More details of the trunnell boat or Poole canoe

Thanks to John Button I now have a bit more information about one type of the low-powered Poole canoe motor boat otherwise known as a trunnell boat – a 20-footer.

Clicking on the image above will take you to the Save Old Seagulls website new page – to find the pdf you’ll need to scroll down some way.

John says 15hp that generally enough to make these boats perform very well even when laden with fishing gear – and adds regretfully that there’s not much left to catch in Poole Harbour these days.

Myself, I’d have guessed a rather smaller power plant would deliver pretty adequate performance most of the time, but as always I’m always open to being corrected.

John says the boats are sometimes called floorboard boats by the locals because that’s what they’re made of. Some of them will be in action between midday and 3pm this Saturday as part of the town’s piractical celebration Harry Paye Day – if it doesn’t get rained and blown into oblivion. For details see the organiser’s website.

Thanks John!

Here’s an earlier intheboatshed.net post about Poole canoes.

 

One thought on “More details of the trunnell boat or Poole canoe”

  1. Poole Canoes were not powered at one time. I had one that I bought in the mid 60s. and it was double ended and had a step for a mast. Someone that I knew who had an interest in them was collecting information for the National Maritime Museum and he measured and possibly took a photograph.He told me that it was the oldest example that he had found. It was registered as a fishing vessel and had the number PE 404.

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