V rapid with no problems. Later in the day, I flipped twice in a class III+ rapid, and ended up sucked under by a whirpool that took off one of my boots and held me under for 30 seconds. This swim bothered me for a couple of years, though I continued boating.

I continued to use the boat, but I slid out of it more times than I liked, and I relegated it to a guest boat. Besides being too slick, the floor kept leaking. I sent it back to Sotar twice, and it seemed fine for years. Then, I lent it to someone who left it out in the sun on a very hot day, and the floor developed a very bad leak. I decided to have Sotar replace the floor, and while they were at it, I had them add thigh straps. Finally, in 2006 I sold the boat to help pay for another IK.

The general opinion of people who have used the boat is that with the thigh straps and a footbrace, it's a stable and fun boat. I may have enjoyed it more with those improvements.