About Larry

Larry, a keen boat angler himself remembers back to his first big fish a Pike of 32lbs caught in Drumlough Rathfriland some 40 years ago.

Since then has fished the big lakes like Corrib, Mask, Carra, Derg, Con,Sheelin the Erne and many more to numerous to mention. He had always a great passion for boats. In the early days it was all wooden usually larch on oak, which he worked a lot at. But there was a lot of maintenance and good larch was getting hard to find. So along came fibreglass which was no problem to Larry as he had served his time as a coach builder. which many panels were made from fibreglass and still are to this day.

An 8lb 2oz Trout caught by Larry on Buzzer on Lough Sheelin
Plugs and moulds were taken from the wooden clinker, hence came the fibreglass hull, which when gunwales keel seats knees etc were fitted we had the fibreglass boat which had little maintenance, but did not have the same drifting ability. It drifted towards the stern and sometimes in a circle. Which was very annoying when wet fly fishing which Larry does a lot of. He has always maintained that a fibreglass boat sat on the water an a wooden boat sat in it. But he always believed that with adjustments there was no reason that fibreglass could not be greatly improved upon. His aim was a slow square drifter. Also another problem was that in a wave the man on the engine got a soaking. This was greatly improved upon.

This is when MCA Boats moved from dream to reality.

Larry together with his sons all of whom fish from boats, built their first boat some five years before he actually sold one. A lot of time was taken up on research. During this research period noted the good and bad points from a lot of boats. Some of the points that he found are : -

(A) On a lot of boats the clinkers have round edges instead of square, although the mould lasts longer the square edge clinker is more stable, as it catches more water.

(B) As the depth of the keel is very important as to the height of the seats. It is very uncomfortable to sit in a boat all day with low seats

(C) A lot of designs have narrow sterns which causes them to rise in the bow. This too is greatly improved upon.

(D) Wooden floors were always a problem. So heavy duty non-slip moulded floors are now standard in all boats. This process does not cause damage to fly lines.

An 8lb 2oz Trout caught by Larry on Buzzer on Lough Sheelin

MCA Boats
12 Lisgullion Park,
Newry,
Co Down

Tel or Fax :
OFFICE : (028) 30268260
(After 6.00pm)

FACTORY : (028) 30262309
(Before 6.00pm)