AIRE Tributary 9.5 HD Self-Bailing Raft AIRE

The AIRE Tributary 9.5 HD Self-Bailing Raft is a rowdy little nugget of fun! These boats are great for technical river sections, high-volume creeks, or just upping the thrill of paddle rafting in general. This boat is intended for R2-R3, but it’s also a great R1 if you’ve got the skill.

This boat is pretty light and small enough to fit on the average sedan’s roof rack or in the back of a short-bed truck for shuttle. It’s a great boat for short sections that you are doing laps on without a trailer. It’s capable in class IV and some V sections in the hands of skilled paddlers, and it makes class III sections much more fun than larger boats do.

The 9.5 HD has full-diameter tubes throughout the boat, along with 7-piece ends creating a more efficient raft by allowing the bow and stern rise to be more gradual. Most boats this size have 3-piece ends by comparison.

Why Tributary?

Tributary boats are of similar quality to AIRE and are designed by AIRE, they just aren’t USA-built and do not have the same 10-year warranty as AIRE boats. They are built with near-identical materials and seam welding techniques. AIRE and AIRE Tributary boats are designed based on a component system with internal urethane chambers (“AIREcells”) that are separate from the rest of the boat, rather than chambers that are formed by the welded seams of the outer material of the raft. While this makes the boat a bit heavier, there are superior advantages to this system:

1. Field repairs are much easier and more effective since you can access the air chamber by unzipping the PVC outer skin.
2. You can patch holes in the outer skin from the inside, making a more effective watertight seal and a less noticeable patch.
3. Leaks are extremely uncommon since wear and tear on the outside of the boat doesn’t directly affect the raft’s ability to hold air.
4. In the event that you really cause some damage to the inner air chamber, you can pull it out and replace it; you’re not stuck with a patch that is responsible for holding air for the rest of the boat’s life.

Well taken care of, these boats last longer than any other PVC boat out there! They are a great investment for a private boater looking for a quality setup at non-Hypalon prices.