Disadvantages- high maintenance, heavy. Owning a wooden drift boat is like owning a log home, you really have to want one. There is a great influx of rafts on the market today. The traditional is the 12 through 16-foot models, built for rowing frames. These pontoon boats have the advantage of safe travel through moderate waters of the larger boats and the versatility fishing lakes like that of the float tube.
Rafts have a unique function unduplicated by the ridged hard bottom boats.
Their flexible floor allows them to contour with roll of the river, literally creating suction, holding the boat to the river. Whereas the hard-bottoms only row well when cargo and passengers are stable and well balanced, rafts are much more user friendly for bouncing off rocks and going into drops sideways. Much greater margin of error. These are really nice if you run water above a class two. The disadvantage is you loose floor cargo space, which is at a premium anyway.