How do you properly lace in a raft floor?
A technical guide to SOTAR floor lacing
On our 2022 Europe Expedition we had to get our rafts over in pieces due to weight restrictions on our bags, so our Rafting Magazine Junior Team made the most of it and put together this instructional video on how to lace in your raft floor. SOTAR was kind enough to let the girls run some of their demo fleet in Europe so this video will focus specifically on how to lace in a SOTAR raft floor. We also want to understand why you may need to lace in or re-lace your raft floor. Some of the scenarios may be:
Your floor is damaged and needs to be repaired or replaced. If this is the case you may be able to save a lot of money on shipping and labor at the boat factory by simply sending in the floor alone for repairs. Alternatively if the floor was damaged or needs work and you are doing it yourself you may need to have the floor lay flat while you are making repairs.
You are travelling. If you are doing a foreign paddling expedition Air Carriers have restrictions on the weight in your baggage so it may be necessary for you to remove the floor and break the boat up into multiple checked bags to save money and get the raft on the plane.
The floor lacing is damaged, moldy, or has lost tension. Any of these scenarios cause serious safety concerns because the floor can open up and create an entrapment hazard by swallowing up feet, limbs, and small children in your boat. To avoid this you can periodically or specifically replace your floor lacing by removing the old webbing and dropping in a fresh batch of webbing. This is also a good time to inspect the floor, stitch plate and inside of the tubes for damage.
