AIRE Sabertooth Raft Review

The Sabertooth 12 is AIRE’s new inflatable frameless go-anywhere river animal. We’d never have guessed that a raft 12.5 feet long and five and a half feet wide, with 20.5-inch diameter tubes could arrive in a FedEx box not much bigger than a tailgate cooler.

Rolled out by the river we went to work blowing the four chambers—two on each side. The welded-in cross tubes fill with the side compartments as we watch the Sabertooth take shape. AIRE’s two-layer AIREcell system boosts durability by protecting the inner air chambers with an outer orange or white PVC fabric.

The Sabertooth floor comes pre-laced and is raised above the waterline. It drains instantly, doesn’t stretch and won’t catch in the water to slow you down. At one end of the floor there are foot cups serving as a firm anchor point.

The Sabertooth can be ordered with or without a removable thwart that’s positioned using a simple pin and clip system—no lacing or finicky cam straps. For $250 extra it offers more options for seating, paddling and packing.

Everyone in the Rapid office has has different rivers in mind for the Sabertooth. Our publisher, Scott MacGregor, has had it pegged as the perfect mid-summer float tripper. Others are talking creeky big water runs like the Upper Petawawa (“Finding Flow,” Rapid, Summer 2002).

“We designed it for the people really wanting to get after it in whitewater,” says Sheena Coles, marketing manager at AIRE. “It’ll go big. Class IV and V for the experienced paddlers. It’s meant for big water but it’s also great for families.”

The Sabertooth has a 7.75- foot waterline that responds to every stroke. As soon as we launched from shore, we noticed this raft’s speed and agility.

The tubes have continuous curve, meaning their round bottoms have little surface area, which increases the hull speed by minimizing drag. Compared to a traditional raft, the Sabertooth feels like it moves over the water, instead of pushing through it, which also means less scraping on shallow river bottoms and slides.

Sitting side by side, we each jammed a river shoe into the foot cups. This allowed me to push myself back towards the center thwart into a solid paddling position, far enough out on the tube to take aggressive strokes but wedged-in enough to feel stable and confident.

After a few minutes of forward paddling above our first set, we balanced our strokes and found our rhythm. The Sabertooth made short work of our early spring runs, pouncing over holes and leaping from eddy to eddy.

We were on the river during a guiding company’s staff training. When we were inflating the Sabertooth, a few older guides wandered over; they said it looked sort of like an old Shredder. Some of the younger guides were snickering, but only until they gave it a go. The Sabertooth is serious fun.

At just 80 pounds, the Sabertooth is an easy carry. Between the tubes at the bow and stern, two D-ring handles are perfectly spaced and comfortably shaped to grab and go for run after run, or for the long walk out of the Gauley.

We don’t do a lot of rafting here at the Rapid office and we don’t get to keep every boat we review, but we’re not going to let the FedEx driver anywhere near this one. EMMA DRUDGE

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2014 issue of Rapid Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.