Today a packraft is a boat that weighs about the same as a bag of potatoes, rolls up to the size of a sleeping bag and turns a mountain walk into a river journey. It feels like a very modern invention. But the idea of a boat you can carry on your back goes back nearly two centuries, to the frozen edge of the map.
A cloak that became a boat
In the 1840s, a Royal Navy officer called Lieutenant Peter Halkett had a problem worth solving. Explorers searching for routes through the Canadian Arctic spent weeks on foot, and every river or lake they met was an obstacle. Carrying a wooden boat was out of the question.
Halkett's answer was the boat-cloak: a garment made from rubberised cloth, the new waterproof fabric of the day, that could be worn over the shoulders, then inflated to become a small boat. A walking stick doubled as a paddle, and an umbrella could even be used as a sail. He followed it with a larger, dedicated inflatable known as the Halkett boat, which folded into a knapsack.
It sounds eccentric, and plenty of people thought so at the time. But Halkett boats did travel north with Arctic expeditions, most famously with the Scottish explorer John Rae, who valued light, portable kit that let him move quickly through difficult country. The core idea was already there: a boat light enough to carry, tough enough to trust, and packable enough to disappear into your luggage.
The long quiet years
For the next century, inflatable boats developed mostly for military and safety use. Rubber life rafts and assault boats were heavy, bulky and built for survival rather than adventure. The dream of a boat you could hike with never went away, but the materials simply were not good enough. Early rubbers were heavy, cracked in the cold and perished in the sun.
Alaska rewrites the rules
The modern packraft was born in Alaska, where rivers are the natural highways through vast roadless wilderness. In the 1980s, backcountry adventurers and wilderness racers began carrying cheap inflatable dinghies to float stretches of river between long days on foot. It worked, but the boats were fragile, slow and prone to punctures.
Around the turn of the millennium, that changed. Alpacka Raft was founded in Alaska by Sheri Tingey, who began making lightweight, purpose-built rafts for her son Thor and his adventurous friends. By using modern coated nylon fabrics instead of rubber or vinyl, the boats became dramatically lighter and far more durable. Suddenly a raft weighing a few kilos could handle real rivers.
(Long-time readers may remember that we bumped into Thor on Loch an Eilein during the 2017 Scottish Packraft RoundUp. It is a small world.)
The fabric revolution
The real hero of the packraft story is fabric. Modern packrafts are made from woven nylon coated with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The nylon gives strength and tear resistance, while the TPU coating makes it airtight. Crucially, TPU can be heat welded, so panels can be fused together into seams that are stronger than stitching alone and do not rely on glue.
That combination made boats that were lighter, tougher and more reliable than anything Halkett could have imagined. It also made packraft construction possible outside a big factory, which helped a wave of new designers and brands appear through the 2010s. If you want to understand how that heat welding works, have a read of our guide: How Heat Sealable TPU Fabric Works, or browse our heat sealable TPU fabric.
Packrafting comes to the UK
Britain might not have Alaska's endless wilderness, but it turns out to be a brilliant place to packraft. Distances are short, rivers and lochs are everywhere, and a packraft lets you link them together in ways a canoe or kayak never could. Walk over a pass in the Highlands and float down the other side. Ride a bike to a river, roll the bike onto the bow and paddle home. Explore a canal, a coastline or your local river on a quiet Sunday morning.
When Iron Raft started, our aim was simple: make packrafting more affordable and accessible in the UK. We began with self-build kits (you can read about those early days here) and today we make the Paddle Ready range: ready-to-paddle packrafts built from 210D TPU coated nylon tubes and a tough 840D floor, starting at just 3.2kg.
The same idea, nearly 200 years on
Peter Halkett wanted a boat that let explorers keep moving when the land ran out. That is still exactly what a packraft does. The materials have changed beyond recognition, but the feeling of stepping off the trail, inflating your boat and pushing off onto the water is the same one those Arctic explorers were chasing.
Ready to write your own chapter? Find the right packraft for you, and remember to read our safety guidelines before you head out.
