I built a packraft!

After pushing my starter packraft (the Klymit Litewater Dinghy) to its limits over the past few years, it was time for an upgrade. The Klymit is lightweight and great for leisurely river floats but it really struggles in whitewater. A raft capable of handling medium (class 2 or 3) rapids would unlock some fun new adventures.

The first thing I learned was that, holy cow, packrafts are expensive! Most of the popular brands and models cost close to $1000 or more, which was outside my budget.

Then I learned about DIY Packraft. It’s a packraft kit that you assemble yourself. The rafts get great reviews, with most people claiming comparable quality to top packrafts on the market at a fraction of the price. I love a good DIY project so I decided to give it a shot. I went with the “Skeena” model, which is basically your standard packraft. It cost me less than $300 including tax and shipping, plus maybe $50 in additional tools and supplies. An incredible bargain!

Building the packraft was a lot of work. Matt (the guy who runs DIY packraft) estimates the build time for the Skeena at 30-40 hours. I finished near the upper end of that range, maybe even a little higher. It’s definitely not a project you’ll finish in a weekend. I was pretty lazy decided to spread out the work so it took me a couple months start to finish. The build was mostly fun and occasionally frustrating, and it was extremely rewarding to inflate the raft at the end.

Given the substantial time commitment, a DIY packraft isn’t for everyone. But it isn’t not for everyone either. It doesn’t require any special special skills so anyone with a bit of patience and attention detail can do it. The instructional walkthroughs and videos are very good, and Matt is also active on the forums to help with any questions. Most of the work involves welding pieces of fabric together using a heat sealing iron, which is time consuming but not too difficult for the most part. It doesn’t even require much space—I built mine in the living room of my small Chicago apartment.

Here’s a time lapse of the build process from start to finish, including the first paddling test in a local pond:

It floats! I’m really happy with how it came out and I’m excited to use it on a few trips this summer. Stay tuned!