Grateful, a new 69.95-metre pelagic trawler built at Nauta Shipyard in Poland and Karstensen Shipyard in Denmark, has been delivered to the Eshcol Fishing Company, based in Fraserburgh, Scotland.
Grateful replaces the Whyte family's 64-metre Forever Grateful, which has been sold to Norwegian interests. The new vessel will be operate along the same lines as the existing vessel, within a traditional pelagic trawl fishery, where target species are mackerel and herring.
William (Sr) and Andrew Whyte headed the family business for three decades, but have now passed the task to the next generation with William Whyte (Jr.) as skipper, and Nathan and Aaron Whyte, as well as son-in-law Derek Cardno, crewing the vessel. The family has a long history in the fishing industry, stretching back to William and Andrew's grandfather in the early 1900s with the small inshore vessel Excelsior.
The vessel's design, specification and arrangement is a result of an extensive and close cooperation between owners and yard. The main focus was optimising working safety and comfort for the crew, optimising catch handling and storage facilities, and optimising fuel consumption.
The newbuilding is the first fishing vessel in the Scottish fleet to boost a retractable thruster, supplied by Brunvoll. This thruster can work as a drop-down Azimuth, functioning as a take-me-home device, or even used during slow steaming, dodging or stern pumping.
MaK supplied the complete propulsion plant, including a 9M32 main engine, at 4,500kW. The propeller design was optimised to the specific service profile of the vessel, with rpms between 100 and 130 to ensure optimised bollard pull for trawling, as well as good free-sailing characteristics.
Auxiliary engines are from Mitsubishi, consisting of three units, two of 820kWe and one of 600kWe.
Rapp Hydema supplied the deck machinery package. SeaQuest supplied two net roller cranes on the gantry aft.
| Grateful | |
| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Type of vessel: | Pelagic trawler |
| Classification: | DnV +1A1 Fishing Vessel Ice-C |
| Homeport: | Fraserburgh, Scotland |
| Owner: | Eshcol Fishing Company, United Kingdom |
| Designer: | Karstensens Shipyard, Denmark |
| Builder: | Nauta Shipyard, Poland (hull) Karstensens Shipyard, Denmark |
| Construction material: | Steel |
| Length overall: | 69.95 metres |
| Length between pp: | 63.60 metres |
| Breadth moulded: | 15.00 metres |
| Depth main deck: | 6.50 metres |
| Depth shelter deck: | 9.20 metres |
| Tonnage: | 2,350GT |
| Main engines: | MaK 9M32, 4,500kW @ 600rpm |
| Gearboxes: | Scana Volda ACG 850/2-speed |
| Propulsion: | Scana Volda ACG95, 4,200mm |
| Auxiliary engines: | 2 x Mitsubishi S12A2-MPTAW, each 820kWe Mitsubishi S12A2-MPTAW, 600kWe |
| Shaft alternator: | A van Kaick, 2,500kW @ 1,200rpm |
| Thrusters: | Brunvoll stern thruster, 950kW Brunvoll retractable thruster, 800kW |
| Speed: | 16.5 knots |
| Trawl winches: | 2 x TWS-34041, 90t pull |
| Net reel: | ND-34000B, 92t, storage capacity: 30m3 |
| Top line winch: | TWS-22031T, 73t pull |
| Tail end winch: | GW-10002B, 46.7t pull |
| Forward/aft mooring winches: | 4 x GW- 2300B, 11.1t |
| Back strop winch: | 2 x GW-200B-2,0, 3.6t |
| Net sounder winch: | SOW-502R – 3,0, 4.0t |
| Anchor winch: | AWW-2300, 5.6t |
| Cranes: | Sea Quest |
| Fish pumps: | Sea Quest |
| RSW plant: | 2 x Johnson Controls, each 1,341kW |
| RSW tank: | 2,030m3 |
| Fuel oil: | 570m3 |
| Fresh water: | 60m3 |
