The latest in a series of freezer trawlers for the Russian Fishery Company has been floated off at the Admiralty Shipyard in St Petersburg.
Kapitan Martinov is a type ST-192 factory trawler and the fourth in the series being built for RFC. Designed for operation under challenging conditions, it will fish for Alaska pollock and herring in the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk, while being able to operate on other distant waters if required.
The series of trawlers are expected to be capable of much more economic operation than the company’s existing fleet of elderly Soviet-era fishing vessels. Each is designed for a processing capacity of around 60,000 tonnes of raw material annually, with capacity for a range of production, including fully processed portions, fillets, minced fish, fishmeal and fish oil, as well as canned production. Energy-saving technologies are also included in the design, minimising fuel consumption.
Like the rest of the new series, this fourth vessel is named after a fishing industry veteran, in this case skipper Victor Nikolaevich Martinov (1954-2002).
The launch at the Admiralty Shipyard was attended by Deputy Chairman of the Government of Russia Victoria Abramchenko, Head of the Federal Fishery Agency Ilya Shestakov, Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov, General Director of Admiralty Shipyards Alexander Buzakov and Chairman of the RFC board of directors Gleb Frank.
Kapitan Martinov is expected to be ready to be handed over to its owners in around a year from now.
