Boat Review: Poole Canoe

The Poole Canoe is a misleading term as this is a commercial boat based on a traditional wooden design from the turn of the last century. It was originally used for set netting and nowadays is mostly used for netting mullet and bass in the Dorset area. I was told there are wooden Poole Canoes built over 50 years ago still working today.

The boat was designed to be worked in extremely shallow water utilising a shallow draft configuration allowing the boat to be worked in just 2-inches of water. This capability makes them ideal for anglers wanting to fish shallow estuary banks and channels for bass, but also for general harbour fishing, over mud banks, plus they can be slid ashore but easily re floated when need be.

Salterns Boatyard realised the potential for the Poole Canoe and have started to produce the boat in GRP for the first time.

One of the reasons the Poole Canoe is ideal for angling is that it features an open flush, self baling deck area giving loads of uncluttered working space. There are 13 chambers built in to the hull construction to give buoyancy and strength.

The bow area is separated from a seat across the width of the bow by a short standing area which gives a good stable position to haul anchor from. This forward seat also hides a front access locker area for ropes and anchor, with the bow featuring a stainless steel bow roller and cleat.

A full width seat lays across the beam of the boat in front of the engine well. This hinges upwards to give access to a large locker area taking the fuel tank and offering additional storage.

The deck areas have a stippled finish for maximum grip.

The test boat was fitted with a Yamaha 40hp 2-Stroke outboard. This does not sit on the stern of the boat, but is positioned inside an internal engine well built in to the front of the transom. This gives an easy working position, either stood or sat, with excellent all round vision, though it does ideally require a tiller extension for the best operation.

There is also comfortable room for standing either side of the engine well when fishing over the stern.

The splash well is wide and semi shallow, obviously originally designed for working the nets from, but this also is a useful storage area for tackle keeping it out of the way and off the deck.

The gunnels are set semi low, again giving easy access to water level for working from, but these are plenty high enough to be safe when seated and are ideal for angling, especially trolling lures as the rod can be kept low to the water surface.

I had the chance to get aboard both a traditional wooden hull, and the new GRP version for comparison.

The boat can be run with a 15hp engine and you can expect a speed between 4 and 5-knots burning about 2-litres of fuel per hour. The GRP test craft though, was fitted with a 40hp Yamaha 2-stroke engine and this gives startling performance with a top speed in the mid 20-knot range and a fuel burn rate under 5-litres per hour.

Underway the boat is very stable and you can shuffle about no problem without upsetting the balance of the boat. Even on the drift you can stand up and move around without the boat tipping side to side. To give you some idea of how stable these craft are they regularly had a ton of fish aboard which best illustrates their stability when load carrying and overall seaworthiness.

Punching in to a head wind and choppy sea I was expecting a fair amount of spray to flick back on to deck, but this wasn’t the case. Any spray coming over the bow was minimal.

Turning under power the boat grips the water surprisingly well and can turn in a short space, so is highly manoeuvrable and you can see why its ideal for working those narrow creeks.

Being a shallow draft design also means they can be easily rowed. This is an advantage when working shallow water for skittish fish such as mullet and bass. They also catch minimum windage, so are ideal when you need to slow drift up to shoals of bass such as when fly fishing or lure casting.

CONCLUSION
A different boat that maybe won’t appeal to everyone, but for those of you looking for a shallow draft craft to work inside estuaries and harbours that’s easy to work and cast from its hard to beat.

I liked its manoeuvrability and stability, plus its low profile off the water. I can also see the advantage of being able to skid the boat up on to a sandbank for a while, then slide the boat afloat again which is ideal for estuary fishing when you want to be on the mark for the first of the flood tide, then move as the water depth increases.

And believe me, with that 40hp Yamaha on the back, this boat really flies!

Comparing the traditional wooden build and GRP, well the wood is nice, but the GRP lighter, faster, more manoeuvrable and it will appeal to a lot more people just on the minimum maintenance factor required.

DIMENSIONS
Overall Length: 6.8metres
Beam: 2.2metres
Draft: 50mm
Maximum Engine: 30hp (the 40hp was great though)
Boat Weight: 465kgs
Category: D 6 persons

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact James Sydenham, Marina & Boat Yard Manager, 40 Salterns Way, Lilliput, Poole, Dorset BH14 8JR. Tel: 01202 707391/707041 E-mail: james.sydenham@salterns.co.uk and check out their website at www.salterns.co.uk

James has long term experience actually fishing from the Poole Canoe, so is in an excellent position to advise on specific designs most suitable to the customers needs.