If you cast away preconceived ideas about plastic being flimsy and have a look at the benefits of this modern-day building material, you’ll soon appreciate just how much Polycraft’s range of plastic boats can offer boat buyers.

Polycraft boats are made of high-density polyethylene, constructed by a rotational moulding process that forms a twin-skin hull that has no seam. The cavity between the two skins is injected with foam to increase strength and add positive buoyancy to the hull.

The polyethylene hull is slightly flexible so it absorbs the impact of waves, creating a softer ride. This is a quiet running hull due to the density of the material and when you factor in low maintenance, lack of corrosion or electrolysis, no need for painting and extreme durability, you needn’t concern yourself with the jokes about leaving it on the footpath on recycling pick up days!

I’ve been involved in demos in the past where Polycraft boats have been purposely run up on rocks and bashed into oyster leases. There’s no denying there are some superior characteristics of this material. I have slammed a section with a ball pane hammer several times with barely a dent.

Because the material is the same colour right through, you don’t see scratches or gouges. In severe cases there is a filling compound that will fix a deep gouge and after a bit of sanding, it looks as good as new.

With a tough hull like this, you can see why Polycraft are popular in the commercial fishing sector as well as in the tourism industry, where the users often aren’t the owners and tend to be harsh on gear.

The new addition to the Polycraft range, a larger centre console, looks set to be quite popular due to its size. It’s nearly six metres long with a 2.5m beam and a hull 1.4m deep, so it overshadows its 4.55m sister ships in many areas.

The hull is almost a cathedral or tri-hull with the centre hull and smaller side sponsons replacing the more conventional outer reverse chine. This format delivers a hull that tracks nicely in the water with a tendency to offer greater stability at rest and on the move.

I found the boat was very stable in both these situations. You could have the weight to one side without any worry of overbalancing or dipping too far. The wide beam, in conjunction with these outer sponsons, has a lot to do with this.

The same side sponsons help reduce the amount of spray thrown up and, should you decide to turn sharply at speed, keep in mind that these will also bite in on the turn. Just make sure you let the rest of the crew know what you’re going to do before you turn hard at speed.

As you bump across the chop or the wake of other boats you can feel the density and solid construction of the Polycraft hull. There is no jarring, banging or rattling.

You can’t help but notice how quiet this hull is, particularly with one of the new generation four-stroke engines that are whisper-quiet. Even the latest two-strokes are a far cry from the old howlers of days gone by and on this hull, will allow you to hold a normal conversation with your mates under power without screaming your lungs out.

The 150hp engine fitted was certainly not overkill for this boat, which is rated to 175hp. At 4000rpm we sat nicely on 30mph and being a new rig, we didn’t give it all she had and still managed 43mph.

To keep up on the plane you do need to sit around 2800-3000rpm and, being a centre console, the boat does benefit from a little extra weight up the front. This is usually taken care of when the icebox or underfloor storage compartments are loaded up with gear.

It’s great to see a boat that is made as a workhorse and for travelling longer distances come fitted with a decent size fuel tank. Under the centre console there’s 200L of fuel, which gives plenty of range for this rig, especially in conjunction with the fuel-efficient four-stroke engine.

It’s almost overwhelming the room that you end up with in a 6m centre console. The 2.5m beam and the hull shape produce plenty of space to move around in front and back.

At this stage there’s the option of a single or double centre console. The test boat sported the wide double and had plenty of room for two anglers to stand behind while still leaving plenty of room for someone to walk down either side.

This twin format centre console also has plenty of room across the top for electronics and below for additional storage.

There’s no shortage of room forward and aft either. To the bow lie three underfloor storage boxes: one 200L centre section with a smaller 40L bin on either side. This storage does come in handy because the Frontier doesn’t have any side pockets. These are important additions for a centre console and they’re likely to become standard down the track.

The Frontier’s foredeck area is raised slightly to allow more storage room below and to give a little height advantage for casting to surface feeding fish or working the ground tackle. There’s plenty of scope to further build your own raised casting platform and there’s no shortage of hull depth to do this.

The anchor has its own moulded well. The forward section is also full of foam, adding to the overall buoyancy of the boat.

A moulded twin-seat box is mounted behind the centre console. This has a hinged backrest that folds either way. Moulded in the same manner as the hull, the twin-skinned box makes for a great icebox, especially once it’s foam-filled. It could be a bit narrow if you want to put the likes of a few snapper in it but I suppose you need to weigh up how much of the deck space you want to take up with iceboxes.

There’s a huge amount of storage in the aft area, where a section has been fitted that has more storage room than you will find in most centre consoles. It doubles as a raised casting area and as somewhere to sit while fishing. This is an option and can be omitted if you want to maximise the deck space.

With the amount of room available in this stern area, along with the two corner wells in the transom, there’s plenty of scope to customise this area to your needs, including livebait wells.

In summing up, I was rather impressed with the new Polycraft Frontier. Big centre consoles are great fishing boats and this rig will take pretty well to whatever you throw at it, including three or four hefty blokes who can fish all day without getting in each other’s way.

There’s also a cuddy cabin version that might be of interest to anglers down south who need a bit more in the way of shelter from the elements.