New boats: Grateful FR 249 and Venture III BF 326

Grateful – new 70m midwater trawler arrives at Fraserburgh

The new midwater trawler Grateful FR 249 berthed in Fraserburgh harbour for the first time last week, 36 hours after skipper William Whyte and his crew left Skagen, Denmark, at the start of a 400-mile delivery trip, reports David Linkie.

Above: Venture III on initial sea trials last week.

Of 69.95m LOA and a beam of 15m, Grateful was designed in-house by Karstensens Shipyard for the Eshcol Fishing Company.

Featuring a full-length boat deck, Grateful is rigged for pumping pelagic fish at the stern.

Grateful approaching Fraserburgh last Tuesday afternoon.

Port quarter view of Grateful, which is rigged for pumping pelagic fish at the stern.

Grateful has the distinction of being the first fishing vessel in the UK fleet to feature a retractable Brunvoll 800kW thrust, which can be used as a drop-down Azimuth unit.

A MaK 9M32 main engine (4500 kW @ 600rpm), Scana Volda ACG95 two-speed gearbox, and three Mitsubishi S12A2-MPTAW auxiliary engines are fitted.

Rapp Marine supplied the midwater trawler’s deck machinery, including two 90t split trawl winches with electronic spooling and two 92t net drums. SeaQuest Systems of Killybegs manufactured Grateful’s three deck cranes and two 24in fish pumps.

Insured by Sunderland Marine, Grateful is expected to start fishing North Sea herring later this month.

Further details of Grateful will be included in Fishing News soon.

New twin-rig stern trawler Venture III runs sea trials

Whitehills skipper Mark Lovie took the new twin-rig stern trawler Venture III BF 326 to sea for the first-time last week to run engine trials off Fraserburgh, reports David Linkie.

Of 29.9m LOA and 10.5m of beam, Venture III has the distinction of being the biggest fishing vessel completed to date by Macduff Shipyards Ltd, and one of the most advanced whitefish trawlers to join the UK fleet.

Venture III is powered by a MaK 8M20C main engine that drives a 3100mm-diameter CP propeller through a Mekanord 580HS 6.06:1 reduction gearbox. This combination enabled Venture III to achieve an average top speed of 12 knots on sea trials off Fraserburgh.

Port quarter view of Venture III heading out from Fraserburgh harbour.

Two Caterpillar C-9 auxiliary engines driving 415/3/15 electrical generators are also fitted.

Rapp Marine of Peterhead supplied the vessel’s full deck machinery and hydraulic package. This comprehensive array of pulling power includes three split trawl winches (28.6t and 31.1t), 3 x split sweep winches (19.4t), 3 x bagging winches (12.5t) 2 x codend winches (10.3t) and 2 x Gilson winches (13.5t).

Fishing activities are managed by a Rapp Marine PTS-Pentagon autotrawl system.

Following successful engine trials, skippers Mark Lovie and Alan Addison and their crew started to pull on Venture III’s fishing gear, supplied by Jackson Trawls of Peterhead, in preparation for fishing trials.

Further details of Venture III will be included in Fishing News soon.

Read more from Fishing News here.