It’s more than five years since Mark Anderson of Shetland fishing company 60 North and his partners Andrew White, Ryan Arthur and agent LHD went to Macduff Ship Design with ideas for a pair of new trawlers.
The result of this co-operation is Copious LK-985, which steamed home to Shetland from the Tehnomont yard in Croatia with a delivery trip through the Mediterranean and across the Bay of Biscay and passing west of Ireland to arrive home in January, just in time for the Up Helly Aa festival. Sister trawler Prolific is due to follow later this year.
Mark Anderson and his partners had a clear set of ideas of how they wanted the new vessels to be and what they wanted to achieve when they dsat down with the design team at Macduff. A close co-operation between yard and customer resulted in a GA and specifications, after which the proposed build went out to tender – and in 2020 the choice went to Croatian shipyard Tehnomont. Once the builder had been selected, the Macduff team set to work to develop hull form, detailed construction and outfitting plans.
A key decision at an early stage was the sizing the propeller, as a large-diameter controllable pitch propeller can provide significant savings. The aft section was designed to accommodate a 3000mm Finnøy propeller, turning inside a Kort nozzle, powered by a 588kW Mitsubishi V12 S12R main engine via Finnøy FK50 11.3:1 gearbox. The triple rudder installation and Kort thrusters maximise manoeurability.
Over the last few years Macduff Ship Design has put a great deal of effort and resources into tank and CFD testing of a number of new vessels, resutling in an in-depth understanding on how the hull form can influence both vessel resistance and seakeeping.
‘This knowledge was applied to the hull of Copious to ensure the crew would have a vessel that could handle the unpredictable and often times rough seas in their fishing area but would also have optimum efficiency to minimise fuel consumption,’ a Macduff representative commented.
‘The amount of, and layout of, deck machinery, fishing gear and fish processing equipment was of high importance to Mark. The vessel needed to readily be able to swap between single net trawling, twin rigging and pair trawling with all equipment needed for these three operations to be carried on board.’
The deck machinery configuration was developed with Mark Anderson, integrating a number of innovative ideas into the design, and these are intended to improve both safety and efficiency.
The winch complex is from Rapp MacGregor and is driven by three hydraulic pumps driven from power take-offs on the Finnøy gearbox and electric towing pumps. There are three 14-tonne trawl winches located in the forward section. These have capacity for 1100 fathoms of 22mm warp, but are initially spooled with 700 fathoms of Brunton Shaw warp supplied by LHD. The winches are managed through a Scantrol autotrawl with a three-speed arrangement of 100%, 80% and 60%.
The twin 20-tonne split net drums aft of the wheelhouse are also linked into the Scantrol system. Rapp Macgregor supplied a pair of hinged pins which are arranged just forward of the stern openings and can be raised or lowered remotely, depending on the fishing method and gear in use.
Copious is fishing with Nordsø Trawl twin-rig gear, a single trawl and a high-lift pair trawl, with codends and extension pieces supplied by Scot Trawl. The combi sweeplines are from Jackson Trawl and the gear is spread by a pair of Thyboron type 32 doors and 2-tonne roller clump.
Marport supplied the gear monitoring sensors, with trawel doors sensors delivering depth, height, distance, and pitch/roll data to the wheelhouse, while a door sounder details the door height over the seabed and trawl sensors are rigged to the headline.
Catch quality is of key importance and although Copious is expected to be working short trips, the layout is designed to be able to support trips of up to ten days. Catches are dropped through the aft codend hatch and pass directly to a hopper to be cooled with water sprays and slush ice.
The fish are gutted and sorted into the two six-compartment cylindrical, selector/coolers from Carsoe, whch slot into a layout designed by Jim Johnson of JJ Measuring Systems. Each compartment can be emptied individually in any order to suit the optimal fish cooling. Once cooled, the fish are transported by conveyor to the fish access hatch and into the hold to a portable table with four workstations. The fish are graded, weighed and boxed with freshwater and flake ice before being stored in the 1100-box capacity fishroom.
There are two 2.50-tonne capacity Buus slush ice tanks in the fishroom, which work in conjunction with the pair of 4.50 tonne/day ice machines located on the main deck. The water for the system is supplied from the onboard fresh water tanks and a 2-tonne/day Alfa Laval freshwater desalinator fitted in the engine room.
Accommodation on board Copious is arranged entirely on the main deck, with a changing area with deck WC and shower forward to port, accessible from the processing area. The main living area has two four-berth and two two-berth cabins, with a mess/galley and lounge area aft of the cabins.
The wheelhouse is laid out with the main skipper’s position forward and an aft deck control station. H Williamson and Sons supplied the wheelhouse electronics. The fishfinders are Simrad ES80 and Furuno FCV1900G BB sounders, and the plotting systems are a pair of Sodena Turbowin units, an Olex with ground discrimination module and a TimeZero plotter with DRS12A-NXT radar module and Wassp F3i 160 sounder.
The FR2228 radar, GP-39 GPS, SCX-21 satellite compass, FA-170 AIS, RD33 heading repeater and BR-500 bridge watch alarm system are alll Furuno equipment. The STD 22 gyro compass is from Raytheon and the autopilot is a Navitron NT921G.
The communications package comprises Sailor 6222 DSC and 6248 VHFs, an ENTEL HT649 handheld VHF, Turbosailor VSAT and Furuno Felcom 18 Sat-C, plus a Furuno NX700B Navtex set.
