VESSEL REVIEW | Yaka II – Turkish-built trawler quartet for Normandy owners

Nova Shipyard of Tuzla, Turkey, has completed deliveries of four new near-identical trawlers ordered by various owners based in the port of Ouistreham in the Normandy region of north-western France.

Designed by local naval architects Pierre Delion in compliance to both Bureau Veritas Turkiye and French regulations, each of the four sister vessels has a steel hull, an aluminium superstructure, an LOA of 13.44 metres, a beam of 6.4 metres, a draught of 3.2 metres, and a displacement of 110 tonnes at full load. The fishroom on each boat has capacity for 25 cubic metres and is fitted with a dedicated chiller.

Accommodations are available for four crewmembers and two additional personnel if needed. Normally, however, the boats will each operate with three crewmembers on board at any given time. A fourth crewmember will initially remain ashore, though all four crews will rotate.

Propulsion for each vessel is provided by a 335kW diesel engine with reduction gear driving a four-bladed Kort propeller, allowing sailings at 9.5 knots even at full load. A bow thruster and steering gear from Bopp are also fitted.

The hydraulic equipment on each boat consists of Bopp machinery including two main trawl winches, a middle winch, three gilsons, double and single net drums, and a landing crane. Bopp also supplied the hydraulic equipment's dedicated control panels.

The navigation and communications electronics include a Furuno radar, radio, sonar, AIS, GPS, and depth sounder, a Simrad autopilot, a monitoring system from Marinelec Technologies, and an array of CCTV cameras. Power for these and the other onboard systems is supplied by a Cummins Onan generator.

The interior on each boat is fitted with a fixed CO2 fire suppression system.

Construction of the four boats began in Turkey in March 2021 and was completed in a little over nine months. Pascal Simon, the owner of two of the four newbuilds, said the acquisition satisfied local operators' need for compact but more efficient fishing vessels.

Mr Pascal added that shipyards in France and the Netherlands had been considered, but cost and size concerns led to the decision to have the boats built in Turkey instead. One factor that led to Nova being chosen for the construction of the Ouistreham boats was the fact that the same yard had also supplied two newbuildings to owners in Cherbourg two years prior.

The four new boats will be used primarily to trawl for scallops in the English Channel and in the Baie de Seine in northern France.

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