Just look at the photos, what adjectives would you associate with White Shark – butch, aggressive, confident? – and what about a country –it surely has to be  Australia, Canada or the US? French? – you’re joking, don’t all of the French boats sound French – Jeanneau, Ocqueteau and Beneteau. So are White Shark’s a Zidane – class, sophistication & brute force – or Ginola - more style than substance?

 White Shark has been around in the UK for some years but has only recently started to establish a real presence. With a range from 5.4m to a whopping 8.9m these boats have established a reputation in France as well made hard wearing craft suitable for commercial use if required. It’s always a good recommendation for a range if the craft are used commercially and the White Shark boats are used extensively by the French Police and Fire Service. The assessment process commercial buyers go through being technically far more rigorous than anything you or I could throw at a boat.

 For this test we decided to look at two craft in detail. The 205 we looked at was unusual in that it sported a non-standard Mariner 135Hp engine as a product of a customers desire to fit out their own craft. The importers will fit any make of engine but err towards Mercury units both due to price and the presence of the local Mercury dealer on site at the boatyard. The 205 is the biggest seller in the range and tends to be bought by families for general cruising/pottering and watersports. The fact that it has a porta-potti secreted within the console being a big selling point for families with younger children! The quality of the build is good with even the hidden away bits looking well crafted and solid. Fittings are of high quality and there are plenty of lockers for both wet and dry gear. As with many boats of this type you tend to start with a basic boat then add bits on (usually at a prodigious rate!) to get to your desired ‘spec level’. Certainly well made the White Shark range is not at the budget end of the market. The 205 model with a 135Hp Mercury would start at £19837 (inc VAT) however this is for the base model with a white hull and as the blue hull is intrinsic to the boats appeal (in my – and everyone else’s view that I asked) then this adds a further £1178 to the price. With an extra £480 for the hydraulic steering (another must have) this gives us a boat at about £21500 – not cheap! To be fair the distributors don’t claim to try to compete hugely on price and feel – with some justification – that if you like this style of boat you will struggle to find another marques as attractive as the White Shark range. Furthermore there are plenty of buyers out there for whom the look rather than a few thousand pounds are key and this would seem to be supported by the forward sales already booked for 2002.

 So what’s it like on the water? Quite unbelievably the owner – having set the boat up himself – has not installed a kill cord, which frankly I think is suicidal with the setup of this type of craft – low freeboard coupled to a high seating position. I therefore trod with care as we took the boat out into Poole Harbour, the 135Hp is a nice engine and pulls smoothly and with conviction as the craft surges onto the plane. The boat turns sharply with no obvious cavitation and looked good for 40 – 45 knots, which in a very open boat should keep most buyers happy.

 If the 205 was fun then the 215 with twin 150Hp Otimaxs was awesome! To get some photos of the 215 at speed we started in the 205 and used it as the photo boat. Trying to capture the 215 mid frame proved hugely difficult as Lance, of the local Mercury dealer, seemed only to know two speeds – fast and outrageously fast. This gave an indication of what was to come and once we had got some shots (after insisting Lance went more slowly) I swapped to the 215. In the wrong hands the 215 is positively lethal, the twin 150s sound beautiful as they quietly purr, engage both throttles then gently onto the plane, too slow though – floor the throttles and whoooosh! The twin Optimaxs propel what is a fairly lightweight craft to over 50mph with ease and you certainly feel the speed. Turns were sharp with no cavitation but once again the high position necessitates care in the turn

 As you would expect, like the 205 the finish is good, the extra 0.8 of a metre really makes a big difference over the 205. There are two front lockers – which with cushions (extra) provide a huge amount of storage space, this is repeated throughout the boat with lockers at every turn. Another interesting feature of the 215 was the Mercury Smartcraft gauges fitted to the console. These are an option with the Optimaxs and were a revelation. They bring to boating the sort of instrument sophistication you have come to expect from top of the range cars. Trip information, fuel consumption, revs, speed, temperature and many other figures can be called up on the LCD displays – you can even fine tune the throttle settings from the gauges to perfectly set each engine. On the one hand these are a bit gimmicky but on the other they look good and are a material improvement over the traditional boating basic gauges.  What about the price? With the twin Optimaxs the basic boat starts at a mind boggling £32689 with once again that essential extra the ‘Club Pack’ – blue hull, wooden steering wheel and bimini top – on top. 

So, would I buy one? At the end of the day its very much personal preference, if you like this style of boat then you won’t get much better than the White Shark. They’re not cheap but then as the man once said – “you get what you pay for”. Zidane or Ginola – no contest Zidane scores from 30 yards!

 Contacts:

 White Shark UK, Unit 10, Cobbs Quay Marina, Hamworthy, Poole, Dorset, BH15 2EJ, 01202 661630  www.whitesharkboats.com