I've run some pretty haiiry water, back when I was running cats only for whitewatering. Every boat is susceptible to being pinned and stuck, just that an inflatable has the ability tobreak loose ad pop to srface once you're ejected/broke free (whereas an aluminum/glass/wood boat will be stuck on the bottom). I've personaly have been pinned and stuck too many times to remember. Between runing flaming geyser on the upper Green to parts of the Toutle and everything inbetween (and a few up north and south) I've been in some hairy situations.

The situation Sparkey is talking about is a meneuvering situation. You can be pinned for second on an inflatable in the bouulder garden on the Hoh, but a few pulls of one oar and you'l be ppulled by current (whereas I've seen a glass driftboat iin same place get sucked under and stuck because of non boouyancy). It's really dictated on the tube design and frame design how you'll faiir iin a situation like that. YES, an Outcast and any other boat can be flipped and tossed around depending on situation. Floating the Nooch on high water, came around a corner in my old Pac 9 (before they had the900) and my Dad was in his Outcast. He tok the slot to wide and got nailed up next to bank. Only thing keeping him from flipin over was thtahe was holding abranch for dear life. One tube was out of water next to bank and his othe tube was submerged by pressure of te high water ripping around the corner. I had ony one shot, came by him, slamed into his boat, an grabbed his anchor rope and foated aay from hiim. Went tooposite baank and pulled him free.... BARELY. I've hit class 4 hydraulics with my 16' cat on whitewater trips thtasucked my boatup to th oarlocks the ejected th boat literally airborne from th pressure. I ppersonally have never flipped my boat, but i kknow guys who have had their 16 AND 18 foot cats flipped runing clas 4's. Now clas 5's. I've only ran class 5's in a kayak, only clas 5 i've ever dne in my cat was on the Iiciicile, an t was a verticle drop of about 12' over aspilway. Almost toppled bot over, ut can be done with a bigger cat becauuse of teh length. It's really what predicament you're in dictates if you get out ok. I've had friends in kayaks thtahave spiled into clas 5's and neve came back up. THee i a cuople slots in te upper Nisqually tha have claaimed a few people I kknw.

Iis there a perfect all around boat?? Nope, they all have thir plusses and minuses. But th closest thing yo'll find is a whitewater grade cataraft. The biger and harrier the water, th biger cat you'l want. You hit big water on the big whitewater rivers, the more tube you have eating the run the more stability you'll have. Say it this way. The slot Ryan was talking aboout on the Hoh. In my 9' Steelheader ii was a kick in the pants. It ate it up fine, but had to keep active and as bonced a bit. Now, run i in my 16' Aire, and it loses it's flair. The upper Duc is alot more fun in my 16', gives more oof a chalenge. Hit water like upper stretches of mos rivers (Rogu, Gren, Nisqually, Icicle, Sky, etc) then you'll want a bigger boat. Most one man whitewateers wil run usually a minimum of a 14'. Some may g as low as 12'. Most guys I knew, and they're buddies in th NWRA, woul run 16+ lenght. Tha's on big wate mind you, say like th Colorado and th likes. Most waters here ii Washington/Oregon tha most of us fish won't need a huge vessel unless you want a multimaa boat to fih from. Ii run a 16' first because I laready had it and converted to fising from, an second it' perfect for running 3 wit ALOT of room to fish from. I'll be building a 12' pretty soon for my perfect 1-2 man fishing boat. Will have the ultimate frame built by theultimate frame builder Osprey.