Larry,

I want to thank you for designing such a good boat. I used my SOAR 12 for a 9-day canoe-camping trip on the Verde River in Arizona in late February. The Verde River is a pool-drop type of river with big boulders in the steep drops. At only 180 cfs the drops often required a lot of maneuvering. Despite the 6 gallons of drinking water in addition to camping gear, the SOAR12 turned easily which made most of the drops runnable.

Of course I wasn't able to miss all the rocks and the boat had to be dragged through a few drops. So I was relieved to find the SOAR no worse for the wear when I cleaned and inspected it. We did need to portage one waterfall about 5 feet high.

It was also an advantage to be able to store the SOAR inside my car where I didn't need to worry about it disappearing while I was backpacking after the river trip. Without the extra air drag of a boat on top of the car it got over 40 miles/gallon on the trip between Wisconsin and Arizona.

So thanks again for designing the SOAR's.

Sincerely,
Bob Donner
Briggsville, WI