Boat Insider
EYE OF THE TIGER. PHOTO: KAYDI PYETTE
AIRE SABERTOOTH
THE SABERTOOTH 12 is AIRE’s new inflatable and frameless go-anywhere river animal. We’d never have guessed that a raft 12.5 feet long and five and a half feet wide, with 20.5- inch diameter tubes, could ar- rive via a FedEx box not much bigger than a tailgate cooler. Rolling it out by the river, we
went to work blowing up the four chambers—two on each side. AIRE’s two-layer AIREcell system boosts durability by protecting the inner air cham- bers with an outer orange or white PVC fabric. The Sabertooth floor comes
pre-laced and is raised above the waterline. It drains instant- ly, doesn’t stretch and won’t catch in the water to slow you down. At one end of the floor there are foot cups, serving as a firm anchor point. The Sabertooth can be or-
dered with or without a remov- able thwart
that’s positioned
using a simple pin and clip sys- tem—no lacing or finicky cam straps. For $235 extra it offers
50 | RAPID
more options for seating, pad- dling and packing. Everyone in the Rapid office
has different rivers in mind for the Sabertooth. Our publisher, Scott MacGregor, has had it pegged as the perfect mid- summer float tripper. Others are talking creeky big water runs like the Upper Petawawa (“Finding Flow,” Rapid, Sum- mer 2002). “We designed it for the peo-
ple really wanting to get after it in whitewater,” says Sheena Coles, marketing manager at AIRE. “It’ll go big. Class IV and V for the experienced paddlers. It’s meant for big water but it’s also great for families.” The Sabertooth has a 7.75-
foot waterline that responds to every stroke. As soon as we launched from shore, we no- ticed this raft’s speed and agility. The tubes have continuous
curve, meaning their round bot- toms have little surface area, which increases the hull speed by minimizing drag. Compared to a traditional raft, the Saber-
tooth feels like it moves over the water, instead of pushing through it, which also means less scraping on shallow river bottoms and slides. Sitting side by side, we each
jammed a river shoe into the foot cups. This allowed me to push myself back towards the center thwart into a solid pad- dling position, far enough out on the tube to take aggressive strokes but wedged-in enough to feel stable and confident. After a few minutes of forward
paddling above our first set, we balanced our strokes and found our rhythm. The Sabertooth made short work of our early spring runs, pouncing over holes and leaping from eddy to eddy. We were on the river dur-
ing a guiding company’s staff training. When we were inflat- ing the Sabertooth, a few older guides wandered over; they said it looked sort of like an old Shredder. Some of the young- er guides were snickering, but only until they gave it a go. The Sabertooth is serious fun.
At just 80 pounds, the Saber-
tooth is an easy carry. Between the tubes at the bow and stern, two D-ring handles are per- fectly spaced and comfortably shaped to grab and go for run after run, or for the long walk out of the Gauley. We don’t do a lot of rafting
here at the Rapid office and we don’t get to keep every boat we review, but we’re not going to let the FedEx driver anywhere near this one. EMMA DRUDGE
DIGITAL EXTRA: Click here
to check out the AIRE Saber- tooth.
AIRE Sabertooth 12 LENGTH: 12.5’ WIDTH: 5.5’ TUBE DIAMETER: 20.5” BOW/STERN RISE: 29” WATERLINE: 7’9” AIR CHAMBERS: 4 WEIGHT: 80 LBS MSRP: $2,699 (no thwart) / $2,934 (one thwart)
www.aire.com
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