The Gear Shed - SOTAR Rogue Review

In the last year SOTAR has been working hard to develop a new concept of raft that builds upon a fusion of design specs. The specs were simple: build a raft that is maneuverable, stable, and most importantly lightweight with the ability to run a variety of whitewater from class V waterfalls to hike in expeditions. The results of this took SOTAR’s COO Jeremiah Lewman down the rabbit hole of boat design and he came out with a design that refines some already existing concepts of boating into a wholly unique design at the moment in rafting.
The SOTAR Rogue is certainly a purpose-built craft with hard whitewater, r2ing, big hikes to put in, and ease of transportation in mind. So far, I have logged a lot of miles of Class V on this boat from Cherry Creek and Golden Gate in California to The Upper Yough and Gauley Rivers back east and my overall impression has been largely positive about the boat. This boat certainly represents a new generation of boats that may be coming to the forefront and hopefully manufacturers take note on some of the perks of this design that I will discuss in more detail in the full review: www.raftingmag.com/rafting-ma...

[@CyBORG1208]

Can you compare it to the Cub and/or the MiniMax? Your reviews on those boats were excellent, would love to hear some comparisons. Also, how tight does this roll up? It is nice and light for travel but I am curious about the rolled volume as well (i.e. can you get it into something that satisfies the airlines' 62 linear inch maximum limit?)

[@barrettheywood7826]

Compared to say a Hyside 12-13 how flipable is the Rogue 12-13?

[@roundtheworld9914]

👍❤️

[@joshkelly3743]

Greenwood take out?

[@benfisher7855]

Could this type of raft work with a row frame?

[@thenewfire]

of course

[@martinorlik]

Have you run it diminishing end in front or back? I'm curious to know if you notice any differences running it one way vs the other.

[@RaftingMagazine]

Sorry for the late reply Martin, we've run the diminishing end both ways, but we see the best performance form the diminishing tube forward. It powers through waves more easily that way. Features with any amount of recirculation will stop the boat momentarily then cause the stern to pop out of the recirculation. The added buoyancy plus the ultrafast draining make the raft feel pretty punchy despite not having much weight to throw around.

[@martinorlik]

@@RaftingMagazine This boat desigh seems to have the paddle cat beat in a lot of ways. Thanks for the feedback.

[@russellepstein7978]

What length is yours? They come in 11-14. I am guessing 11' since you said it weighs about 50lbs. I would like to do R2 and some R3.

[@RaftingMagazine]

We have the 12 footer, but the one we were using was the prototype. We'll be dropping another review as soon as we get the full production model and can put that version to the test. So far though it is a fantastic boat to R2, it is pretty rough to r though since the mesh floor outside of the center compartment does not have any padding to protect your feet from rocks.

[@russellepstein7978]

@@RaftingMagazine I would think Sotar would figure out some way to handle R3 with some padding in the back. I can also see locking your feet in for R3 might be tricky. It might just be strictly a R2 boat.