Design and Construction
The Rave's trimaran layout is the backbone of its stability and comfort, and the center hull carries two cockpits with a rumble seat forward for a passenger while the skipper sits aft. Its polyethylene-molded construction gives the boat notable durability for a lightweight craft anchor. The foils themselves ride on high-aspect-ratio struts that retract into the hulls, a detail that lets the boat shift from a 12-inch draft with foils up to a recommended 4-foot draft with foils down. At a listed weight around 380 to 390 pounds and a beam of 17 feet measured foil tip to foil tip, the Rave is a serious high-performance boat rather than a casual beach toy, and it is too big to fit on top of a car, though it can be moved on its custom trailer.
Rig and Handling
Steering is by foot controls, with the skipper seated aft and operating pedals rather than a tiller, and the foils are raised and lowered from the cockpit for straightforward setup. When flying, foil attitude is managed by a trailed control wand, a system that keeps the crew from manually trimming the foils while underway. The rig borrows from the Laser Cat with a fat-head main and a tall, narrow jib, and a molded-in extension carries the self-tacking jib traveler, though that traveler is not very wide. Because the center hull is narrow, mainsheet travel cannot exceed roughly 24 inches, a constraint that shapes how the boat is trimmed on the wind. The face-forward seating below the boom, together with foot-pedal steering, contributes to the boat's stated ease of use and stability.
Accommodations
There is no cabin in the conventional sense; the Rave is built around its cockpits. The center hull's two cockpits place the passenger forward on the rumble seat and the skipper aft at the foot controls, a layout that keeps weight centered and sightlines ahead. The builder intended the boat to be affordable, comfortable, and relatively easy to handle, and the cockpit arrangement is the primary expression of that goal.
Known Issues
The extruded foils preclude sailing the Rave up onto the beach anchor, a meaningful limitation for owners used to drying out a small trimaran on shore. Because the foils retract but remain vulnerable, launching and recovery demand care that a daggerboard beach cat does not.
Refits and Ownership
Ownership centers on trailering and foil care rather than interior refit. The custom trailer is the practical means of transport, and the retractable struts simplify storage compared with fixed-foiled designs. Windrider has signaled intent to bring the WR Rave II back with some modernization in collaboration with a partner, suggesting the original's concept still has commercial appeal even after the 2003 halt.
The Verdict
The Windrider Rave is a genuinely novel attempt to democratize foiling, wrapping retractable high-aspect foils and a foot-steered, face-forward cockpit in durable polyethylene at a modest size. It asks its owner to think like a multihull sailor and a foiling pilot at once, and it rewards that attention with a boat that was, by the builder's own description, ahead of its time.
Pros
- Retractable foils on high-aspect struts shift draft from 12 inches to 4 feet
- Durable polyethylene-molded construction at roughly 380 to 390 pounds
- Foot-pedal steering and face-forward cockpits aid stability and ease of handling
- Custom trailer transport despite being too large for a car roof
Cons
- Extruded foils prevent beaching under sail
- Narrow center hull limits mainsheet travel to about 24 inches
- Production halted after 2003 with only 136 built
