The Northern Shipyard (Severnaya Verf) in St Petersburg has formally laid the keel of the lead vessel in a series of six for Russian fishing company Rybprominvest JSC, part of the Norebo Group. With its innovative layout, the new trawler is designed to have capacity for 1200 tonnes of frozen products, 334 tonnes of fishmeal and 95 tonnes of canned production.
The keel of Kapitan Sokolov was laid at Severnaya Verf in front of a group of guests, including Federal Fisheries Agency head Ilya Shestakov.
‘We will start construction of forty fishing vessels in two years. This is a great achievement of our country, but this vessel is special for us, with this we pay tribute to our comrade, our mentor and teacher, Vladimir Vitalyevich Sokolov,’ Ilya Shestakov said.
Kapitan Sokolov is named after skipper Vladimir Vitalyevich Sokolov (1954-2015). He graduated from the Murmansk Nautical School, on the Murmansk Trawl Fleet vessels, rose from a deckhand to become head of the Murmansk Sea Fishing Port, and over a seven year period brought the region’s long-established and socially significant enterprise out of crisis. In the last year of his life he was the first deputy head of the Federal Fisheries Agency.
The Nautic-Rus designed trawler has an overall length of 81.60 metres, a beam of 16 metres and will be fitted with a 6200kW main engine. The factory deck is expected to have capacity to freeze 100 tonnes of production per day and the trawler is designed to carry a crew of 70.
‘Norebo has a fairly modern fleet, but it’s time to update it, Norebo director Vitaly Orlov said.
‘We very carefully chose the project and the manufacturer. Today we have the excitement of laying keel of the first trawler. We want to continue the tradition already established in the Norebo Group in naming its vessels after legendary skippers and people who have made a significant contribution to the development of the fishing industry.’
The series is being built under the supervision of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and the director of its Baltic branch, Mikhail Kuteev, said that this is a great example of a genuinely innovative approach.
‘A fundamentally new architecture has been created here, thanks to the shape of the bow section contours and the unique hull structure, this trawler will have enhanced seaworthiness and an increased working area on board.’
According to Severnaya Verf’s general director Igor Ponomarev, the yard is systematically increasing its activities in civil shipbuilding, which is expected to account for 40% of production by 2020.
‘This year we started construction of three fishing vessels. Next year we have four ships scheduled. In the coming years, we must build nine ships under two projects, and there is reason to believe that the number of orders will increase,’ he said.
‘This was made possible thanks to the package of legislation adopted by the government aimed at supporting domestic producers.’
Norebo now has 45 fishing vessels operating in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Last year, the Group entered into contracts with the Northern Shipyard for the construction of six processor trawlers to work in the North Atlantic and is currently negotiating an increase in the order for 3-4 vessels that will renew the Norebo fleet in the Far East. The introduction of new trawlers will increase the safety, crew comfort, efficiency and productivity of the company’s fleet and will make it possible to produce more higher-value fish products, including fillets, minced meat, fish meal, for both to Russian and export markets.
