Which Raft for the Franklin River?

[Son of a Beach]

I've been invited to join a group rafting the Franklin early next year. I've never done any rafting at all, and to be honest, the thought of it gives me the heebie-geebies. However, it's an invitation that's hard to pass up, especially as the guy who invited me has done it a few times before (a very long time ago), and is a very experienced bushwalker.

For this trip, it's going to be one-person-per '4 person' raft, apparently, and not shared rafts.

So my first question is... how do I decide what sort of raft to buy/hire? Can anyone who knows about such things please tell me which raft(s) they would recommend for this?

Are pack rafts (such as the Alpacka Raft range) suitable? Which models would be best?

Any other brands/models I should look at?

I'm sure I'll have lots more questions as time goes by.

[Nuts]

Too much of a newb to comment but as promised: http://packrafting.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1347 , let me know when its done

[Son of a Beach]

Nice one. Thanks Nuts.

(I should also mention that the person who invited me has shared with me some very comprehensive notes on rafting and on the Franklin, including one section based on David Noble's notes from early 80's).

[ILUVSWTAS]

Lucker bugger!
Sounds awesome!

[Moondog55]

Can't offer advice on a raft but a question? Do you have a really good wetsuit or canyoning suit?
Friends who have done it tell me the water is cold at any time of the year

[Son of a Beach]

I have a decent wetsuit which I use for sailboarding all year round. But I need to seriously look at the full spectrum of required gear at some stage, including the possibility of a better wet suit.

Just starting out by looking into the raft for now.

[doogs]

I did see an story on the news today about the beer can regatta in Darwin, I think. You will need to drink about 3000 cans of beer to make a raft, too much for any individual to drink in the time you have. So I will reluctantly help you if this is the path you choose

[ninjapuppet]

NRS is a very good whitewater brand and also make a packraft http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=1630.

But for whitewater, I dont think anything on this planet comes close to an alpacka. They can handle grade 4 whitewater (which is crazily scary for a non-rafter)
They make different models based upon your height and intended usage:
http://www.alpackaraft.com/index.cfm/tips-and-technique/Choosing-and-Outfitting-Your-Raft/2672
(please note, the raft can handle the class IV whitewater but often the paddler can not, as in my case as I found out too late)

They were recently upgraded this year for better tracking with the extended rear. This is great for flat water, but if you dont really care that much, alot of the older models are appearing 2nd hand at significant discounts. my full packraft + spray deck + paddles + postage was about $1500.
My drysuit was $900 and misc (booties, liner, PFD, underwater whistle, knife, throw bags, helmet, river bags) was another $700 so you're looking at $3000 for a full kit-out.

As far as I'm aware, there are no packraft rentals available in Australia. My group of friends have 7 packrafts altogether and were thinking of renting them out because we hardly use them, but none of them were keen to do so. Here is a rough guide for prices at jackson Hole rentals: http://jhpackraft.com/packraft-rentals/rental-rates/.

I recommend a drysuit rather than a wetsuit for really cold condititions. a full Kokotat drysuit would be very very expensive but they can easily be hired. I found my 2 pieces dry pants/top didnt work very well when you get dunked in raging water. A full 1 piece works much better.
Ive got a Gerber river shorty knife and an NRS Pilot knife and the pilot is much better due to its release mechanism. http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=2755

I would also recommend a throw bag around your waist. If I had one earlier, maybe we wouldnt have jepordised my friend's life when trying to pull him over acrosss the raging river
http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=1828.1&pdeptid=961

With paddles many kayak paddles would not be ideal as the lengths are not appropirate. for whitewater packrafting, I have found that 210-215cm is just about right for me.

One of these contour or gopro would be great to record your expedition. http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6507&p=79547&hilit=contour#p79547

Most importantly, dont just get the raft before your trip if youve never rafted whitewater before. Take rivercraft lessons and practice on alot of grade 2-3 before you head off on a big trip like that. Roman Dial's book has alot of good info as an introduction. https://www.alpackaraft.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=store.catalog&CategoryID=52&ProductID=115

Enjoy

[ninjapuppet]

Flyweight is releasing their version of the rugged packraft too for $465 http://flyweightdesigns.com/default.aspx
On the website it says available in 4-5 weeks, but I'm not sure. Ive heard about it for a long time.

I think Roman refers to the Franklin as where the original packraft was born, so it bears significant heritage its development. I would absolutely love to do a river like that one day.
I have found Roman Dial to be very prompt with his advice and replies so maybe you can contact him for more info.

[Stibb]

Sounds awesome!!! If you and doogs don't have time to finish all that beer there's another way. Take a few bits of planks and timber and tie them together with rope. maybe a few nails here and there. Take a bunch of car inner tubes and tie them to the timber contraption. Put your packs in the front and cover with a plastic sheet. A packet of eggs on top. And yeah, off you go.

The only time I have ever rafted was on a 5 night trip down a river through a national park in Sumatra many years ago and this was the kind of raft our "guide" came up with. Our expedition included 2 rafts, 1 guide ("Captain Cook"), 2 helpers (?), 6 naive tourists. Absolutely fantastic trip with some white water too that almost wrecked the rafts in pieces (surprise ). We only had one serious accident (a girl on the other raft dived in head first without checking the depth...), another minor accident (as we tried to get the injured girl up on the raft, our guide pushed us away from a sunken tree with his foot and a piece of branch pierced his foot right trough) and an epileptic fit (a guy on my raft after seeing this whole circus). Unforgettable

Then again, ninjapuppet's approach seems a bit more sensible

[Son of a Beach]

Thanks Doogs. I'm sure we'll get plenty of other volunteers offering to help. I've got a keg if that would make it easier.

Stibb, I thought you were talking about the Derby River Derby at first sounded a lot like our raft once. Egged and all.

Ninja - thanks for all the advice. I'll need to go though all that properly when back at my computer. I do intend to do some practice elsewhere first. Starting with flat water (The Tamar River is right over the road) and then moving up to something easier than the Franklin (the Cataract Gorge is right in the middle of town but may be hard to get the right amount of water with the dam upstream - but how lucky are we to have that right in town?). There's also that rafting area just north of Lake Rowallan.

[tele-whippet]

When I were lad knee high to grasshopper in January 1980, we just had 2nd hand yellow rubber duckies from Wilderness Shop in Hobart which we resold after our paddle down Franklin. Luxury!




Seriously though, we had stuff all white water experience, duckies are quite forgiving compared to kayaks and need a lot less skill.
We used bog standard surfing wet suits which were fine but not on sunny days when we paddled in shorts/shirts and life jackets (personal floatation deviceds these days)
Most of all we used caution and portaged around rapids we weren't comfortable shooting.
From what I've read I think packrafts would be well suited to the Franklin.
The campsites were pristine and we 3 shared the river with a party of 2 we saw every now and then.
Saw Peter Dombrovskis taking photos in the Great Ravine & Bob Brown near Kuta Kina Caves.

[DonQx]

I used to work on the Franklin as a rafting guide occasionally between '81 and '95.

Guided both ducky trips (still surprised that no one came to serious grief on our trips) and big raft trips.

A few stray thoughts that come to mind:

- The Franklin is different from many overseas rivers in that it is smaller in size/volume, yet many rapids are more technical and it has more sharp obstacles (logs, timber sticking up, rocks) ... what that means is that the raft should be tougher rather than lighter. We spent a fair bit of time patching rafts.

- The old 4-person duckies were about the smallest you'd want to go for. Anyone on smaller rafts would spend heaps more time in the water coz they flipped more easily (unless they were experienced whitewater kayakers). They were long enuf to sleep on them upside down, so I guess they'd been 220 cm long at least.

- Alpacka Rafts Yukon Yak and Denali Llama look about right to me. I'd do some reasearch on their "toughness" tho.

- I used to wear neporene long johns, occasionally a drysuit and in the end one or 2 layers of thermals under waterproofs. LJ's were most commonly used. Drysuit a luxury, very nice on really miserable days, but can get a bit too hot, also the most likely to fail terminally. Thermals & waterproofs ended up my choice, especially comfy on the many portages.

- Don't take too good a wetsuit, it may well end up somewhat shredded (portages, sharp rock edges, ...). I wouldn't consider a full suit, too likely to be too hot most of the time.

A few pics from a 1994 trip ...

1994-11 Franklin Trip - 1.jpg (54.62 KiB) Viewed 17197 times

1994-11 Franklin Trip - 2.jpg (66.14 KiB) Viewed 17197 times

1994-11 Franklin Trip - 3.jpg (49.31 KiB) Viewed 17197 times

[DonQx]

And a few more ...

1994-11 Franklin Trip - 4.jpg (43.78 KiB) Viewed 17197 times

1994-11 Franklin Trip - 5.jpg (51.04 KiB) Viewed 17197 times

1994-11 Franklin Trip - 6.jpg (75.19 KiB) Viewed 17197 times

[frenchy_84]

With the current srong Aus dollar the price of an alpacka setup as mentioned by ninjapuppet has dropped, Raft, spraydeck, paddle and postage to Aus for approx 1200. I just bought a Denali LLama which turned up in the mail this morning (very excited) so i havent used yet but there is a video on youtube (which has had a link on this site before) of Roman Dial going down the Anne River which gives a good indication of how tough these boat really are.

[Nuts]

Klink! ha ha ha! Luv it... The extra size of the Llama would be nice Frenchy, i bought an alpacka (with weight in mind) thinking that i would 'slim' into it had it the wrong way around to start but even so... probably keep it and buy another, they seem to sell (through that site) as quick as new.. I did a lot of kayaking but never dreamt of a boat small and light enough to carry in a pack, even if basically an expensive tyre tube.

[Son of a Beach]

So it seems that the Alpackas would handle the Franklin OK, from what people are saying. But it may be that it is not the best thing for a newbie rafter, and perhaps something larger may be in order.

Not sure which way I'm going to go on this yet. The larger and heavier boats are certainly cheaper, making them tempting from the perspective of safety (for a newbie), and cost. But at the expense of more difficult portages. Although making portages easy is also a safety factor, and I may be less tempted to have a go at some of the borderline rapids.

[frenchy_84]

Nuts, I was pretty sure i had run in to you before on a different forum... Tasmanian bushwalking circles being as small as they are
SOB, I think the Alpackas are ideal as long as you are prepared for the price, for a single trip they are an expensive proposition but there are plenty of other rivers that would make great trips, such as the weld, jane, murchison, arthur and the more extreme adventures like the maxwell or Salisbury/Vanishing falls. And the rugged and light weight Alpacka are one of the best rafts out there.
But as far as a newbie rafter i dont think there will be to much of an issue with an alpacka, regardless of what boat you buy being a first time rafter in a single man boat i imagine you would get some practise in other smaller/less remote rivers first. I dont have a kayaking/whitewater background but plan to learn on small rivers first.

[Nuts]

Yer Frenchy, thought i had you pegged, id hazard another guess and say there wouldn't be many pop up here that could give you better advice (than you are already likely getting)
ps... thanks (btw)

[Son of a Beach]

If I did end up with an Alpacka, I'd definitely use it again. Even if it wasn't for white water, it would be a fun way to explore some of the lakes in the central highlands. Camp on an island here and there.

And whatever I end up with, I'll certainly be trying to build up some (very much lacking) confidence on some easier rivers first.

[climberman]

t-w - wow mate I never knew. I'll let Roman Dial know, he'll be quite chuffed I reckon to see that !

[eucalyptus]

Hi SOB,

I am in a very similar position to you ; planning a trip down the Franklin end 2012/start 2013. We plan to go as far as Irenabyss and walk out via Frenchman's Cap. At the moment there are three of us with one (not me) having had some kayaking experience. We all took advantage of the current high $AU to get Alpackas and accessories online and the cost was significantly lower than the $3000 mentioned. I got a Denali lama as I am 6'3"and it is slightly longer. With a paddle and shipping cost was $1100. I also purchased a decent helmet on special, throw bag and knife from NRS for $150 ($70 shipping) as well as a drysuit on clearance for $420. Wetsuit and PFD was from Tamar marine for less than $250. An important cosideration is footwear; wetsuit booties are good but I am yet to find any that don't make riverside rocks into a skating ring!

I am like you in that I find the prospect of running a wild river like the Franklin quite daunting but I keep reminding myself that it is the goal - I would never do it as a first river trip so working up to the level of skill required with family and work commitments is the real challenge. Time on the water is the key I think.
I started by getting used to the craft in lake Trevallyn, just getting used to the boat. I would deliberately capsize in cold water and work out how to re-enter the boat quickly. I practiced bracing. Next thing was to get onto some running water. We did a half day trip on the Picton from Farmhouse creek bridge to the airwalk. This was where the real learning started! Getting to trust the raft in the current was great fun and instructive. The raft is really stable and seems pretty tough. At low depths scraping over rocks was common but didn't seem to worry the boat. We scouted rapids and got an idea of what we could and couldn't get away with. We practiced rescue techniques with throw ropes. Working out how to tie the pack to the raft was also interesting.

Next trip will ideally be an overnighter with maybe some bigger rapids although we are not in it for the adrenalin rush (too old for that!) of running big water. The aim, as ever, is to be able to savour the environment in all its wild glory without getting hurt.

I would be happy for you to try out my raft if you like and are having trouble commiting to purchase. I would definitely recommend it as it opens up a whole new aspect to wilderness exploration. PM me if interested; I live not far from you so it should be easy to arrange. My walking buddies are down south so it would be great to have more paddlers in this neck of the woods to maximise opportunities to get on the water!

[Son of a Beach]

Thanks for the information, eucalyptus, and for the offer. I've had a couple of offers, including one to let me actually use his Alpacka for the entire Franklin trip. I think I am quite likely to end up buying my own Alpacka, and the Denali Lama was the model I was considering. I'm not tall, but I like the idea of the extra size for the sake of stability (maybe?), and also for other uses later (eg, being able to paddle my wife and myself across short distances of flat water to a small island to camp on some isolated lake somewhere).

It would be great to be able to try out the exact same model before I do buy, so I might try to arrange something with you there. And if I do get one later, we might be able to arrange for some practice trips if you want somebody local to paddle with. Longford to Hadspen might be a good simple one to start with for me.

I may not be in a position to buy for a while yet, as I'm saving for a family holiday in September, but I'll be keen to get out and try it once I do get something.

[SteveJ]

Seems there are more Alpackas about than I thought, there does not seem to be so many on the Packrafting Forum (I am Fishdejour on the Packraft forum).

I just sold my Unrigged Explorer on here a few weeks ago for $650 which is about the going rate for a second hand model, I have upgraded to the newer model Denali Lama with a spray deck as the undecked models are not ideal in white water. Getting a decked model will make life easier and safer for you. I had an original Franklin River Rubber duck for sale a few weeks back also but the Alpacka is a ridiculously good boat and is what you need.

I would also highly reccomend the Pacific Outdoor Equipment Gobi pack, a great piece of equipment. This pack is essentially a large dry sack with a harness attached, perfect for trips where many portages etc are likely, you can attach it in such a way that you can carry the raft on your backpack whilst portaging, leaving both hands free. Roman has a video on how he attaches his pack in a similar way.

Steve

[Son of a Beach]

Thanks to eucalyptus, I've now had a bit of a paddle around in an Alpacka Denali Llama, which is the model I was considering buying. It was only flat water, but I was very impressed with the boat, and will definitely aim to save up and buy one. I've now read about half of Roma Dial's Packrafting book too, and it gives me plenty of confidence that these boats are definitely up to the task of taking on the Franklin River.

I'll be in real need of getting some training and practice though, once I do get a raft. I'll be aiming to get out in it as often as possible during the summer to learn the techniques, and train my body and mind.

[north-north-west]

I was aiming at a canoe/kayak, but you've started me wondering whether the Alpacka might not be a more versatile option.

Decisions, decisions . . .

[tsangpo]

Seems like you have already decided but inflatable canoes like this one http://www.incept.co.nz/k37d.htm are amazing. Very manouverable with one or two people, can carry quite a lot of gear, they are self-bailing (don't need a spray deck in white water) and extremely durable.

[Son of a Beach]

I reckon that would be much better for rafting overall, but at 22kg, the portages would be really troublesome, and I certainly couldn't take it on bushwalking trips with me afterwards.

[tsangpo]

Taking it on hiking trips would definitely be a problem however portage with one person on the back and one on the front is fine (also most rapids you should be able to rope a raft down). Plus I think you would be able to shoot a lot more rapids with this that a packraft.

I haven't rafted the Franklin but I've done a fair bit of rafting in Victoria and just looking at some photos plus the reputation of the Franklin and I think you may have a fairly miserable time in a packraft.
Edit: You'll probably want a cag to keep warm if you go with a packraft

[DonQx]

looking at some photos plus the reputation of the Franklin and I think you may have a fairly miserable time in a packraft.
Edit: You'll probably want a cag to keep warm if you go with a packraft

During my time working on the Franklin I've done a number of trips in duckies and seen many rafters using them (the old equivalent of packrafts).

No "miserable times" as far as I can recall.

Depends on your background & skill level methinks. If you've got a whitewater kayaking background or anything similar you may enjoy the challenge of a kayak.

###EDIT ignore the next bit, got confused between cag & skirt, cags are good### Wouldn't even remotely think about a cag in a raft. Serious risk of entrapment & drowning in my books.