With a growing demand for fishing capacity as quotas for plaice in particular are strong and fishing is better than has been seen for years, the Hoekman yard in Urk is developing newbuild options.
Klaas Hoekman said that the MDV-1 that was delivered last year is a highly innovative design and has fished well, but they are aware that this is not for everyone. The yard has come up with a design for a more conventional vessel, a beamer/twin rigger, but with new lines and intended as a pulse beamer with horsepower to match.
He said that the design is for a 39.60m vessel with an 8.70m beam, wider than the older generation of beamers but slimmer than the 9m beam of the last generation of large beamers. This is flexible enough to be scaled down to 38m, which would suit the Belgian market, or up to 43-44m if required. Power would come from an 8-cylinder ABC main engine, derated to 1500hp to provide enough power for pulse trawling while still being economic to run.
‘There are new lines and new ideas here,’ Klass Hoekman said, commenting that there has been interest from owners in Urk and elsewhere even before the design was made public.
‘At the moment we’re still busy with repairs,’ Klaas Hoekman said, gesturing out of his office window at the quayside below. ‘That’s the UK-48 which has the oldest engine in the fleet, a forty-nine year old 500hp Bolnes. They’re here for a refit and a paint job before the fly-shooting season and to replace the auxiliaries. I mentioned replacing the main engine as well, but I think he wants to get the full fifty years out of it.’
Also at the quayside is a hull built in Turkey that has a history behind it. Originally intended to become a beam trawler as the UK-168, it was never completed and was later part-converted in Denmark to become a twin-rigger, a project that also came to a halt before it could be finished.
‘We brought it here and there are options there. The steelwork is in good condition. It’s just a hull with the tanks in place, and it would make a good twin-rigger/fly-shooter, and it could be lengthened by around four metres if a client wanted the extra capacity. I expect we will be able to complete it in nine to ten months when we have a buyer for it.’
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