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Cutthroat
Chris Burnet -Super Cutthroat 2 wide model on The MF of the Salmon.
Chris was our rescue person on this trip. we launched at 2.05 ft with A 10, 13, 15, 14, and 16 ft conventional rafts. He was seldom stuck If ever and did not need assistance to get un stuck. He carried a lot of rope, caribeeners, and even 3 large rocket boxes and a food box. Quite a rig.
Cutthroat Inflated and Rigged Next to the Cutthroat Package
This is a view of the Cutthroat 1 person system without oars to clutter it up. The boat is 12 ft long, 46 inches wide, can carry lots of gear or another person with ease. It comes standard with a frame, straps, a mesh seat, backrest pillow, and floor mesh. Next to the assembled Cutthroat is the cutthroat package. This picture does not show how we ship them to you. The frame comes apart so that the two frame ends nest together. the whole boat fits into a box 31 X 21 X 12 inches and another bundle of oar shafts and extension tubes 5 ft long and about 8 inches in diameter, including the pump and the oar blades. Total weight with out oars and oar locks is 55lbs including frame.
Please make note of the unique mesh seat and floor concept. There are 3 different oar stand placments, so the seat can be located in any of 4 different spots. The floor pannels can be placed anywhere along the bottom rails of the frame. This system makes it easy to rig gear on this boat.
Cutthroats are narrow enough to slip down the smallest streams with ease. They are big enough to carry all the gear you will need for a week long trip, and still live in luxury. They can be rowed, paddled like a canoe, or paddled like a kayak.
Cutthroat 2 Person Model
This is a product photo of the 2 person cutthroat. The Cutthroat 2 is 14 ft long (25 inches longer than the cutthroat 1). It has 4 outside D rings and 4 inside d rings (4 more per set that the Cutthroat 1). It has two mesh seats with backrest pillows (pillows not shown in the picture), and 3 mesh floor sections. There are 3 oar stand locations. This gives a variety of rowing/passenger/gear configurations that can be used. In this photo the boat is carrying coolers kitchen gear and personal gear for a fishing expedition.
Cutthroat in Madagascar
This is a picture of Felicien, the very first malagasy raft captain of his country's history negotiating the first rapids of the Onibe river on the eastern side. He is in one of our Cutthroat cats. The picture was taken by Gilles Gautier who produces a monthly TV show completely focused on Outdoors sports in Madagascar. The show is in French, but may be in English soon because there is much interest from other countries like South Africa.
The versatility of the Cutthroat is evident in this photo from our Good Customer Gilles from Madagascar. We were able to ship the boat to him for a geology expedition that he outfitted on some of the remote rivers in that country. There are virtually no roads in Madagascar, so almost every river trip for Gilles has been a first descent. If you are interested in going to this remote and beautiful corner of the world, visit Madamax.com or email Gilles at madamax@madamax.com.
Cutthroat Surfing
This is a very fun little boat. It has lots of potential for recreation in a variety of water. It was first conceived of as a fishing boat. We wanted to be able to access rivers that were not accessible before. We feel that this is especially important if you want to find a quality fishing experience. Pack Cats and Fat Pack Cats do this well. However the meet fishing crowd said they need to have oars. So a frame was designed to include fold down, removable oar locks. In this way, the oars can be left at home when going out to those very tiny streams where the oars will simply not fit between the banks of the river. What we did not realize was how much fun we were going to have surfing this boat.
Fishing on Cutthroat 2 on the Potomac River
Richard Larkin sent me a number of photos. I like this one the best because it is definitely not a western river scene. Richard told me that he likes the cutthroat because it is fast, it can move across a wide river in no time. It is also narrow enough to maneuver down through tight channels and spots where other boats can not go because they are too wide. There are fish in these places too. There are places with steps around dam sites where only canoes could go, but the whitewater keeps a lot of the novice canoeists away. The Cutthroat is narrow enough to get down the steps, and stable enough to easily do the whitewater. These pictures have changed my mind, Cutthroats are not just for small rivers.
Cutthroat With a Big Gear Load at Hells Half Mile, Ledore Canyon of the Green
The Cutthroat is a great boat for self support. There is a lot of gear on this boat as it passes by the giant hole in Hells Half Mile on the Green River in Ledore Canyon. This boat has a medium outfitter bag, a 47 qt Gott cooler, a tent stow bag, a mesh sack with drinks, a wonder pump, and a super paco pad in the back. In the front there is a repair kit, a 6 gallon water jug, and a lawn chair.
Cutthroat Assembly Instructions
Use this drawing and the following html document as an instruction sheet for assembling the cutthroat frame. This drawing is in color for clarity. Print the drawing in landscape to get the whole thing. The instructions are found at here.
Cutthroat with Trolling Motor Transome on the Front of the Boat
This add on Trolling Motor Transom is Clamped on with hose clamps. It can go on the front or the back of the Boat. It is a great addition for fishing in tiny lakes where outboard motors are banned for water quality reasons.
Wider Cutthroat
Here is a picture of a set of cutthroat cataraft tubes on a wider frame. This Frame was built by the same frame manufacturer who builds our cutthroat frames, Mike Kester,who is the husband of our office manager Laurette. Yes we do sell the tubes separately. This is especially important if you want to make your own frame.
We have found over the last couple of years that working with Mike has been very rewarding for us and our customers. He has built some incredible items. He continues to be a creative force behind the development of cataraft frame styles. He is easy to get in touch with, and we work together through design and fabrication to make your rafting life style sweet.
NOTE: Cutthroat frames have been made wider by cutting through the cross members, and sleeving this area with a larger OD tubing. The tubing required to do this is top fence rail tubing, and it is available at fencing stores. It is 1 3/8 od with a .065 wall thickness.
If you do this, we can make seats and floors that will fit the expanded model. We also have extra "spreader bars" or cross members available. If you are using Carslisle oars, all you may need to get proper oar geometry are 1 ft oar extenders.
Super Cutthroat cataraft in Alaska
This is a picture of the Super Cutthroat 2 that has had some features added. The standard Super Cutthroat 2 cataraft normally comes with single chambered tubes. This one was built custom for an Alaska Cataraft customer. The tubes have baffles and double bottoms. This boat is set up for camping and fishing. Arron added some decks on the front and rear to make it easier to stand and fish as well as haul gear. If you are interested in options that can be added to our tubes visit our custom tube style page. What makes this Alaska Cataraft System versatile is the fact that the lightweight frame can break down to transport in an aircraft and it is narrow enough to car top.
Cutthroat Tubes on Fat Cat Frame
A couple of years ago, we sold a cutthroat to some fellows in Alaska to do some river studies. They wanted to decrease their weight, and back pack and helicopter these boats into more remote areas. Then they decided to purchase two Fat Cat frame sets. This worked well for them, and now they vacation in the winter with the boat in various tropical climates because of the ease of transportation via airline. This picture shows them in Honduras messing around with some of the local kids.
The Biggest Gear Load Yet on the Lowest Water Yet
Near the end of July 2001, Otis Kunz invited us to run the San Juan River, from Bluff to Clay Hills Crossing with their family and friends. When we started there was 450 cfs, and by the end of day 2 we were down to 350. This picture was taken on day 2, when most of the ice and water were still on the boat. This boat has 13-ft long 19-inch diameter tubes, with a long cutthroat frame. (The extension tubes were 7 ft long, the same length as a 2 man model) IN the back of the boat is a 120-qt Igloo cooler full of ice. There are 12 gallons of water, 2 Paco Pads, a porta poty, 4 folding camp chairs, a large food box, an ice cream maker (that we hid in a blue river bag) and my personal clothes, and my son Joey. Otis had the largest boat. He took a daddy cat. And he only had to walk it through one rapid.
Supersizing a Cutthroat is an option that you may want to consider if the boat is to be used as a support craft. However we feel that the 19 inch tubes would take reduce its effectiveness on smaller streams and tributaries, and eliminate the ability to use a kayak paddle.
Cutthroat 2 Prefered Assembly Drawing
This is a drawing of the cutthroat 2 frame assembled. It is the one that I prefer because I like to use the cutthroat 2 as a gear boat. I believe that it will also work well no matter if the passenger seat is in the front, or in the back. If I were to paddle the boat with canoe paddles I would move both spreader bars to the middle, and one seat would be just behind the front floor, and the rear floor would be moved up a couple of inches so that the rear paddler does not have to hang his ankles over the back cross bar. The rear seat would be a couple of inches forward of the rear floor. This way both paddlers can kneel on the mesh floors.
Preliminary Adjustment of the Bottom Spreader Bar
This picture shows how to use two straps to keep the bottom spreader bar from moving away from you when you really need to press hard against it with your feet to lock yourself into the oar seat. The red strap wraps around the spreader bar, and the inside tie down straps. In this way you may be able to locate the permanent position of the spreader bar before drilling and bolting it in place. We find that it takes a couple of days on the river to really get a good idea of exactly where this bottom cross bar should be, and this system will allow for fine adjustment. Remember that for the most comfort, the balls of the feet should be on the bar, and the heals of the feet should be below the bar. In this way an oarsperson can stretch their legs out straight and still be wedged into the oar seat.
Three on a Cutthroat Madagascar Style
This picture shows 3 people running a cutthroat down a river in Madagascar. Just another adaptation of the cutthroat.
Aaron Woods Super Cutthroat 2 Nenana River, Denali National Park
Story By Aaron Woods of Faibanks Alaska
Last season my boat provided countless hours of fun and excitement. A friend and I spent 10 days floating down the Charlie river (Yukon, Charlie, NP) in late may just after iceout. The narrow cutthroat was real asset, we were dropped off in the headwaters and the river (actually just a creek at this point), varied from just wider then the boat to 10 feet across with lots of rocks, at several times I was using the oars on the banks as the river was so narrow. A larger boat would have required incredible amounts of dragging and portaging. I also had the good fortune to be befriended by the staff at Nenana Raft Adventures (located by Denali NP). Not only did the let me shadow their commerical trips down the class IV, they provided rescue support after a couple of flips and shuttle back to the put in. All the guides liked the cutthroat too, I was even able to return the favor by rescuing one of them after they unsuccesfully rolled and popped out of their kayak. I've attached a picture of my Cat going through a nastey waved called 2 rocks. We stalled out for a second, but managed to push through the wave. If you look closely, you can see my hand pushing on the oar behind my friend.
A Cutthroat Information Table
A picture says a thousand words, and computer models do better than that. We have been struggling with a idea of how to get better information about our cutthroat models to our customers. We think that this site is a a pretty good start. In the table customers can see all of the different oar stand combinations, our most popular tube sizes, tube dimensions, frame dimensions, over all dimensions, and recommended oar sizes. There is a link to our Edrawings site so you can ask us to send you a file after you download this really cool program. So have a look at the table. Let us know what you think.
Our Boat Specification Table has pictures and drawings with dimensioned part locations. Cataraft Draft Vs Load will tell you how much weight you can expect to put on a set of tubes and how deep in the water it will sink. Customized tube styles and prices can be seen by following this link. If you do not see what you want or can use in the standard product list, this link will give you a place to find the cost of extra length, extra baffles, double bottoms, and top chafe as well as D-rings, and handles.
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