Boats & Such

Dexter's river program has been blessed with funds to acquire quite an impressive fleet of river boats.  He even has several of the original Riken inflatables purchased by the Forest Service way back in the mid-1980's!  He has a great SOTAR self bailing raft with a superb frame, some canoes and four of the "Fabreezi" boats.

That's what we paddled on this trip--the Fabreezis.  What are they and what's their history? Randy Fabreeze was my friend and room-mate back in the 1988 when I took Dex & Jodi on their first river trip.  Randy was in the process of perfecting his "little dory" at the time and soon turned his attention to the design of a specialized inflatable kayak.  For many years, this custom inflatable was simply known as a "Honker."  It was huge compared to all other inflatables available back then.  Frankly, it continues to be huge compared to all other inflatables available now, too.  It's a gigantic boat, wide-of-beam, huge of tube and a real baggage barge.  Randy designed the boat for extended, multi-day trips on a typical low water desert river.  Over the years since then, the Honker service range has increased to a much wider range of river flow and conditions.
Back in the Old Days, I wouldn't have dared paddle a Honker down the Verde in the 2000+ cfs range we had for this trip.  However, Dexter assured me that the boat would be OK.  While it was OK, it weighed a Blue Ton and was very tough to maneuver.  A boat that big and that heavily loaded simply isn't going to respond like your typical lightweight inflatable kayak. I have no idea how much actual weight each boat carried but it was substantial.  Luckily, I was able to make almost all of my runs and moves.  I missed only a couple of critical moves and luckily escaped no worse for the wear.

Dex used a canoe paddle with his Honker while Jodi and I used breakdown kayak paddles.  Dex made his runs look easy while Jodi and I occasionally struggled to get the boat to behave and go where it was supposed to be.

I'm certain these boats would be a lot more stable and versatile at lower flows.  I'm glad I didn't flip or wrap on this trip.  I feel fortunate!

Randy passed on to the Great Put-In a few years ago.  His widow, Denise, has a special arrangement with the SOTAR company to make the Honkers by request.  They have been named the Fabreezi and they are built about as stout as money can buy.  Dex thinks they are selling for something like $2000.  They are only available by working directly with Denise.  Dex is blessed to be able to have four of these unusual craft in his inventory.  Randy's name and design will almost certainly live forever on the Verde River as long as these boats ply its waters.