A crowd gathered at the Thyborøn quayside last week to celebrate a unique event as two new fishing vessels for the same company were christened in a single event.
The man behind the two new trawlers is Henning Kjeldsen, with a track record behind him of successful fishing and building up one of Denmark’s largest fishing companies. The christening of identical new fishing vessels Birthe S-149 and Birgitte L-349, named after the owner’s’s wife and daughter and who also cracked the traditional bottles to send the trawlers on their way, took place along with champagne, flags and congratulations, and under blazing summer sunshine.
According to the trawlers’ owner, flexibility was the key to the design and build, with capacity to switch from industrial fisheries to consumption fisheries and between species as quickly as possible.
‘With new regulations and laws governing fisheries, first and foremost you have to be ready to adapt,’ he said.
He commented that lead contractor Kynde & Toft, who built the two Vestværft-designed trawlers, did a great job, along with the many sub-contractors who were part of the build process.
‘It has been a pleasure to be part of the process, with everything leading to a satisfactory result,’ he said.
Birthe and Birgitte have an overall length of 32 metres with a 9 metre beam and a 6.45 metre depth.
Each has a propulsion arrangement supplied by West Diesel, with a 680kW Mitsubishi S6U-MPTK main engine powering Hundested stern gear with a 3000mm VP12 propeller powered via a CPGD120 gearbox with an 8.05:1 reduction. Each gearbox has three PTOs. The two trawlers also each have a pair of 210kWe gensets, comprising John Deere 6069 AFM85s linked to Stamford generators. AS Scan supplied the MT2500 steering gear for both trawlers.
Birthe and Birgitte each have tank capacity or 48,000 litres of fuel, 31,000 litres of fresh water and accommodation for a crew of 7.
Kynde & Toft supplied the hydraulics and deck equipment for the two trawlers, with the main winches controlled via Scantrol iSYM systems for twin-rigging, complete with online connection for remote support if required.
Trawl gear is from Egersund Denmark, and the Type 23 Bluestream doors are from Thyborøn Trawldoor.
Boatech provided the catch handling arrangements for both trawlers, with systems for both industrial and groundfish catches, including sorting, gutting and washing lines, and stainless steel pipework for discharging tanks.
Birthe and Birgitte each have a 480 cubic metre fishroom.
Buus supplied the icemakers, with each trawler fitted with a pair of 4500kg/day units producing ice from fresh water.
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