Which is safer, single tube design with baffles, or double tube design with tubes side by side?
I think that there is a safety advantage of the single tube design. Here is why. When we have something real nasty in the river in class 4 or 5, It could put a hole in both tubes on a double tube design. I even know of one instance where all four tubes were lost at the same time. The single tube design will only loose one half. Actually when properly inflated, the cone shaped baffle in out cat tubes, moves part way into the deflated section, and it is only like loosing a third of a tube, even though the rest of the tub is rather soggy, it can be safely rowed to shore. There is a story about two customers who were boating the Crystal River in Colorado. They both had Daddy Cats. The first one was surfing in a reversal on purpose and having fun. It must have been a good hole, because his buddy did not see him in there, and came down right on top of him. The motor mount on the back put a good size hole in the top of the first Cat. It deflated very fast, and he had to make it out to shore i
