Stam,

I have no doubt that a good aluminum welder can build a life time frame for a raft or cataraft that would easily handle the most brutal whitewater/fishing applications. I'd be curious to see a picture of your boat and know how much it weighs but understand if your hesitant about posting. It can't be the one in your avatar because it looks like a raft and the frame looks multi-piece. I'd be curious to compare weights of a steel and aluminum frames. Dad built many Skagit flatbottom sleds; wood and aluminum but I don't recall hin building any steel boats.

Of course a man and most women could pick up my two-man steel-frame pontoon boat and carry/drag it but I (or similar strengthed dude) would have to be one of the men.