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Alpacka Gnu – The inflatable 2 person packraft for fishing

5/7/2016

2 Comments

 
The Gnu is a great inflatable fishing and hunting packraft. It comes in 2 different camouflage patterns for sneaking up on animals or shy fish and the extra space is great for 2 people and extra gear. One of the biggest challenges encountered when packraft fishing or hunting is what to do with yourself and paddle when you hook a fish or shoot a duck. The 2 person Alpacka Gnu offers a great solution. Weighing less than a 1 person packraft, it allows you to have one person upfront fishing or hunting, and one person in the back paddling. Or it offers ample space for 1 person looking to use the packraft to haul out meat or gear.
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Using the cargo zipper, you can load gear in the air chambers of the boat. This clears space up-top to put extra gear you will want for fishing or hunting, like a net, cooler, tackle box, gun, and catch or harvest. 

The Gnu is is extremely versatile and offers multiple different set up combinations. 2 people can sit on the long kneeling pillow, which is best for rougher whitewater.

You can hook in an internal row frame with oar locks and a seat. The row frame is good for one person but takes up a lot of the internal space and is cramped for two people and gear. 

My favorite way to use the Gnu is one person sitting on the back of the boat and one person up front on a gravity grip turned sideways. Two people can use either canoe paddles or kayak paddles. Kristy and I prefer the two kayak paddles for a few reasons. One is that if one person hooks into a fish the other person can take full control of the boat with a two blade kayak paddles as opposed the canoe paddle. I have 140cm paddle and Kristy uses a 110cm.

We took the Gnu on a 3 day float, fishing, and camping trip. It performed great. It allowed us to access an area with tough boat access. The cargo fly let us store our tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, extra clothes, and extra food in the the inner air chambers of the packraft. Going through some class II and maybe one class III rapids, the boat felt very stable. Landing the fish was not a problem, with the back person steering with the feont person landed the fish.

I put the Gnu on my bicycle and tested the out the row frame. I also loaded the bike in as well. It is great to have so much extra space for gear like a bike. 

One of my issues with packrafting before using the Gnu, was bringing my girlfriend into the sport. We both had to have our own packraft. The 2 person Alpacka Gnu make our trips together a lot more fun. Yes, we still like to do certain trips with our own individual packrafts, but we really enjoy the Gnu. We can put our power together to go faster. In situations where she feels slightly overwhelmed, now we are together in the same boat. We dont have to worry about becoming separated. We can talk while we are paddling. On calm water she can turn around and we can share the center space to eat lunch or hang out.

2 Comments
Jack Donachy link
10/27/2016 11:30:28 am

Really enjoyed these videos. We're placing our order today!
Jack & Barbra Donachy

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Walter link
11/29/2020 06:07:52 pm

Thanks foor this blog post

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    Author : Jon Dykes

    Inventor of the packraft table

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