August 2025  Wave Rover

By Kevin Cardiff

For me, Wave Rover is a new boat. I had been following its progress, as its builder, Alan Mulholland, had a YouTube channel on which he documented the process of building and then sailing the boat across the Atlantic.

The build was finished in 2023 and the boat sailed from Prince Edward Island in Canada down to the eastern United States. In 2024 Alan sailed the boat from the United States to Ireland, stopping at the Azores, making pretty good time on both legs. He spent some time in the south of Ireland, before making his way up the east coast to my home port of Malahide near Dublin, to take part in a gathering of junk boats and junk people.  

All of these adventures are very well documented in Alan’s YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/@roversadventure?feature=shared and if you want the short version, look at this talk that he gave last year.  The Malahide/Dublin gathering can be enjoyed vicariously at https://youtu.be/OpHKl_l0HF4?feature=shared

As Alan spent some time in Malahide, we had regular opportunities to chat, and at some stage ihe mentioned that the boat might be for sale. After a few days of thinking and a little gentle negotiation, a deal in principle was done.

The purchase process was not as simple as one might expect for either of us.  Let me just summarise by saying that importing a self built uncertified boat from outside the EU is neither simple nor cheap for buyer or seller.

All of that meant that the boat was not mine until last year‘s sailing season was pretty much over, so it was only this year that I started to get a chance to enjoy my new boat and get to know it. And so far I am quite happy. I haven’t sailed it in particularly rough water or beyond about 22 knots (I wouldn’t be inclined to do that much anyway).  It goes to weather maybe a bit better than I expected and everything works smoothly on the rig.  There’s an extra long Tohatsu sail pro 6 outboard which seems ideal for the boat, and doesn’t use a lot of fuel.

Wave Rover is 21’ LOA and nearly the same LWL, given the quite perpendicular bow and stern profile.  The sail is a seven panel flat cut sail on Hasler McLeod lines.  The build is very solid, in plywood with GRP layers where it matters, and the flat ends and sides make for lots of space inside.  In fact, headroom apart, the interior feels almost as roomy as my previous 26’er.

I have tried and enjoyed the wind driven self steering arrangements - what Alan calls the “Mark 3”.  It’s not essential for my day sailing, but very handy for treating oneself to a cup of tea or a couple of minutes to wash one’s hands.  It took a few minutes to start to get the hang of it but the mechanism is simple and easily reached from the steering position.  

The ladder is a new edition - required for compliance with EU rules

I’ve been describing my early experiences with Wave Rover in our website forums at https://junkrigassociation.org/cruisers_forum/13495763#13517017, by the way, if you want more detail.

Our "Boat of the Month" Archive is here, and the forum discussion for comments and candidate suggestions is here