Sweden
The pictures are from Nulltjärn in Vålådalen, Sweden.
It’s a very nice place.
You can fish for char and trout here.
Many famous sportsman train here. They run around the small lake.
Floyd Patterson USA has trained here. The famous boxer.
It’s 20 min from our home.
This is the story of my trip across Buzzards Bay, to the Elizabeth Islands, a chain of small islands between Martha’s Vineyard and the mainland.
Launching in that rock garden was a piece of cake.
To start the motor, I dropped the anchor about 100 yards from shore, turned around in the cockpit so I faced the motor, added fuel to the gas tank (I did it standing up, using a long spout), and I started the motor in full comfort, like I would on a big boat.
I turned around, which is easy to do in the W700, raised the anchor, grabbed the joystick, pushed in the choke, put the motor in forward gear, set the RPM, and headed to the islands.
I drove at a leisurely pace, giving myself time to enjoy the ride and shoot video.
I had two cameras on board – a Sony 400 with a telescopic x63 optical zoom lens, and a Sony Xperia watertight smartphone with a 4K Ultra-HD camera, mounted on a selfie stick. I used both cameras, and it turned out that the 400 performed well, while the Xperia didn’t produce good results, mainly because I failed to operate it properly 🙁
At about 6 miles from shore, Penikese island was closer, but I decided to go a little further, and land on Cuttyhunk island, which is 7 miles from where I launched. It just looked better the trough the telescopic lens of my camera…
I approached Cuttyhunk island, scouted for a good landing spot, and beached without a problem. I didn’t even have to step in water 🙂
As I was making my first steps on that beautiful beach, enjoying the pristine nature and solitude, my cellphone rang… It was my mother in-law, who was concerned about me 😀 That conversation added a comic touch to the situation…
I refilled the gas tank, and checked how much water got into the boat. I had a towel tucked in each rear hull tip, and both towels were almost dry, which is to say that hardly any spray got in. This is due to fact that I drove slowly and didn’t give the waves a chance to splash into the cockpit.
The first half of the trip back to the mainland was a not that pleasant – The wind had picked up, and the boat was getting hit by big waves from 7 o’clock, which made it harder to drive. Comfort wise, it was perfect.
The motor didn’t sound like it appreciated the continuous abrupt alternations between acceleration and deceleration, as each passing wave projected the boat forward and then dumped it behind…
It turned out that this 6 HP Tohatsu motor isn’t just quiet and easy to operate – it’s also reliable.
The second part of the trip back was easier.
As I approached the shore and recognized the area from which I had launched, I allowed myself to drive faster, and I even stood up, which felt great.
Spray getting into the boat was no longer a matter for any concern as this stage.
Beaching in the rock garden was a piece of cake, but I have to admit that this time, due to the shallowness of the water I wasn’t able to drive the boat high enough to step on dry land.
Dragging the boat up the beach and back to the car wasn’t easy at first… After a few steps I stopped, and I used a little manual pump that I had with me to get water out of the hulls. I also took the wet towels and squeezed the water out of them. That made it easier to pull it up to the parking lot.
Other than getting my face and knees sunburned, I felt no physical impact whatsoever. No muscle tension in my legs, and not even the slightest sign of back pain.
Sweden (and Norway)
The fishing season is going very well. I´ve been in Norway for 2 and a half weeks and visiting my younger sister. She lives in a town called Brönnöysund, on the coast.
I went out paddling and fishing in several fjords and caught a lot of Cod.
The W700 worked great and it was no problem catching the bigger cod. It is so easy to paddle the W700 and it moves so smoothly in the water.
The biggest cod weighed 7.5 kilo [16.5 lbs].
Definition: A Catamaran, a.k.a. ‘Cat’ is a twin hulled watercraft that features two slender, parallel hulls of equal size, and an upper structure that holds them together at a distance from each other. This structure makes the typical catamaran a geometry-stabilized craft, that derives its lateral stability from its wide beam and the distribution of its buoyancy along its sides.
The catamaran’s two hulls combined often have a smaller hydrodynamic resistance than monohulls of comparable size, and therefore require less propulsive power.
Catamarans range in size from small sailing boats and motorboats to large ships and ferries. The structure connecting a catamaran’s twin hulls can vary from a simple, lightweight frame to a bridging superstructure, namely deck from which the catamaran is operated, and can be used for carrying freight and passengers.
Both these Wavewalks are catamarans since they feature two distinctive hulls, but they are not catamarans in the traditional sense: The Wavewalk design is based on a proprietary (patented) invention – a new type of small watercraft. This patent is entitled “Twin Hull Personal Watercraft”, which is revealing of the fact that a Wavewalk is meant to serve one person, or a small number of persons, and closely interact with them. A Wavewalk is designed around the person and for that person, and it offers them the optimal means to balance themselves. Wavewalk and user are an integrated system that can achieve the most stability in a watercraft of similar size and even bigger ones.
Unlike a typical catamaran, a Wavewalk is narrow – It is slightly wider than its operator, similarly to typical monohull paddle craft such as kayaks and canoes.
The user of a Wavewalk operates the boat neither from one of its hulls nor from the top of a deck-like structure that bridges the hulls of a classic catamaran. Instead, the Wavewalk user operates it from within, with a leg in each of the boat’s two hulls. The user’s feet rest firmly on the bottom of the hulls, below waterline, namely as low as possible.
And this is the main difference between a Wavewalk and a typical, wide catamaran – The Wavewalk is a smaller and narrower watercraft whose design offers a hull for each of its user’s legs, combined with a longitudinal saddle seat, as means for them to balance themselves effortlessly, intuitively, and with the maximum effect.
In sum, the Wavewalk is different from a typical catamaran in that it is not a pure form-stabilized boat, but one that combines more than one feature and approach in order to maximize stability*
Another difference between the Wavewalk and a typical catamaran is the form of the structure that connects its twin hulls. This structure is called the Saddle, because it resembles the type of seat found in personal watercraft (PWC) a.k.a. ‘Jet-Ski’, snowmobiles, and all-terrain vehicles (ATV), all of which are high-performance personal vehicles.
Thanks to the fact that the S4 features two totally distinct catamaran hulls, the authorities, namely the US Coast Guard, officially classify the Wavewalk S4 as a Multihull Boat. The reason the S4 is classified as a boat and not a kayak is the fact that Wavewalk, its manufacturer, set the max recommended power for it to 6 HP, which is beyond the power range allowed for motorized kayaks its size.
However, the W700 is classified as a kayak because Wavewalk set the maximum recommended power for it to 3 HP, which is within the range allowed for kayaks its size.
The Wavewalk design is considerably more stable than kayaks are, including the wide fishing kayaks. It tracks better than kayaks, and paddles infinitely better in strong wind, which is why it does not require a rudder. The Wavewalk also offers much more storage space.
But most importantly, unlike monohull kayaks that force their users to paddle seated in the notoriously uncomfortable L posture, the Wavewalk is back pain free, since it offers it users to comfortably ride its ergonomic saddle, with a leg on each side of their body.
The unique combination of maximal stability and better ergonomics makes the Wavewalk such a perfect match for a motor.
Riding the saddle of a motorized Wavewalk® S4 at a speed of 17 mph is an exhilarating sensation that may remind the driver of a PWC, but the latter type of watercraft features much more powerful engines, and can go much faster than the S4. Additionally, PWC are designed for instant full recovery in case they capsize and their user survives… which is not the case with a motorized Wavewalk.
Even a small boat is still much wider than a kayak, or canoe, which is why it’s practically impossible to paddle a boat to any meaningful distance. This extra width gives a boat a significant stability advantage over kayaks and canoes, and typically, a normal size person can stand on one side of a boat without tipping over.
But a normal size person can do this in a Wavewalk® 700 too, and this unique fact places the Wavewalk® 700 in a class of its own – a kayak that offers the stability of a small boat.
Motorized, a Wavewalk® 700 offers the stability performance of a small boat, on top of its unique and unrivaled performance in terms of mobility, comfort, storage space, etc. As for the S4, it is considerably more stable and seaworthy than other boats of similar size.
Canoes can be very big, and transport up to dozens of passengers. The popular North American recreational canoes that measure up to 17 ft in length can take 3 to 4 adult passengers on board.
While Wavewalks work perfectly with single-blade (canoe) paddles, both solo and in tandem, they can carry less payload than large size canoes do. However, a Wavewalk tracks better than a canoe does, and unlike canoes, it is easy to paddle in strong wind.
A motorized square-stern canoe performs much like a lightweight dinghy, and as such it doesn’t work very well as a dedicated paddle craft, namely a canoe…. In addition, it is usually less stable than a typical dinghy, which is wider.
Thanks to its slender, parallel twin hulls, the Wavewalk® 700 tracks better than a motorized canoe, it’s more stable, and being narrower it paddles better as well.
Driving a Wavewalk® 700 is easier too, thanks to the ergonomics of its saddle, and the fact that the motor is located closer to the middle of the boat, away from its stern, which improves balance.
In the sense that it works well as a micro skiff, namely a small, flat bottomed boat used for fishing in flats, estuaries and protected bays, yes, a motorized Wavewalk 700 is an ultra lightweight, trailer-free micro skiff, and it can even be outfitted with a bow mounted electric trolling motor powered by a battery fed by the alternator in a small stern mounted outboard motor. This said, its form is very different.
The Wavewalk S4 is more seaworthy than other micro skiffs, as well as more versatile since it works well as a paddle craft, so unlike other microskiffs, it cannot get stranded in shallow water and ebbing tides.
* Interestingly, the crew of competition sailing catamarans has to relocate from one side of their boat to the other in order to help stabilize it.
Massachusetts
The kayak was beyond all expectations!
On the very first time we used it to get to our camp site, loaded with all the gear we got into a strong rain storm with wind, so strong, that it was difficult to see on a mile paddle.
Not for a moment I had any doubt in the fact the kayak just doesn’t care. It was easy to handle, incredibly stable and just a pleasure to operate.
We actually loaded it on top, front and back, and between us – it was still stable.
I did have some trouble to get out when the gear was around. But this is a fishing boat, not a camping canoe, maybe I am asking too much.
I think for the next trip we will make some kind of harness to attach to the front and back, and load our most light dry bags on top connected with harness for security. That will free leg space. We do not have that many pictures though – just two worth to show – one right before the rain and one on our way back – beautiful Vermont summer day!
