Matt (Admin)

Wow, Matt you’ve advanced the field immensely. This is the best tandem packraft design available. Congratulations. I clearly have to buy one for next winters project!
Bruce
Fairbanks

Hi Ryan, it’s actually already posted on page two of the shop as a sort of soft launch because I haven’t written and recorded the instructions yet or had a chance to paddle it to be sure it performs as expected (everything is still frozen here). I’m pretty confident in the design and I’m working on the instructions, but I don’t have a firm timeline for when they’ll be done. Regarding the price, it’s significantly higher than the previous 2-person kit because it includes way more stuff (not just the bare bones boat pieces).

Hi Paddy, the best way to get a sense of the size would be to grab a tape measure and lay out the dimensions (given above) on your floor with tape or furniture and then sit within the lines. I’m sure the seat could be made into a pack – it would require some trial and error to make it comfortable for load carrying. I’ve never made a backpack, myself, so I’m not sure how difficult that would be. Cheers!

Matt,
Great job, I’m waiting on my sample pack & your testing of the new 2 person model. Is there a possibility of the wrap around floor on the new 2 person model, lots of rough creeks & rivers in central Texas?

I’m not sure what you’d really be getting out of the deal. I’m not a BL member, but it seems like there are plenty of avenues for people will find out about packrafts in general. People who would consider DIY as an option will find your website. The end product depends a lot on the person who is assembling it and a one-off review might be done by somebody who is more interested in quick rather than quality work and might not be impressed with their final product.

I will say that most reviews I read are near worthless. Every once and a while there will be gem that shows experience with the product with thoughtful insights.

Thanks, Steve – those are the same thoughts I’ve been mulling over plus some things I hadn’t really considered, so I appreciate your input. Cheers!

Thanks for the insight, Arnold, and the encouragement. I certainly do love working on DIY Packraft stuff. Like anything, there are aspects that aren’t so enjoyable… it would be nice to be able to hire someone to help out so I could accommodate more orders and put more effort into growing a “real business”, but there are zoning and insurance and workplace safety things to figure out before I’ll be able to take that leap. I wouldn’t want to get a big increase in publicity and orders and then be unable to fulfill them in a reasonable amount of time… They say a business that isn’t growing is dying, but I remember when one of the big packraft brands ran their Kickstarter campaign and got so many orders they took forever to fulfill them, and that just seemed to annoy everyone. Eventually they made it work though, so maybe that’s the right way to go.

Hi Zach, that’s a great idea. Thanks!

Hi Peter – thanks for your thoughtful comments; those are all good points. I haven’t sold so many kits that it’s likely there’s someone in your area who has one, but it is possible – feel free to send me an email, and please put a feeler out on the forum as well.

There actually is a guy in the UK who copied my website and has been selling packraft kits that use the older V2 assembly methods, which is why my newer instructions are password protected. I’d prefer to share everything and encourage people to document their builds in detail, but at the same time it’s annoying to have someone reword my ideas and market them as their own, so now there are certain things I’d rather not have widely publicized. It’s hard to maintain faith in humanity when I get emails from confused customers because someone has purchased a URL almost identical to https://www.diypackraft.com and redirected it to their site…

Thanks for the idea, Dan – I’ll give it some thought. And cool tents!