Shetland welcomes new Prolific
20th July 2023
The latest addition to Shetland’s fishing fleet – the 24.9m Prolific LK 986 – arrived home to Lerwick just before midnight on Thursday, 6 July, after a 3,000-mile, 17-day delivery trip from Croatia.
The new vessel is an identical sistership for the Copious LK 985, which arrived in the isles at the end of January.
Built at the Tehnomont shipyard for 60 North Fishing (Shetland) Ltd, they replace the company’s previous vessels of the same names.
Skipper Mark Anderson said that it had all been a ‘very stressful’ experience. “Both of the boats were nine months late in being delivered,” he said.
Prolific’s crew just after their arrival in Lerwick. Left to right: Fraser Smith, Wayne Strachan, Nicol Anderson, skipper Mark Anderson and Magnus Williamson. (Photo: Ivan Reid)
“We sold the previous boats, the first one in April last year and the second one at the end of June – so it’s been a long time coming.
“There have been a lot of things like Covid and the Ukrainian war – it’s had a lot of knock-on effects.”
Mark Anderson was anticipating two more weeks’ work in Lerwich to put the final touches to the fit-out and ready the boat for her maiden trip.
It is important for the industry to keep innovating, he said. “If you don’t keep on going forward, you end up, instead of sitting still, you actually go astern.”
With his sons Jake and Nicol now working for the company, he is keen to build a future for them. “Hopefully when I retire – I’ll surely retire some day! – it will be a good platform for them to go to sea on.”
This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.
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