Smallgains Creek at the eastern end of Canvey Island has recently gained a new addition to the small fleet of craft fishing commercially from here. The boat, a clinker wood ‘Hastings’ type, is something of an oddity in the area. She’s a functional, neat and smart looking thing with a pole mast that is possibly designed to set a lug sail, but I didn’t see one when she passed close by my mooring as I was stowing sails a week or so back.

Canvey’s ‘new’ fishing boat…

I’d seen the boat in the distance some days earlier and wondered where she was based … seeing her up close and clearly heading for home confirmed answers to my questioning mind. I had a camera to hand too…

It looked as if the boat was being used for crabbing or, more likely, gill netting: I’d seen her along the shallows along the Chapman bank. I’ll have to try and catch her skipper and ask…

She certainly adds charm to my little mud creek.