MAHASAGAR BOATS

SEAGOING CANOES - UTILITY, FISHING, RECREATION CRAFT

Mahasagar Fibreglass Canoes are versatile craft offering the efficiency of the time-honoured form of the tradional Indian sea-going dug-out canoe combined with the advantages of modern FRP. They can be rowed, sailed or outboard/inboard powered. They are suited for many types of traditional and non-traditional fishing, fish and general transportation, backwater patrolling, and as low-cost ferry or fun boat. Mahasagar FRP Canoes are economical to operate and rugged in construction. They hardly need maintenance and even 20-year old FRP Canoes can still be found in active service.

Standard features:  All boats are single skin moulded FRP of marine grade polyester resin and fibreglass with wooden thwarts and fenders, SS bottom rubbing strip and built-in buoyancy to render boat unsinkable.

Yashwanth Kangen, the owner of Mahasagar Boats pioneered the design and development of this class of fibreglass boats in 1978 after thorough study, innovative thinking and close observation of actual use conditions. These are no-frills craft out to perform a function efficiently, economically, safely with minimal maintenance requirement. They are also a major step towards conserving our forest timbers, as the traditional wooden dugout canoes are basically single logs of huge girth and length with their insides carved out to achieve the boat form.

In the initial days it was understandable that traditional fishermen took some time to adapt to these 'plastic' boats considering that plastic for them meant nothing more than the plastic buckets that they were familiar with. And to stake not only your life savings but your life as well on a craft made of that flimsy bucket material indeed called for either extreme bravery or extreme foolishness. All this however soon changed when a fleet of wooden canoes out fishing at sea were caught in a sudden severe storm and started breaking up at mid-length unable to withstand the severe hogging and sagging stresses imposed upon them by the violent sea.  The lone fibreglass canoe amongst this fleet went to their rescue and brought safely back to shore every single crewman from five broken wooden canoes.

Today, sea conditions considered too dangerous to venture out for wooden canoes are routine working conditions for owners of Mahasagar fibreglass canoes who operate them off the coasts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep besides the Sultanate of Oman.