Well this is definitely not a whitewater recommended boat for a few reasons.
1) it doesn't have thwarts to provide structural integrity to the boat. If you took out the bench you might be able to install and inflated thwart in it's place (the the cylindrical tubes that go between the outer donut).

2) the hull will have a "V" shape to it so it will be a little tricky to turn in whitewater. But if you stick to Class I-II you should be fine.

3) the hard surfaces. The transom and floor seem like they would be prone to beating you up pretty good if you were to get bounced around real hard, but that being said we strap steel frames to rafts all the time and deal with that. So maybe that's less of a concern.

3) I would stay out of class III in this raft for a variety of reasons:

    A) the boat isn't designed for it and likely would be a challenging craft to maneuver in class III rapids with out prior guiding experience. There are plenty of trained guides out there that took the majority of a training class (six weekends) to lean how to drive a proper whitewater raft in control.

    B) if your asking whether this is a proper boat for whitewater rafting it's safe to assume you have little to no whitewater training/experience. With that being said, class III brings a whole bunch of new elements beyond just pointing the boat downhill and paddling. This could include maneuvering of the boat, identifying hazards, identifying proper flow, or basic knowledge of river safety and much more.

Now I'm not trying to call you out and make you look a fool, I'm stoked that you took the time to do a little Scouting (that's a river terminology, feel free to add that to your lexicon) before just doing to typical gaper move and just put on with a case of beer, 2 paddles, 3 horsehoe PFD's, and four people. It show's that you require some of the basic preconditions to learning how to run rivers; self awareness and common sense.

I would say you and your buddies will probably be fine on some class I-II rivers, but in my opinion you would likely have more fun and get more knowledge if you took a guide training class in the spring. There are multiple options for this, they're typically run by the Commercial rafting companies around the state and can provide you with enough base knowledge to comfortably tackle class III whitewater. You and your buddies can sign up togeather and for six weekends in the spring your raft everyday, gain a ton of knowledge, see multiple rivers (if you pick the right company), and have a ton of fun.

Some thing to ruminate over during the remainder of the winter.

BUT, if you decide to Give'r here are a few things to remember:

1) stay away from log jams
2) Don't stand up in moving current
3) WEAR YOUR f**king PFD AND HELMET AT ALL TIMES OR I WILL FIND YOU!
4) if you can't see the bottom of the rapid get out of the river and take a look.
5) don't miss your take out.

Good luck and enjoy yourself, whitewater is the most fun you can have with your pants on.

Pine river Mississippi? Ah, well then that's a ways away from here, you probably won't want to take a guide class in Washington then.

There is also a website for the South East United States called boatertalk.com, but they are more likely to do their best to make you feel like an idiot for even asking this question, so maybe remain an observer on that site before you pose a question like this.

Read Jeff Bennett's The complete Whitewater Rafter, leave in in the bathroom and make it your private time reading material. It's a pretty quality introduction to all things rafting.

Good luck.

I've paddled the pine up there in Michigan , so id have to say you are fine with that boat for the trip. I wouldn't take it on anything bigger as people have stated before. Wear your PFDs, the Pine is swifter than you would expect.

Now I feel like an idiot...