Here are a few IKs I've owned, tried, would like to own or try or that interest me. They broadly fall into the category of serious and durable boats costing suiting my preferred type of paddling: simple, solid touring/easy WW boats at least 12 feet and around 40lbs. Read about modifications and experiments here.

NRS MaverIK II and Bandit II
A was the first IK I tried a day after discovering IKs (click the red ones below for an enlargement). The tech details I'm a bit rusty on but I had a fantastic time, attacking my first ever rapids, amazingly staying with it. I rode it forwards, backwards, jumped out and hopped back in. I recall it didn't track too well in the pools between the rapids but no one minded; it was a hot day. The symmetrical upturned ends (18" of rocker we are told) may contribute to this but help it ride over the pile. When it was all over I nearly bought it on the spot.

Since then I've never come across any owner reviews of a MaverIK, which makes me think they're almost exclusively worked hard as rentals by outfitters. The user-friendly width plus tough, simple build and 45lb of weight attests to this. You even get chunky Leafield raft valves on the thwarts (backrests).

I don't recall sitting in water (apart from when it came over my head) so I suspect the self-bailing floor is indeed thick enough for my weight. And in a Mav you sit right on the floor, not in a seat. As you can see in Mods - self bailing can always be sealed off with duct tape should you categorically not want it (for possibly faster flat water touring without the drag of the drain holes?). There's no skeg kit for a Mav but I imagine you could glue on a Gumotex jobby. Those thwarts waste a lot of space of course but could be whipped out and replaced with a proper seat. The three boat profiles (above left) are a later NRS Bandit which has the same shape but is made of much lighter and less tough material (and is nearly half the price). Seats instead of thwarts but you can see the wide, flat hull (presumably the same on a MaverIK) won't win any speed records and will track like a pallet.

At 12' 5" on 36" (34" on a Bandit 2) I wonder if a Mav II is the long sought after 'self-bailing Sunny'? Shame about the 'raft' hull profile then, and that it costs $1400 as is only sold in the US.

Gumotex Safari (pre-2007 model)
For me, light and tough though it was, the Safari was a mistake. I pretty much knew that when I bought it but it was so cheap it was worth the punt. At my weight I pretty much maxed-out the boat’s payload, and at 6.1” looked like I was sat in a small bath. I also found it impossible to track straight (but had no experience then; see below). It was nice and fast (see the video above left) but way too tippy to inspire confidence in a beginner (see early days above) and too small to pack a useful load for a few day’s touring.

Anyone with a bit of experience could have realised this before they bought it, but for the price I just wanted to check out a proper IK close up before moving on. I got a Sunny and the Safari was passed on to my girlfriend who’s a foot shorter and half my weight.

Lucy used the Safari in Croatia and found she needed about 10kg of rock in either end made the boat much more stable and, as it happened, faster. Therefore the optimum weight for a Safari would be around 70kg. Now you know. We sold the Safari and got a Solar 1 (old model - see below).

Gumotex Junior (n/a)
At only 10kg I thought this would be ideal for Lightweight Lucy and even for me in a packrafting soft of way. However our conclusion was it was merely a boat-shaped paddling pool made out of unusually tough material. I of course had about 35mm of freeboard but it was a hopeless tracker and all in all felt a bit of a half baked design - Gumotex do make some turkeys but they don't make this one anymore.
Although the boatpeople rate it and plan to reintroduce it, I would agree with maryinoxford’s conclusions here. If you want to go that light get an Alpaca.

Gumotex Solar 300 (pre 2007model)
I sold the Safari and got a Solar 1, mainly for the g-friend. No self-bailing but a bit wider, a lot more stable and all in all a great little boat. Coming out of the longer Sunny it feels much more nippy without being tippy; a sort of water scooter compared to the Sunny’s big bike feel.

A trip down the Tarn Gorge (left and right) proved it’s no worse in white water than the Sunny but of course lacks the packing space for longer trips. With no WW experience at all Lucy soon got the hang of it after a couple of early swims and even developed the feel for skeg-free paddling in the admittedly swift current. It can be done.

Gumotex Sunny (2007 model)
I haven't seen one or tried one out but, apart from longevity, the new Sunny may be an overall improvement. If nothing else the seats can be leant back on properly and have lost the awkward lumbar bulge of the earlier models. There are also nifty handles at each end and the footrest pillow appears adjustable and probably replaceable. Nice colour in teal too. (click red boat right to enlarge substantially).

They've made it a couple of kg lighter (now 15kg) by not coating the inner (grey) surfaces with rubber so we are informedthe bare fabric takes longer to dry, but with no nooks that will be pretty fast and anyway, Sunnys and the like dry fast compared to skin 'n' bladder IKs like Aires (below) and the FC Java. You'll notice along the top of the sides where the coloured and grey bits meet there's an edge or flap at the join which is a bit cheap. On the old model that was glued down but still had a sharp edge; on this one passing strokes may also 'paper cut' your fingers unless you cover the edge with duct tape.

Feedback:
BTW you mention the new style Solar and say you think it's probably an improvement. Well, design-wise it may be, but be aware that many of the new generation Gumotexes use their new 'lite-pack' material (the grey, non-shiny stuff) for much of their build. Frankly, it's nowhere near as good as the old nitrilon material (still used for the Safari and the larger/more serious boats). They're obviously looking to cut costs, but it's a real shame - the lite pack material is less strong, less rigid, less resilient etc etc. I'd never buy one...
Dom P (old Safari owner)

Gumotex Solar (new models)
Again I proclaim myself qualified to offer opinions merely from the pictures left and right. These new Solars have fixed but space-consuming seats with good support, nice side handles, easier draining but dodgy-looking fixed footrests while the inner is uncoated and so lighter but slower drying and less tough than the old models.
IMHO the new Sunny (above) is the better twin for solo touring with a load and I suspect the old Solar which I also own is a bit more adaptable than the new Solar 1 (they never made a solo Sunny). But for two-up rec paddling a Solar will do nicely.

Aire Super Lynx
For a long time I was eyeing up the Aire Super Lynx as my next boat, mostly because theboatpeople rated it. A heavy-payload self-bailer, it looks just the job but weighs 45lbs. What few reviews I've read rated it but complained about drying times. Aire lately brought out a skeg kit for the SL but the design and fitting looks looks rather fussy.

I probably would have got a Super Lynx eventually until folding chum alerted me to the similarly bladdered Feathercraft Java which had managed to slip below my inflatable radar all these years.

Gumotex K2
The K2 is one Gumotex boat I’m curious about but have never read about about it anywhere. It could be considered a fat-tubed, self-bailing Sunny, the same length at 3.9m and costing at least £550. Maybe that’s the problem; along with the fact that at one metre wide it’s really a twin thigh-braced whitewater kayaraft with only the Sunny's 200kg payload. It would be fun though to throw a K2 into some gnarly rapids or surf knowing that it floated like a cork, sat as flat as a beer mat and drained fast. But if it's like the Padillac I recently tried (below) it may well need two paddlers to get up any speed.

Hyside Padillac
While in Colorado recently collecting my FC Java I did the 7-mile 'Durango Town Run' down the Animas River in a Hyside Padillac (left and below) - a boat I'd heard of but never considered owning.

A week of storms had the river running red with mud at 2000cfs, three times more than normal for August I was told. Great for rafts but a bit marginal for beginners in IKs they thought. I walked the bits in town and saw locals going down in inner tubes and even floating along without pfds so it could not be that bad (though a guy drowned a fortnight earlier taking a midnight run while probably pissed).

The Padillac is basic: a thwart to lean against, feet jam in between the floor and side tubes and it's very short at just 9' 8" (2.5 m) which makes it nice and spinny for rock dodging or looking upriver. And at no less than 40 inches wide (like the Gum' K2, above) it's also as stable as a sofa; you could probably set up a step ladder and paint the ceiling while floating in a Padillac. The high flows that day did not make tracking an issue but on a lake I imagine it would be hopeless. Big drain holes speed up self-bailing which turned out to be just as well.

The guide (in a raft full of people) warned me to attack the rapids (something I knew well from my first ever IK run in a MaverIK, above) but even that did not help me through the only Class III on the run: the three-wave 'Smelter' hiding out of town and which had slipped through my recce programme. Result? A lowside out of the Hyside (left); the fate of most renters hitting the Smelter that week. Apparently I wandered too far to the left. Click the mpeg4 right to see a raft hitting the middle and last rapids on the Smelter.

I have a phobia about tippy boats but my impression was of stability beyond the call of duty which nullified any effort put into acceleration; you spin the stick coming into a rapid but nothing really happens. I've read it's the slowest IK around.

Still, it's clear that the Padillac is made for the day tripping whitewater rental market: very tough, simple Hypalon construction and stable enough to stage a wedding. Great to rent if you've never run whitewater before but not to own, IMO.

Grabner Holiday II
Made in Austria and costing over £1100 in the UK, the Holiday II (and you thought 'Sunny' was a crap name!) is the boat in Grabner's wide range of IKs which I think matches Gumotex's ideal Sunny most closely. Bit out of my depth saying much more about an H2 but solo IK legend, Audrey Sutherland used one for many years in Alaska and former FC folder Marge N wrote this nice account of paddling around some Swiss lakes in a 10-year-old H2. May try that next year as a change from french rivers.

The stas are 16kg/35lbs on 13 feet at 30" (3.95 x .75m) with a 190kg payload. Very similar to a Sunny (a tad heavier, longer and narrower). Grabner have been around a while and I have a feeling they may well have been the European benchmark before the much less expensive Gumotexs came on the scene. Indeed they claim: "GRABNER inflatable boats are absolutely the world’s first". The sides seem very high, not so good in a side wind but limits side splash I imagine - and the ends are quite pointy which is always a good thing for a boat. I suspect the floor is dead flat and so the chines are hard - not so good on the edge? For your £1100 you have to pay a lot more for many 'accessories' that come as standard with a Gumboat but I'd would be interesting to try the only Euro alternative to a Gumo Sunny one day.

Why not a folder?

I've led such a sad, sheltered life that I never knew there was such a thing as a folding kayak when I discovered there was such a thing as an inflatable kayak. Since that time I've done a couple of trips with Steve in his ancient Klepper (below, frame) and a no less young Feathercraft K-Light (pictured right).

For me part of the IK appeal is getting in and out without difficultly. With a hardshell's cockpit it's still the same tricky procedure and clammy existence. Without hatches set up and packing time is longer and requires some dexterity (newer models may be easier). Furthermore the easy whitewatering I've done in France might be a bit harsh on a folding frame; short of an attack by blow darts, an IK is relatively immune. I had a quick spin in Steve's K'light and recall being about as impressed as he was with my Gumboat. We are each to his own, though I must give the FC another go next time we're out. Looking a whole lot less like a lilo, his folder sidesteps the inherent 'numpty' image factor that burdens IKs so heavily.

The extra time it takes to set up a folder (30 mins+ ?) can put you off going out for short paddles but is soon gained on the water; no doubt about it I can't keep up with Steve's folders, and with the wind in my face the other day up the Thames (left, and movie, right) he was effortlessly gliding away while I was attacking the water like someone digging up a road with a pickaxe - and still losing ground.

While I was talking myself into buying a Feathercraft's Java IK I also admired their Big Kahuna (below); a great looking boat even though (for a bloat) the Java is no dog itself. But then I came to my senses: spray skirts, falling out while getting in and falling in while getting out, complex yet critical assemblies long enough to draw a crowd. Maybe one day I'll surrender my footpump for an elasticated neoprene skirt, but not yet.