Cancelli Akes 19, when aluminium goes small

The Akes 19 from Cancelli shipyard is a sturdy and light boat, capable of 30 knots with just 40 HP. Her secret? It’s made in aluminium, crafted with care and professionalism.

I’m aboard the Cancelli Akes 19, ready to test her. I want to understand why welded aluminium is taken in such small consideration for smaller boats. Sure, it’s a bit more expensive of fiberglass, but the handcrafting allows the owner to fully customize the boat. It’s much lighter, allowing good performance with small engines and lower consumption. Our Akes 19 weighs 430 Kgs, as opposed to around 780 Kgs for a fiberglass 19 feeter.
More, aluminium is almost indestructible, and a beaching on sand or a wrong docking can be faced without big worries. Also because, thanks to the Styrofoam injected in sealed compartments, the boat in unsinkable.

The layout is typical of a center console, with a bench in the front – hiding two lockers underneath – that can be transformed into a sunpad. Under the pilot’s seat a grill and a sink can complete the equipment, while another two benches, one astern and one to the fore by the helm station, can seat all the passengers.
There’s many chances of customization, including the choice of a smaller console and of two swim platforms beside the outboard engine.

Cancelli Akes 19 the test

We have a new Yamaha F40G, with a three blade propeller 12”. It’s the perfect match for the boat, that proves to be quick and responsive and reaches 26 knots very fast. Working on the trim we gain some more speed. There’s no indication of the fuel consumption, but we can report that during another test the mileage was 2 miles per liter or 7.57 miles per gallon, at 4.700 rpms and 20 knots. The minimum planing speed is around 8.4 knots at 2.900 revs. We try sharp turnings and fast changes of direction, keeping the boat heeled on one side to check if aluminium boats are actually unsteady as they say: we are proved wrong.
There’s a downside to all of this, which is the imperfect finish of some details and especially the higher price as compared to a fiberglass competitor. The choice is on the customer, personally I’d take the Akes into great consideration.

Performance

RPM     Knots    dB

1000        3,3            64
1500        4,5            67
2000       5,7            77
2500       6,8            79
3000       9,1            80
3500        11,8         81
4000       15,0        83
4500       18,8        85
5000       21,4       86
5500       23,8       86
6000      25,9        87
ù6100     26,3       88