The keel-laying ceremony has taken place at the Severnaya Shipyard in St Petersburg for the third in a series of longliners for Russian company Virma, part of the Karelia fishing fleet.
Like the first two in the series that are currently under construction, Gandvik-3 is being built to an MT1112XL design, and is scheduled for delivery in early 2021. Gandvik-1 is expected to be complete at the end of this year, and Gandvik-2 is to follow in early 2020.
The three Gandvik longliners are catcher-processors designed to target cod and haddock in northern waters, working with high-tech automated longline systems hauled through moonpools in the hull.
Gandvik-3 is the fourth longliner under construction at the Severnaya yard, as another longliner, Marlin, is being built to the same Marin Teknikk design for fishing company Globus. The yard is also building a series of ten factory trawlers for the Norebo Group with the first two, Kapitan Sokolov and Kapitan Geller, under construction.
The diesel-electric longliners in the MT1112XL series measure 59 metres overall and have a 13 metre beam, and are designed to have a 45-day endurance, as well as processing decks with a high freezing capacity and a cannery.
