By Rafael Francke
California
Background
Rafael owns a catamaran yacht that he and his wife Heidi designed. For the past six years Rafael and his family have used a Wavewalk 500 as a tender boat for it, as well as a versatile fun boat, which they sailed with a DIY outrigger.
Rafael was looking to replace his Wavewalk 500 with a bigger Wavewalk 700, but he decided to order an S4 as soon as he heard that we were planning to offer such a boat. Rafael and his family waited patiently for several months for the S4 project to materialize, and they were among the first to receive their order. This is Rafael’s “first impression” review of his Wavewalk S4-
Outboard motor: I had no problem at all.
Sailing by wind: I tested the W S4 in light wind, and it handles very nice. Sailing without a rudder, and without a dagger board, I can control the direction by moving my location in the W S4 front and aft.
Very easy seating on the saddle.
Paddle: Too bad I didn’t order an extra long paddle, because I found that my common 8 ft kayak paddle was too short.
The W S4 is more stable than I expected. It’s a real pleasure.
One of our friends likes the S4 and he’s thinking of getting one too.
Read how a few weeks later, Rafael’s S4 survived a car accident, and how he repaired it »
UPDATE (August)
After Rafael repaired his S4, he and his family started using it in various applications –
Says Rafael: –
“The S-4 is alive and well, in the picture, last week the S-4 is decorated for a dinghy party.
There is a lot of interest in it.
In two days the S-4 is going on a camping trip to Oregon to see the Eclipse. We hope to use it on Shasta lake.
When on the water the S-4 is a very stable boat, using the 3 hp Yamaha it moves very nice.
It is little heavy to lift on to our “big” boat, but it pays back when in use on the water.”
