Nothing really beats a canoe when it comes to getting into tight spots, but not everyone is comfortable in the confines of the typical canoe's 14- to 18-foot length and 36-inch width. Over the years, anglers and hunters have tried numerous variations on the basic design, adding modifications intended to make the boats paddle or pole just as easily and float just as shallow, but offer more stability. The result, no matter how well engineered, has always been a compromise.

There were a lot of people who thought Harley Gheen was going overboard when he started building his Gheenoe. The fact of the matter is, that's the exact reason Harley Gheen did it.


As a trout fisherman on the Little Tennessee River outside his native Knoxville, Gheen had to be dunked only three times before he decided he could build something better than a tipsy canoe.

A designer by trade and now senior designer with Bendix Launch Support Systems at the Kennedy Space Center, it wasn't until 1967 that Gheen got serious about his Gheenoe. He sat down, carved out a one-eighth-scale model and used the family bathtub as a testing facility. Four years and as many modified designs later Gheen was satisfied his boat was perfect.

At fist glance, you'd think somebody tried to cross a bass boat with a square-ended canoe, the canoe look above the water line and the suggestion of a bass boat below. The bottom suggests a tri-hull, with the accent on flatness but it's the unusual design that grabs your imagination.


The Gheenoe's similarity with the canoe also stops when you step in, if for no other reason that the boat doesn't go sliding out from under your feet like a bar of soap or tip under the weight of three 200-pound men leaning over the side. It's the incorporation of the outrigger theory that provides the surprising stability.

"I wanted a small boat that had the speed and weight of a canoe but the stability of a bass boat," says Gheen, "and I wanted something that could run in extremely shallow water."

Tests have proven the boat will not flip or slide on sharp cornering and as many as three swimmers can board from the same side at one time despite only eight inches of free board.

The Gheenoe can be paddled in three-inch depths and if on a full plane, and with an outboard featuring a short shaft, can plane in three and a half inches. For idling motor speed, 10 inches of water is required.


"I admit the Gheenoe doesn't have as much speed as a bass boat, but it's three times faster than a Jon boat and three times more stable," says Gheen.

By early 1988 Gheen had built over 14,000 boats, finding homes from Key West to Canada, Cape Hatteras to California. Gheen had earned a Nation Wide reputation as a premiere builder of small, exciting, long lasting fiberglass boats. Trucks went out weekly delivering untippable dreams across the southeast and North America.

In 2003 Harley “Pugar” Gheen Jr. branched out to offer the boating public an exciting new line of custom Gheenoes. Pugar owns Unlimited Glassworks also in Titusville. For years he has been the contractor that built the Gheenoe 15’ 6” Classic for his father Harley Sr. Friends and customers were bringing him ideas for modifications and custom boats. Puger also had a flair for customization. In 1988 he customized a Gheenoe Classic with a racing stripe gel coat and added a Suzuki 30 horse engine to the rear. Over the years he added modifications for customers and ended up with some sweet one-time creations.


Easily billed as “it’s not your fathers Gheenoe” or “the new Gheenoe” Pugar saw the demand for a highly customized creation. Puger began to build and showcase custom Gheenoes for boat shows and dealers. Today you can access his website to order custom Gheenoes or be directed to a dealer close by who stocks some of these new creations. The web site is customgheenoe.com.

The full line of Gheenoes is still available through over 90 dealers in North America and Canada as well as available online at customgheenoe.com. The Gheenoe Legend continues. Gheenoe is still the original untippable canoe shaped boat made for over 30 years by a family owned and operated business on the Space Coast of Florida. With the new lines of Gheenoes we can wholeheartedly say, “nothing fishes like a Gheenoe”!