Salt Ship Design has developed the design for a ground-breaking pelagic vessel for Norwegian company Liafjord, owned by the Lie family. The new battery and LNG-powered vessel will be built in Turkey.
‘We are proud to reveal the new Libas designed for the Lie family,’ Gunny Sandvik at Salt Ship Design said.
‘The Lie family, through their company Liafjord AS, has again thought far ahead when building the new Libas. This time, it is the environment that will benefit.’
The new 86.10 metre LOA by 17.80 metre pelagic vessel Libas will be powered by a combination of batteries and LNG, and is to be built at the Cemre Shipyard in Turkey. It will have a 350 cubic metre LNG tank, supplemented by a large battery pack, providing an eco-friendly propulsion system for the new vessel.
‘More than a year ago, Salt Ship Design AS was given the task of developing a fishing vessel unlike any existing fishing vessel. After a long development phase, both designer and owners are proud to present the first outlines of the new Libas,’ she said.
Libas will be rigged as a purse seiner, and for both single and double trawling. The full package of equipment has yet to be finalised.
This is not the first time that the Lie family have been ahead of the rest of the industry in being prepared to employ new technology. The previous Vik & Sandvik-designed Libas, built at Fitjar Mek Verksted in 2004, was a highly successful pelagic vessel, the first to have a fully enclosed gear handling system for the purse seine gear. This 94 metre vessel was sold to Eskja in Iceland.
