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Rig to Flip Every Day

You could flip in a riffle.  Every time you pull away from shore, even on a flat water day, you and your boat should be rigged to flip.

  • If your boat flipped, would everything stay rigged tight? 

  • Are the hatches, boxes, and coolers strapped down? 

  • Are there loose items (packs, straps, mesh fabrics, lawn chairs) that people could get tangled in? 

  • Do you have your life jacket on and buckled? 

Water Fluctuation

Water levels in Grand Canyon are anything but predictable, in spite of the bulletin board at Lees Ferry.  When selecting a landing point for the boats, look for calm, deep eddies. Strap the boats together side by side, and frame to frame, for security and stability. Ask yourself the following questions: 

  • What if the water rose? 

  • What if it fell? 

  • Are the rafts bumping into rocks or one another?  (A boat can wear a hole in itself overnight.) 

 

If all the bowlines are tied to only one point, or the majority of ties look sketchy, attach a longer “security” line (included with the Painless Private) to a couple of the rafts and tie to a secure anchor. Additionally, run diagonal lines to the stern of the two outside boats to keep them from swinging side to side.  It’s not a bad idea to have someone sleep on the boats, and someone sleep on the beach between the water and the kitchen.

Running Tight

Keeping a trip together in big continuous water is far more difficult than on a small river.  If your trip gets strung out over a mile, and the first boat flips, who will be there to help?  Between the rapids, keep up with the boat ahead of you, but also keep sight of the boat behind you.  If you loose the boat behind you, stop, signal the boats ahead to stop, and wait for that boat to show up.  To keep it tight in the rapids, bunch up in the pool above the rapid.  As the boats accelerate down the ramp into the faster water they will naturally stretch away from each other, and as the water slows at the end of the wave train, you will end up close together again.  If you get out ahead, catch an eddy, but be set up to pull out into the current as the pack catches up.  Many times a boat has been left behind because they were deep in a giant eddy when their trip went into a rapid.

Raft Care

Check out the Raft Rigging Primer for more information on PRO Rigs.  The following are tips to avoid time-consuming boat repairs:

  • Inflate each of the four chambers equally.  Fill the self-bailing floor until the pressure relief valve begins to release.  Many boatmen run their floor soft to improve tracking; release pressure as desired.  Please close valve and cover.

  • At hot mid day lunch/hike stops, let air out until you are certain the raft won’t pop.  (a few pumps when you get back from hiking is easier than a three hour patch job!)

  • Before adding air to a boat, blow water and sand away from the valve using the pump.

  • Please don’t write or draw on the boats, or even on a piece of tape on the boats.  If you want to name your boats, please put plastic tape on the front bar of the frame, and write there. 

  • No Duct Tape on PRO gear, please!

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