What is your best choice for a boat under ten thousand dollars in 2024?

Some people would spend a hundred thousand dollars and more on a fishing boat, but most people won’t, either because they don’t have this kind of money, or because they think that spending this much is excessive. However, most people simply think about what they’d like to have in a fishing boat, considering where they like to fish and how much time they have to spend on this activity, and they shop for the best deal that’s available at the budget that they have set.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that such a person would spend all their budget, since they may be able to find boats that fit their requirements perfectly, and are offered at a price that’s considerably lower than the budget they have. Sometimes good things happen…
And this is the case with Wavewalk’s S4 Microskiff, which is offered at a price point of $3,000 plus shipping from the factory in South Carolina to the client’s address.
The S4 offers a lot of value for this price, as explained in detail in this new article entitled Best Boat Under $10,000 in 2024

 

New Online Video: S4 Microskiff Walkaround

Dedicated to Texan clients who have asked to see an S4 in real life – This is the closest thing that we can bring the S4 to you, for now:

Note the front casting deck, the true catamaran form, the deep large-size hulls that offer so much onboard storage space, the tall saddle seat that provides both comfort and stability, the full and easy access to the motor controls, and the unrivaled look of a perfect boat design –

Enjoy!

The W720 Kayak Skiff

Do you like shallow water fishing, and in particular flats fishing? Many fishermen in Texas do, and if you’re one of them, or just interested in this type of fishing, you know that some boats and kayaks are more suitable than others for it, and some less.
The purpose of this website is to expose new types of kayaks and boats that work particularly well in this context, and deliver the most comprehensive solutions both motorized and human powered, namely paddled.

The W720 Kayak Skiff »

This category of small fishing boats is not particularly well defined, but generally speaking, it includes small-size, relatively lightweight, flat-bottomed motorboats designed for fishing in shallow water, flats, protected bays, and estuaries. An important attribute of any microskiff is being sufficiently stable to allow a fisherman to fish standing up in it.

Some anglers use push-poling to advance through areas of thick vegetation and/or skinny water, where an outboard motor’s propeller drafts too much. This mode of human powered propulsion is slow and hard to practice, and therefore not convenient for covering longer distances.
Paddling works better, of course, but most microskiffs are too wide to be paddled, and those who do offer such option are still too wide and heavy to enable traveling over meaningful distances, or paddling in adverse conditions, such as wind, current, waves, etc.

At 85 lbs (without a motor), the new W720 from Wavewalk’s 700 series is the most lightweight kayak skiff on the market. In fact, the W720 weighs just a little over half of the paddleboard style, one-person skiff, dubbed a kayak on steroids, which weighs 150 lbs without the motor. This makes the W720 is the most practical cartop kayak-skiff out there.

The W720 features an integrated (built-in) wooden motor mount for a outboard motor up the 3 HP.

Thanks to its patented twinhull form (catamaran), the W720 is extremely stable, although it’s just 31 inches wide, which makes it the narrowest kayak-skiff and a high-performance paddle craft, namely kayak. Note that it works perfectly as a fishing canoe as well, that is paddled with single-blade paddles, both with a crew of one or two (plus a child…)

 

Microskiffs are considerably heavier than kayaks, and they cannot be be car topped. Some of the smallest microskiffs are not even designed to take a second passenger or angler on board.
The W720 is lightweight enough for one person to car-top, and with its total recommended load capacity of 400 lbs and the super-stability to back it, the W720 works as a full tandem motorized kayak-skiff (I.E. motorized) and tandem fishing kayak / canoe (I.E. human powered addled).
It offers all the advantages of a regular size micro skiff without imposing any of the inconveniences associated with boats, and it offers all the advantages of a fishing kayak, and some more, without any of the problems that plague fishing kayaks, which are instability, wetness, discomfort, poor tracking, and lack of sufficient storage on board.

W720 Kayak Skiff

More about the W720 Kayak Skiff »

Wavewalk Microskiff Dealership in South Louisiana

We ship our clients’ orders from the factory in South Carolina directly to their home or business address, with call before delivery.

Clients from east Texas can also get their S4 microskiff at our dealership in Houma, Lousiana »
Mike Blouin, Wavewalk’s dealer in Houma, is an avid boater, fisherman, and hunter, and he keeps the S4 microskiff in stock.

Where is this Wavewalk’s Louisiana dealership located? –

Shark fishing in the Wavewalk S4 microskiff

The S4 is a cartop microskiff, but it’s not limited to flats fishing. This ultralight boat is seaworthy, as shown in this offshore shark fishing movie from Hawaii –

And as for load capacity, it can carry up to three guys in the chop –

New developments for the Wavewalk S4 microskiff

Wavewalk has been developing new solutions to work with its S4 skiff, namely the S4 kayak outfitted with a powerful outboard motor.

Aside from these technical developments that enhance the boat’s performance in rough water, shallow water, launching and beaching, fishing and hunting, Wavewalk now offers the S4 in a new color – the Gator Drag Green, seen in some of the pictures below. This color matches the typical drab green color of Jon boats, and it can serve as an excellent base for camouflage.

1. Portable set of large-size, wide wheels for carrying the Wavewalk S4 over rough terrain

 

The first is a set of large-size, wide wheels that allow for easier carrying of the S4 when outfitted with a heavy outboard motor. This is particularly useful for anglers who want to launch this skiff in remote beaches on the Gulf coast, in marshes, flats, etc. The wheels work well on rough terrain, but pulling the boat in deep sand is still not easy.

 

2. Large-size spray shield for the Wavewalk S4

 

Sometimes the Gulf of Mexico gets choppy, and you want to drive your S4 skiff in it at full speed. No problem with that, except that if you have a passenger sitting in the front (e.g. a fishing buddy), they might get splashed when the bow hits waves.

The solution is a large-size, lightweight, detachable, transparent spray shield, and shown here:

Easy to attach. full size spray shield

Since this spray shield is attached to the deck with just a few bungees, detaching is quick and easy, in case it gets in the way during a fishing trip.

Wavewalk does not offer this spray shield for sale, but the good news is that making a DIY version is easy and inexpensive, and the materials can be purchased at home improvement stores.

3. Powerful mud motor for driving in marshes and flats

 

Chris from Northern Tribe Outdoors use a Wavewalk S4 outfitted with a 6.5 HP mud motor in their duck hunting trips. Since the S4 won’t take all of them on board plus the mud motor, wheels, and retriever dog, they take a Wavewalk 700 kayak too. The S4 can easily hip-tow the non-motorized W700, and carry all the team over long distances, in shallow water, mud, marshes, etc.

 

The wheels in this picture are just inflated tire tubes. Note that a mud motor weighs more than a regular outboard motor of similar power

Duck hunter, retrieving dog, and all-terrain all-water hunting boat – kayak.

 

 

Movies of the Wavewalk S4 microskiff in action

The Wavewalk S4 keeps changing people’s perception of both kayaks and car-top boats. Anglers, kayakers and boaters are learning that with this lightweight craft they can expect more, get more, and achieve more than they previously could, even if they owned several boats of different types and sizes, for fishing in different places. Texas is a big place that offers a wide variety of fisheries, both inland and in the ocean, and the S4 delivers high performance in all of them.
The S4 does much more, and it does it better too.

Here are some new demo movies that show the S4 in action –

1. Driving the S4 at high speed in narrow, winding mangrove creeks. The unrivaled stability and balancing capability that the S4 delivers to its crew allow for making sharp turns, and having a lot of fun – Because a good boat should be able to get you to the fisheries and fishing holes that  you’d like to fish in, whether it’s the ocean, the flats, or the mangroves, and you should have fun while you drive there, and on your way back. Note that passenger sitting in the front is a big and heavy guy (6’3″ 260 lbs) who happens to be disabled as well. He rides the saddle-seat with a foot in each of the S4’s twin hulls, while the driver sits side-saddle, with both feet in the boat’s left hull, and facing sideways, dinghy style. Both positions are comfortable and stable, and switching from one to the other is effortless –

 

2. Driving the s4 at high speed offshore, in the ocean chop. This movie shows how seaworthy the S4 is. In fact, this 98 lbs Polyethylene boat that’s designated as a kayak is more stable than any kayak, as well as from many larger boats. The S4’s stability, together with its user’s ability to easily and effectively keep their balance on its saddle, result in a new level of seaworthiness, comparable to that of a personal watercraft (PWC), namely the ability to drive it standing up –

 

3. The S4 breaks the world speed record for motor kayaks – Captain Larry Jarboe drives his S4 powered by a 9.8 HP Tohatsu outboard motor at 17 mph –

 

4. Comparison of the S4 powered by a 5 HP outboard motor to an S4 powered by a 9.8 HP motor – Both work perfectly, and provide a smooth and enjoyable ride, but the bigger and more powerful motor drives the S4 at a higher speed. Note that if you want your S4 to go faster, you’d need to outfit its motor with a high pitch propeller, and you may also want to consider outfitting the motor with a hydrofoil.
Read more in this article How much HP for my S4 skiff’s outboard motor? »

 

Guide to portable boats

Like anglers in other regions, Texas anglers don’t appreciate wasting their precious time driving to boat ramps, or waiting in line while other anglers launch their boats there, or take them out. Popular launching spots can get crowded, and people waiting in them can get impatient and frustrated –
But what is the alternative to launching a boat that’s transported on a trailer?
Well, the alternative is to downsize to a car-top boat that you can launch in spots that are closer to where you want to fish, and where you won’t have to worry about finding a parking spot.

Portable boats are by definition smaller than full fledged boats, but this is not necessarily a problem if you fish the flats, and you don’t venture too far offshore into the Gulf. And  for a the price of a trailer, you can buy a lot of fishing gear…

Micronautical published a new guide for people who are looking to know more about portable boats. The article is entitled “The Portable Boat“, and it provides insight about different types of portable boats, including small dinghies, inflatable dinghies, Jon boats, and ultralight skiffs, their advantages, and disadvantages.

So, if you happen to be stuck in traffic on your way to a boat ramp, or worse, you’ve just arrived there only to find that there are no parking spots left for your vehicle and trailer… think about a car-top boat!

And by the way, if you’re worried about the performance of a portable boat in the ocean, or with more than one person on board, watch this movie:

 

 

And if you’re totally desperate about boating, and you’re thinking about downgrading to a fishing kayak, or you think not to downsize because of the need to go fishing with additional passengers on board (going solo isn’t necessarily that much fun), there are good news for you too:

Fishing Texas’ coastal areas with the Wavewalk S4 microskiff

Fisheries along Texas’s coastal areas are diverse and most productive, from flats to estuaries, and to deep blue water.
The Wavewalk S4 works extremely well in all these environments, since it can go in shallow water that bigger skiffs that draft more cannot access, and if necessary it works perfectly with a paddle, be it a canoe or a kayak paddle.
But the S4 shies in choppy water too, as well as in actual ocean waves, which means that crossing bays and estuaries with is not only possible, but it can be fun too. Unlike other skiffs that may get their crew to feel seasick in rough water, the passengers of the S4 ride a saddle seat much like the saddles of big personal watercraft (PWC – “jet-ski”), all terrain vehicles (ATV), and dirt bikes. These vehicles allow their users for the most effective balancing possible, so they don’t feel seasick.

This first movie shows the Wavewalk S4 driven in wavy seas and towed behind a big motorboat, as a tender boat. Note how well it moves with a second passenger on board -This is not a solo skiff!

 

 

This second movie shows the Wavewalk S4 driven in choppy water –

 

 

Both these movies demonstrate the S4’s versatility and high performance that rival and even outperform various types of skiffs and microskiffs out there.