Why Urethane?

Polyurethane material, more commonly called urethane has undergone many transitions in the making of the material.  Since 1986, we have been experimenting with this material because of the attributes of the material itself. It has proven to be durable and very abrasion resistant, but in the past was either too heavy and stiff to consider building boats with or proved to have difficulty in the actual construction of the boat.   Over time, the composition of the material has changed.  We are now able to hot weld and glue the materials together.  In 2011 we gave it a try and built a 12 foot self bailing raft with 21 oz. urethane. It has been on Class I-V whitewater and has shown to have adequate abrasion resistance and best of all….weighs only 62 lbs. with thwarts installed. Called the U-Reach.  We built this raft at the request of a customer who wanted to be able to pack the boat by himself when fishing. He was unable to do this with the rafts he currently owned.  This was the reason we moved on to develop the ThrillSeeker design of the boat.  We use the 21 oz. urethane, originally made for life rafts, and the finished ThrillSeeker with thigh straps installed weighs 19.6 lbs.  The original PVC ThrillSeeker weighs ~35 lbs, so this is a huge advantage in the weight of the boat.

The reason we have wanted to build this lightweight ThrillSeeker inflatable kayak, which we call the U-ThrillSeeker, is to gear it to many different types of paddlers. Being close to the average retirement age, I personally wanted a boat that would be easy to carry, pack and travel with.  I did not want to sacrifice the performance of the ThrillSeeker but was willing to give up some of the proven durability and life of the boat in exchange for the lighter weight.   The original ThrillSeeker, “Goofy” is going to be 25 years old this fall, so we know our boats last! In addition to meeting the needs of the older generation paddler such as myself, the new U-ThrillSeeker is a great boat to be able to pack and hike into beautiful remote locations for put ins that are not easily accessed.  And it is a great boat to pack or ship for anyone who travels extensively that does not want to deal with a heavy boat.