Polycraft Quick Craft 455

Boaters and anglers that push the envelope as far as fishing environment and frequency of use is concerned are always on the lookout for a boat that measures up durability-wise.

The adage "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" is a truism for a great number of anglers, and it leaves many a fibreglass boat owner on the bitumen while those with more durable hulls enjoy roads less travelled.

Offroad trailerboating has traditionally been the domain of the aluminium boat until quite recently, when the polypropylene boat became more widely available. Polycraft is a homegrown product that emanates from the Queensland country town of Bundaberg that's famous for its snakebite antidote. Snakebite cure? Sorry, I mean Bundy Rum - touted Queensland-wide as the magical cure for all ailments, including snakebite. That's what they say in the bush, anyway. I wouldn't want to try it out for real.

POLY NO CRACKER
Polycraft boats are made from Rotathene, a compound that utilises a hexene linear low-density polyethylene that has an ultra-violet rating of 11. Like the famous Spinal Tap gag, 11 is the highest rating available in the UV resistance scale and is the same grading given to motor vehicle paints.

The hull and liner is formed in one piece by rotational moulding and has an average thickness of 10mm. With no seams or joins to create weaknesses under stress, these hulls represent a pretty innovative approach to boatbuilding - and by all accounts the construction technique works really well.

The manufacturer claims its hull's impact resistance is five times greater than fibreglass and has tested it with shotgun blasts, fired shafts into it from a compound hunting bow and attacked it with a sledge hammer. In a nutshell, these boats are apparently as tough as they come. I've seen the sledgehammer demonstration at the Melbourne Boat Show and believe me, they don't hold back!

INTERIOR LINES
Polycraft has been around for a couple of years now and there is a good selection of different boats available in the range from small tenders to the model we tested, the 4.55m Quick Craft centre-console.

My initial impression was that the boat is a little bare in the cockpit department. The inner liner drops down from the narrow coaming at an angle with no sidepockets to break up the sheer. This prevents your thighs being supported by the gunwales when your feet are against the side of the boat, and I felt a little unbalanced when leaning over the side. This problem would be remedied in part with the inclusion of optional handrails.

The deck is heavily fluted to add strength. A central bolt-down hatch runs the length of the deck and covers the optional 70lt fuel tank. The owner of this rig installed an inspection port over a filler neck in the fuel tank so that it may be dipped for fuel content rather than relying solely on a gauge. On the standard production boat, fuel filling is done via the fuel port on the transom. A short forward casting deck has a full-sized storage tub with lift-off lid for stowing life jackets and extra ground tackle that cannot fit in the medium-sized open top anchor locker.

A couple of rod tubes against the stowage box bulkhead held rods out of the way, while a pair of rodholders on the gunwales secured those that were in use. They are bolted through the outside edge of the coaming that protrudes enough to act as a spray chine.

PRACTICAL SETUP
The centre console had been modified from standard and included a tackle drawer set behind a hatch on the front of the console. The open rear section of the console had an additional press-stud curtain on a top sail track to keep the battery and other equipment away from prying eyes while this rig sits on a mooring at Mooloolaba on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. A short wraparound wind deflector was fixed to the top of the console along with a grabrail for the skipper. While too low to protect the driver, the screen is more for shielding the GPS and fishfinder mounted on top of the console.

The rear of the cockpit serves as a neat workstation with a deadbait well in the starboard corner and a livebait tank in the portside corner of the inner liner. An inspection port has been installed in each side that allows access into the void between the hull and the inner liner. If you're a bit of a Cautious Claude, you could install a bilge pump in here to drain the void should it flood. The Bermuda baitboard sits in the centre of the transom and features a large diameter drain hose that dumps over the stern of the boat. Pilchards and berley that are diced up may be dropped in the tube and exhausted outside, reducing the mess involved with throwing them over the side by hand.

The bilge is accessible at the aft end of a bolt-down hatch that allows easy inspection. This is the same level as the fuel tank and there is room here for a small bilge pump if required.

A sturdy alloy transom plate braced the stern, upon which a Honda 50hp four-stroke engine was fitted - the maximum rated for this vessel. The customisation continued with a downrigger fitted to the aft starboard corner, and outside a Bermuda berley bucket was added to further enhance the boat's appeal for fishing.

PERFORMANCE & HANDLING
The stability of the hull was quite good - no doubt aided by the prominent reverse chines to counteract the 17° hull deadrise. There was a small amount of sideslip when hard cornering but it was by no means abnormal or excessive. With the leg of the Honda trimmed in tight, high-speed turns were easy on the mechanical helm with no cavitation problems evident. Trimmed out, my handheld GPS showed 46kmh as the top speed. Getting there through the rev range was effortless for the Honda and running through the swell and breaking waves over the bar at the mouth of the Mooloolah River was a non-event. Water noise on the hull was noticeably quieter than aluminium, and given the type of hull this is, my expectation of some sort of hull flexing under strain proved unfounded. Very little spray came over the bow even when running with a 10kmh wind blowing on the forequarter.

The list of applications this boat is suited to is endless. It may be trailed, moored, used as a tender, left in the sun, bounced on the beach and ricocheted off rockbars. The UV resistance and some degree of marine growth repellent impregnated into the plastic makes it a boat with a long life expectancy, even in the toughest of climates.

With the internal cavity filled with optional foam it would be practically unsinkable - the polyethylene having positive buoyancy up to a point, depending upon payload. Installing extra fittings is not a problem providing they can be installed through the outer lip of the coaming.

With the polyethylene the same colour (and there are quite a few to choose from) through its entire thickness, repaints are a thing of the past, and scratches will go largely unnoticed. And hallelujah - no more electrolysis!

On the subject of trailers, it is a proviso of Polycraft's warranty that the Quick Craft is trailed on a full skid system that is supplied by the manufacturer, but we were unable to sight one at the time of test.

This is a true all-rounder for its size and will dress up into a boat that will look smart and last for many years. It is also a good knockabout boat and will ideally suit those who like bush bashing to get to those far away, fishy places; people who don't bother worrying about the residual damage to the hull.

And if you're one of these people, don't forget the snakebite remedy!