When it comes to leisure boat manufacturing, Spanish boat builders Rodman are right up there in the premier league. Currently operating out of two yards at Vigo on the Atlantic coast of Spain, and one in Portugal, a further site at Vigo has already commenced to further boost production to meet growing demand. And I'm sure as deservedly won new markets around the EU and Middle East become increasingly dominant, there will be more expansion to some. The company employs in excess of 400 regular staff, with perhaps as many as an extra 100 others on seasonal contracts as market fluctuations dictate. Turning out an average of 250 luxury fishing boats in the 22 to 40 foot category each year, some with price tags well in excess of 1 million Euro's, so far as my experience goes, means they don't come any bigger. They also build for the military, customs officers and the police. But it hasn't always been that way. As the saying goes, great oaks from little acorns grow.

Rodman as a company was founded in 1974 by Manuel Rodriguez whose name provided the Rod & Man components of the company logo. Initially, production was centered around small GRP leisure fishing boats in the 4 to 7 metre range, but by the 1980's, they had begun venturing into the world of larger 'professional' boats for the fishing and defence industry. Vigo, where the company is based, has a long history of steel ship building, and indeed, Rodman also operate a large steel ship building yard on the other side of the inlet. The GRP site was also once a steel ship building yard back in the 1970's until it was beset by strikes and went to the wall. With its own harbour and sloped ramp straight out of what is now the finishing shed into the water, it was a facility obviously with much to offer. So Snr. Rodriguez took the site on, converting it into the high tech unit we see today. And the rest as they say, is history.

I went out to Vigo to test drive the new R940 where part of the planned visit was a full guided tour of the two working yards. As someone who has made my own GRP boats from drums of resin and rolls of matting, I found the tour of the facility fascinating. How anybody can spend 40 hours a week in a building stinking of styrene fumes is beyond me. It brought back memories of itching arms and hardened resin on my hands that took weeks to get rid of. Nothing of course like that there. Full breathing apparatus and all the other necessary PPE was liberally splashed about the place. It was quite literally breath taking in every sense of the term. Besides the fumes, it was the whole scale of everything, particularly when you see laminators, many of whom were women, working in some of the military moulds which were big enough to launch my Warrior 165 into.

Equally impressive was the finishing shed. Not so much the fact of having so many huge part completed boats of differing pedigree's under the one roof, as the extent, quality and diversity of the work that was going on. We are talking here of boats with master bedrooms, guest bedrooms and walk in shower rooms. As you might expect, the quality of the finish inside the wheelhouse was equally as impressive as in the mouldings facility. Actual fitting out at every level from furnishings, electronics and power unit is done to the customers own individual taste. But the basic concept of accommodation layout, console and flying bridge for motoring in pleasanter climates than we usually see here in the UK was pretty well uniformally adhered to across the range.

I was going to use the term 'standard package', but I am assured by the Rodman executives that there is no such thing as each boat is a bespoke package fitted out individually to suit its owner's taste, which includes wood choices and interior fabrics. To lift a sentence from their advertising blurb, "With our expert help, if you wish, we can help you configure a boat that exactly matches your requirements for family, cruising range, climate and usage". A good example of this would be the fitting of bow and stern thrusters for parking the thing in tight corners in a packed marina. These are added at the construction stage, but are normally only offered on models from the R1040 and upwards. However, if a request was made for thrusters on a model smaller than the R1040, this could be accommodated as a special option in the interest of good customer relations.

The same is true when it comes to deciding on how the boat is to be powered. Again customer options vary, including the revolutionary Volvo IPS (Inboard Performance System) engines which Rodman rigorously field tested before putting themselves forward as the first leisure boat manufacturer to offer the option at the London boat show in 2005. As an outboard engine user myself, IPS was a concept I was not familiar with, though having had it explained and now actually tried it on the water, I can appreciate the benefits if the makers claims are all accurate, as I have no doubt they are. IPS is a twin turbo charged intercooler system that does away with the standard shaft drive approach, locating the propellers on drives through the underside of the aft section of the hull, delivering swifter acceleration, greater manoeuvrability, reduced exhaust emissions, lower fuel consumption, greater range, more interior space, and significantly improved handling. Acceleration onto the plane is reduced from typically 15 seconds to 5 seconds, while fuel economy goes up by 25%. And the good news is that the system is now available for boats down to 9m (30 feet in length) which should be of interest to a lot of angling boat owners and operators here in the UK.

Speaking of boat operators in the UK and knowing the way that business is conducted there, the Rodman 'R' range of boats is not going to grab too much attention as a working boat, though to a man, I suspect that all charter skippers would love to own one as a personal play thing. The target market sector has to be the family with a few bob put at one side in the disposable income pot who like fishing, but are equally happy to be on the water as a family unit. They fall into the 'American' big game fishing style category. High on dry comfortable cabin area and low on actual fishing space, which if there are only a handful of you, or you want to target something like Bluefin Tuna off the north west coast of Ireland, would not be a problem. All are based on a V-hull for navigational performance, with a raised bow to help the vessel behave well in a rough sea, and are built to the highest and most demanding structural specifications going. All are compliant with CE and NATO AQAP 210 military regulations, ISO 9001 and 14001, and certification standards of Lloyd's Register. Quality assurance doesn't come any better than that.

Playing about on the water with the warmth of the sun on your back and a nice marina to work from as a base for taking off to more exotic destinations, I could quite easily see myself being drawn to this type of fishing platform. I was well impressed. And even more so a few days later when I hitched the Warrior to the car back home on a cold morning in March as we ventured out off Blackpool to see if we could get to grips with the odd straggler cod before the season was finally declared dead and buried. Another world altogether.

RODMAN 940 BOAT TEST

Any boat could in theory be used for fishing. Rodman's intended fishing fleet is their 'R' - range, which in terms of overall length until recently had gaps in it, preventing a nice graduated size transition from the R670 at around 6.7 metres OAL, to the R1250 at 12.5 metres. Despite recently plugging three of those gaps, there was still a need to slot in another model between 8.7 metres and 10.4 metres. Many people felt there should be something at around the the mid 9 metre range. That slot was finally filled in March 2006 when, at the Barcelona boat show, the company unveiled the R940 which they then went on to bring to the London boat show in 2007.

As I said earlier, the R940 is probably never going to find its way into the UK charter market. But increasingly these days, anglers with access to good mooring facilities, either on their own, or in numerically small partnerships, are buying bigger boats for comfort and seaworthiness, which in real terms does equate to more potential to fish over trying to achieve the same fishing from a dinghy. Believe me, I know. It also increases the angling range, both on the day, and for port hopping or crossing say to the Channel Islands where the accommodation aspect of a double bed room up at the front, and a second room with twin bunks really comes into its own. Equally, it makes a great platform for angling as a family, or for combining angling with cruising as would most likely be the case for those who can get the time off work.

The R940 sits very nicely in the range for all the reasons I gave earlier. The finish is excellent, the fitting out is first class, and while I am not sure about the value of the flying bridge controls for UK waters, there will I am sure be days when taking the roof top controls will feel like a treat. Not that you have any say in the matter as the flying bridge comes as standard anyway. A V-hull for a nice gentle entry entry, and a high prow to take on a good sea and in theory at least, gobble it up. It's a pity we couldn't find any rough water to give it a good pounding during our visit. That only seems to happen when you have a fishing trip planned and want conditions to be as calm as they were at Vigo. This said, there were still manoeuvers that could be tried, and we did our very utmost to get the best feel possible for the boats handling capabilities on the day.

The version we tried was powered by the Volvo Inboard Performance System (IPS) which claims greater manouevrability as well as increased acceleration and fuel economy. I couldn't comment on the economy aspect, but in terms of rapid response and very comfortable quick tight turns it felt very impressive indeed. I started going into the turns at around half throttle and taking them wide. But it wasn't long before I was turning the wheel right round with the throttle hard down and looking for some wake to put it through. With a typical cruising speed of around 23 knots and a top speed quoted at 27 knots, it still felt like everything was under complete control, though it probably would have benefited from having trim tabs, which while they can be fitted at the factory, are not a feature of the basic package. My spell at the controls was done from the deck level helm where I found that when the nose really came up to beat a lumpy bow on sea, visibility felt a little restricted. This wouldn't be a problem out on the open sea, and shouldn't be a problem where life is a bit busier as the speed would have to be cut anyway bringing the bow down. From the flying bridge of course you can see for miles.

In terms of technical specifications, the hull length is 9.35m while the overall length comes in at 9.5 m. Hull beam is 3.25 m, fuel capacity comes from a 600 litre (approx 130 galls) aluminium Lloyd's Register approved tank, and its freshwater capacity is 200 litres (approx 45 galls). DSC VHF radio and a 90 mm steering compass come as standard at both helms. Engines obviously are down to personal choice. A moist gas exhaust system in which engine fumes are discharged mixed with seawater from the cooling circuits makes the air taste better when motoring with the wind on you stern. And there is so much more including a fire protection system, engine room ventilation, cathodic protection, bathing platform with an access gate, and obviously, compliance with a vast list of safety and quality standards. In short, it oozes quality at every level, the most important of which for me was its comfort and performance. Too much technical information can be a turn off, so I will leave things at that, excepting to say that should want to read the complete spec you can look it up by going to www.rodman.es .